First Quarter Injury Update
November 23, 2009 HockeyGod
The season is now officially past the 25% mark, so now is a good time to address injuries and strategy regarding injured players. We’ll probably have a “first quarter grade” style post coming in the next few days, but for now let’s look at the guys who are sitting on your IR spot, or who may be available as waiver pickups or cheap trades.
Nicklas Kronwall will be out for up to 8 weeks, and is definitely worth picking up in deeper leagues if somebody drops him. He’s a #3 defenseman but he sees his fair share of powerplay time and was on fire before going down last Saturday. On a side note, both Stuart and Erickson should see increased ice time and powerplay chances in his absence. Stuart may be worth a flex play.
Chris Kunitz has been pulled out of the Pens lineup for 2 weeks or so, and despite only having 3 goals (9 assists) to date, he should be good for 20 goals or more this season.
Brian Gionta has a broken bone in his foot and will be out indefinitely. There’s no telling when he’ll return, but these type of injuries usually take a bit of time. I would definitely use an IR spot on him.
Alexander Semin is also out for a while with a wrist injury. He’s a top 20 forward who may now be attainable for a top 50 style player. If you can rip off another owner for him while he’s hurt, do it. Nothing should stop you from trying to acquire Semin… Giggity.
Marc Savard should return to the lineup this week. I wouldn’t play him in weekly leagues, but feel free to roll him out after Monday in daily leagues.
Eric Staal is not only hurt, but he’s slumping too. He should return next week, and might be worth throwing out some trade fliers for frustrated owners.
Andre Markov is still out for another 4 months or so. He’s not worth holding onto, but look out come playoff time when he’ll be the hockey defenseman equivalent of Pedro Martinez – He’ll provide adequate stats for a couple of weeks to a team with an already low waiver priority – thus rendering himself useless.
Rob Blake should be back after thanksgiving.
Ed Jovanovski will most likely play on this current 2 game road trip – not sure which game though.
Cam Ward will be returning in the first week of December (you can bet it will be a home game) but I’m leary of how well he’s going to play. Prior to being injured he wsa 2-9 with a 2.97 / .899 in the save category. Those aren’t stellar numbers, and I’m not confident that the team in front of him has gotten any better.
Nikolai Khabibulin’s sore back would be worth monitoring only if his 3.03 GAA was worth a spot on your roster.
Filed under: Weekly Notes
