Gonchar Out

In a Penguins press conference today, the team announced that they will now be without their number one offensive defenseman, Sergei Gonchar, for anywhere between 4-to-6 weeks thanks to a broken wrist that he suffered in last night's game against the Blues. The Penguins are off to a flying start to their Cup defense season and an injury loss like this won't be a great help, but you have to remember that the Pens were without Gonchar for the bulk of last season as well, so they know how to cope already.

Gonchar was off to a great start of the season, but there are very few players on that team that are off to a poor start. In the first nine games of the season, Gonchar already has two goals and five assists, which had him on pace for 64 points. Now, the timeframe given to his injury should keep him out anywhere between 14 to 21 games, which could still leave him with a 47-point year, at his current pace.

This is Stuart's first big injury in the Draft this year, which will likely bring him down a peg or two from the total skater games played total, where he currently ranks 3rd among all 17 teams with 88 in the bank already. Stuart has a middle-of-the-road PPG average at the moment, so he'll need all the games he can get to keep himself in the top ten, where he currently sits 6th.

Gonchar is listed in Box 26 of the Sheet, where he was taken only three times, sitting well behind Mike Green of the Caps, who was taken 30 times of the 41 teams. It will be interesting to see where the teams that picked Gonchar go with their trade, if they decide to do so.

The Penguins before this injury had an active roster of 22 players at an annual cap hit of $54.3 million, which doesn't include Maxime Talbot and his cap hit, as he's been injured since the start of the season. Gonchar is currently carrying a $5 million cap hit into this season and depending on how much time he misses, he could save the Penguins anywhere between $853,000 (14 games - 4 weeks) to $1.28 million (21 games - 6 weeks). Of course, these are all approximations and should be taken with a grain of salt. They are just guideline numbers, just to illustrate what the possibilities are.

This should really only be a fantasy pool negative, as the Penguins are capable of filling in Gonchar's ice-time with either Kristopher Letang or Alex Goligoski. Both players get a boost in fantasy value with this injury, as power play minutes will likely be divvied up by this injury and both players will benefit from playing with the superstars on the power play units. Make your moves accordingly.