Taylor Hall expected to miss four weeks

According to the Edmonton Oilers official Twitter, Taylor Hall is expected to miss four weeks with a left knee injury.

Hall suffered the injury in Saturday’s contest with the Ottawa Senators. He was sent back to Edmonton for an MRI, where the severity of the injury has not been announced, but deemed serious enough that he will be sidelined for four weeks.

The injuries continue to mount in Edmonton, at some point this season they have been without Sam Gagner (still out), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and now arguable their best player in Hall. He has often been injured in his young career, so owners investing in Hall knew that this was a possibility.

Tyler Pitlick was recalled from Oklahoma City, along with Ben Eager and Ryan Jones, but none of them are expected to have fantasy value in Hall’s absence. The player this might benefit the most would be Nail Yakupov. He has been off to a super-slow start after a great rookie campaign. He has twice been a healthy scratch, but now finds himself of the top-line with Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle. If there was ever an opportunity to produce offensively and get back in head coach Dallas Eakins’ good graces… This is it!

If other owners grew impatient with Yakupov (88% owned in Yahoo! leagues) and dropped him, now would be a good time to scoop him up. There is immense upside and as a Free Agent addition there is likely very little risk involved when adding him.