Injury Report

What each designation means

Injured reserve takes a player off the active roster for at least seven days, so treat him as gone for a stretch rather than a game. The long-term version, LTIR, is for injuries expected to keep a player out at least ten games and twenty-four days, and it also gives a club room under the salary cap, so the timing of a placement can reflect cap planning as well as the injury. Non-roster IR shows up now and then too. All three are counted under the IR chip. Suspended is league discipline rather than an injury, and it runs a set number of games, so you know when he is due back. Out means he will not play the next game. Day-to-day is the hard one: it can mean a minor knock, a game-time decision, or an injury the club would rather not describe yet. Anything the report carries that is none of these lands under Other, printed as reported rather than guessed into a group.

Why day-to-day is the expensive tag

Many fantasy hockey leagues set lineups daily and lock each player when his own game starts. That makes day-to-day the tag that costs managers the most. A player listed that way might skate in his usual spot tonight or sit for a week, and the tag alone cannot tell you which. The better signals arrive during the day: whether he took part in the morning skate, which line and power-play unit he skated with, and what the coach said afterwards. If you can, keep a bench skater who plays the same night and make the swap late. If your league locks the whole day at the first puck drop, lean toward the healthy player.

Goalies are a separate problem

With goalies, the question is often not injury at all. A perfectly healthy goalie can still be sitting, because clubs split back-to-backs between their two goalies and often confirm the starter only on the day of the game. Treat a day-to-day tag on a goalie as a strong reason to start someone else that night, and check the goalie tandem page or tonight's slate for the expected starters.

Using the filters

The designation chips, the position chips and the club menu work together, and each chip's count reflects the other filters you have set, so tapping D and then Day-to-day tells you exactly how many defencemen are in doubt. The list opens in severity order, with the players least likely to play at the top. Tap Player, Team or Status to re-sort, and a third tap returns to severity order. Forty rows show at a time, with a button for the next forty. Your filters are kept in the page address and in this browser, so a link to day-to-day defencemen on one club opens exactly that view.

Every status pill also carries its own age. Hover over it, or open the row's card on a phone, to see when that designation was last updated, and the line under the page title gives the span from the freshest tag to the stalest. An old date is a reason to look for news before trusting the tag.

Turning a tag into a lineup decision

A player on injured reserve belongs in an IR slot if your league has one, and a suspended player on your bench; neither belongs in your lineup. Hosts differ on who may sit in an IR slot: some accept only injured reserve tags, some also take players listed as out, and some leagues add a looser extra slot. Know your league's rule before you need it. When a regular goes down, the bigger fantasy story is often who replaces him. A winger promoted to the top line, or a defenceman moved onto the first power-play unit, can be worth a pickup for as long as the injury lasts, and the line combinations page shows who moved. Over a full week, a healthy depth player who dresses four times often outscores a star who misses most of it, and the streamers page lists who is playing on the light nights. Before your lineup locks, trust your league's own status over this page or any other.