Rattling 'Round The Dome: Injuries ravaging NHL fantasy rosters

NHLers up and and down the fantasy-value spectrum have been dropping with injuries at a torrid pace, especially in the last week or so.

It might be a little painful, but it’s probably time we talk about it.

There are currently over 100 rostered players — more than 7 percent of the league — sidelined with injuries, and a plethora of big names in the last week alone have joined the already long list of assets causing their fantasy owners anguish and confusion.

In the last seven days, the following players with decent ownership numbers have all gone down with various, mid- to long-term ailments:

Viktor Arvidsson, Predators (thumb); Brandon Carlo, Bruins (upper); Pavel Buchnevich, Rangers (thumb); Jack Campbell , Kings (knee); Brian Boyle, Devils (upper); Cam Fowler, Ducks (face); Sidney Crosby, Penguins (upper); P.K. Subban, Predators (upper); Andrei Vasilevskiy, Lightning (foot), Zdeno Chara, Bruins (leg) — and those are just some of the big dogs.

And there’s a pile of upper-echelon names, on top of those just listed, sitting on the IR collecting dust, including:

Shea Weber, Canadiens (knee); Andrej Sekera, Oilers (Achilles); Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Senators (Achilles); Christian Dvorak, Coyotes (pectoral surgery); Corey Perry, Ducks (knee); Thatcher Demko, Canucks (concussion); Paul Stastny, Golden Knights (lower); Justin Schultz, Penguins (leg), Charlie McAvoy, Bruins (knee); Alex Edler, Canucks (knee); Sven Baertschi, Canucks (concussion); Auston Matthews, Leafs (shoulder); Ondrej Palat, Lightning (lower); Jonathan Quick, Kings (knee); Erik Haula, Golden Knights (knee); Joel Armia, Canadiens (knee); Alex Goligoski, Coyotes (lower); Dmitry Kulikov, Jets (upper), John Klingberg, Stars (hand) — with a whole bunch more mid- to lower-tier fantasy among the fallen.

Yeah, that’s a whole lot of broken faces, legs, fingers, knees, hands and brains. My (non) fancy stats are telling me this first six weeks of the campaign has seen more man games lost from pretty good to superstar players in a short span than we have in a long time, and there’s a few things to consider when deciding who to keep and who to axe amongst your wounded squad members.

How much longer they’re expected to be out, where they’ll slot in upon their return to the lineup ice-time wise, who they’ll be playing with, strength of schedule, and the type of injury they’re coming off of all factor in to your managerial decisions — and so will straight up luck (it’s mostly luck).

That said, here’s the dudes from that jam-packed list above who you should bury on your bench for a little while rather than snipping or moving to a new home:

• Paul Stastny, C, Golden Knights

• Charlie McAvoy, D, Bruins

• Auston Matthews, C, Leafs

• Alex Edler, D, Canucks

• Ondrej Palat, LW, Lightning

• John Klingberg, D, Stars

• Viktor Arvidsson, RW, Predators

• Sidney Crosby, Obviously

• PK Subban, D, Predators

• Andrei Vasilevskiy, G, Lightning

And, the prime candidates for expulsion from your fantasy life:

• Shea Weber, D, Canadiens

• Andrej Sekera, D, Oilers

• Jean-Gabriel Pageau, C, Senators

• Jack Campbell, G, Kings

• Jonathan Quick, G, Kings

• Erik Haula, LW, Golden Knights

• Corey Perry, RW, Ducks

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must end this article now after suffering what I believe to be a second-degree sprain of my left index finger as well as a minor burn on the inside of my eyeball as a result of an errant drop of hot sauce (let’s call it a pair of upper-body injuries which I will not be commenting on further).

Happy fantasy’ing, hurt crew.

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