Cut 'Em Loose: Don't hold non-stars through injuries

In hockey pools, as in life, tough, cutthroat decisions have to be made on a near-daily basis to ensure everyone around you fails and you, as a result, succeed.

You have to be a savage in this fantasy world, and that means cutting guys loose when they no longer serve you. It’s just business, baby.

With that said, here’s our weekly round-up of the players you should let go before they inevitably let you down — if they haven’t already.

Drop or Trade ‘Em Now

Corey Perry, RW, Ducks (19% owned)

Anaheim placed the banged-up winger on long-term injury reserve last week, officially rendering Perry a useless sack of bones for probably the rest of the season. Can’t say you’re a dummy for drafting the former Rocket Richard Trophy winner and hanging on to him through the early going, but you would be a complete meathead (there’s still 19% of you meatheads out there as of this posting) to keep wasting a roster spot on a dude who will be press-boxing it until at least February.

James Van Riemsdyk, LW, Flyers (69% owned)

JVR’s sweet, succulent mitts and ability to bury an easy 30-plus tallies (with a large chunk on the powerplay) made him a popular mid-round pick in many drafts, but the low-slot specialist will miss significant time — likely a couple months — with the classic “Lower Body Injury”. Aside from that, the dude is real slow and, when he returns, will certainly see a fairly decent drop in production on a Philly PP that doesn’t have the weapons the Leafs had last year.

Nolan Patrick, C, Flyers (34% owned)

Aside from Patrick’s Band-aidy history, which is troubling on its own, the Flyers sophomore just hasn’t been good at hockey so far this season — posting zero points and a minus-5 rating while somehow managing to be worth negative fantasy points before getting injured again last week. He’s expected to return soon, which means this is your chance to absolutely grease some loser in your league and acquire something tasty in return for the oft-ailing centreman.

Paul Stastny, C, Golden Knights (24% owned)

Aside from having a real clean set of jibs on him, the Golden Knights centreman is a versatile fantasy asset in both offensive and sandpaper categories. Unfortunately for Stastny owners (and the player himself, I guess), he’ll be out at least a couple months with an LBI and won’t be scoring or taking any biscuits to the shins for the foreseeable future.

Justin Schultz, D, Penguins (25% owned)

The Pens blueliner has lived up to his offensive billing since getting out of that dumpster fire in Edmonton during the 2015-16 campaign, and was a popular pick in a good chunk of Yahoo drafts this season. Dude blew up his leg last weekend against the Habs, though, and will be watching in a suit until most likely March.

Cam Ward, G, Blackhawks (32% owned)

Uhhhh, not sure why you were so desperate for a goalie that you drafted a borderline ECHL’er, but with Corey Crawford on the verge of returning you can now repent your sins and cut Cam Ward into fantasy oblivion.

Corey Schneider, G, Devils (69% owned)

An NHL goaltender dealing with lingering hip issues is, well, not ideal, and Schneider remains sidelined with the ailment while the Twitter emoji king Keith Kinkaid has once again stepped up in his absence going 4-0 with two shutouts and a .961 Sv%. It was looking to be more of a platoon situation in the Devils’ paint this season anyways, but it’s now likely that Kinkaid sees significant more action than the oft-injured Schneider.

Hold For Now, But Sharpen The Axe

Anthony Beauvillier C, LW Islanders (11% owned)

AB recently lost his first-unit role and was replaced by Andrew Ladd. Things aren’t going well when you are replaced in anything by Andrew Ladd. Keep for now as it could be just a blip, but if he has to play on the same line as Leo Komarov for more than like a week, it’s probably time to say goodbye.

Ty Rattie, RW, Oilers (29% owned)

While playing on McDavid’s line, he’s going to put up lots points by simply closing his eyes, sticking out his twig and hoping for the best, but if some line shuffling happens over the next couple weeks and Rattie happens to drop off McJesus’ unit, you should immediately drop the winger from your fantasy team and life.

Casey DeSmith, G, Penguins (22% owned)

A popular pickup after Matt Murray went down with a conky, DeSmith has performed decently in picking up at least a point in all his starts and posting a .922 Sv% so far. He’ll likely be relegated to full-time pine pony after Murray is cleared and back at the helm, however.