Fantasy Hockey Injury Train: Worst Year Ever?

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jonathan-toews-injury
Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews 19 reacts on the bench after suffering an apparent injury against the Pittsburgh Penguins Charles LeClaire USA TODAY Sports

Personally, I have followed fantasy hockey for over two decades and never have I seen a year like this year. Even 2006 and then 2010, there was an “Olympic Spike.” Yes this has been talked about plenty but it bears repeating for an absolute purpose. Your lineup has looked like a “sea of red” since January 1, hasn’t it? Surely it has been an extreme to challenge to at times even place a full roster out there to do battle.

With the recent losses of Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, and Jonathan Toews, a question has been asked. Is this the worst year ever for injuries? The honest answer is records were not exactly the most accurate thing when it came to injuries in the early days of the NHL. Even in the last few weeks, look at how hard information has been to come by as far as maladies. Someone has to almost leak the information for it to become mainstream news.

Fantasy Hockey Injuries At Their Worst?

The actual answer is no. In 2010, TSN had 163 injuries on its injury report and right now there are about 135. This is still a good 30-40 percent higher than normal years. Teams this time of year also often shut down or rest players a little more than their scheduled injury timetable simply for precautionary reasons.

Just think for a second what it is like to have a team of Kane, Malkin and Toews. I know quite a few owners that said literally, “I throw my hands up in the air.” The worst possible timing seems to keep hitting fantasy teams and just when it looks like one of your teams get healthy the boom gets lowered. Before one knows it, they can tack on another two or three injuries. It is an exercise in total adaptation and survival.

Mercifully some owners have their last week this week. Not everyone is so lucky. It is going to be a tough 11 days for many of us. Let’s take a look at three of many regular season ending injuries.

Three For The Road

Evgeni Malkin — C — Pittsburgh Penguins

Malkin is a top three or top five fantasy player in any given year. However, a two to three week injury around the last week of March is pretty much a recipe to rest him a few extra days if necessary. Pittsburgh has little to play for as they are locked in the two seed. The pivot, who was playing a bit more with Sidney Crosby looked to be an injury waiting to happen and sure enough it was. Pittsburgh had a dozen players on the injury list at one point. The best bet is to pick up a center that hopefully can stay healthy and of course produce some points.

Patrick Kane — RW — Chicago Blackhawks

The “Madhouse On Madison” gasped a few times in the last week and not for good reasons. Fear not, the Patrick Kane injury is not too serious as far as the NHL playoffs … but for the fantasy hockey playoffs, Kane’s season ended with a sprained knee/leg. Again, these point or point plus players are just tough to replace but it would not be the only player out from Chicago.

Jonathan Toews — C — Chicago Blackhawks

Adding insult to injury meant another top player would go down to injury in the span of a week. Jonathan Toews was hammered hard into the boards by Brooks Orpik as seen here. That injury will keep Toews out for the rest of the regular season with an upper body injury. At this point, dig deep into your waiver wire because I do not think we are done yet.

Where On The Waiver Wire Do You Head?

That is a great question actually. Digging around, we found a few gems hidden in the rough. At this point, it can’t hurt much more really.

Matt Cullen — C — Nashville Predators

So maybe it is a crazy idea to most people. However, this time of year produces some nutty decisions. Over the last six games, Matt Cullen finally caught a bit of fire with eight points in that span. With Nashville playing out the string, there will be players competing hard for those first line minutes or maybe even more ice time in the post Barry Trotz era. Time will tell on that one. However, Cullen at least could be a decent, low risk pick with his single digit ownership rate.

Ryan Strome — C — New York Islanders

It is a single digit kind of week here at XN Sports. Now why would you take a shot on Ryan Strome? Simply with all the injuries that the New York Islanders have, you can afford to take another low risk shot here. Strome has six points in his last five games and his increased ice time and quality of play have drawn notice from fantasy owners and media alike. No one knows if Kyle Okposo will be back at all this week or next week so Strome suddenly becomes another play by default.

Joe Colborne — C — Calgary Flames

At least, Calgary has a few young centers when other players are not in the lineup. With Matt Stajan and Paul Byron out on Thursday, it gives Joe Colborne even more of an opportunity to see a little more power play time along with his increased responsibility already. He is owned in less than 1 percent of most fantasy hockey leagues so at the very least this is another low risk option while other managers waste their waiver wire priority. The former Toronto prospect may see first line time into the weekend so what do you have to lose? Yes, I thought so!

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Chris Wassel
Chris Wassel writes for XN Sports, The Hockey Writers, Dobberhockey, and many others. He is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. He has never turned a question away in 10+ years of writing so ask away @ChrisWasselTHW.