Esa Lindell Is Out at Least a Week and Bryan Rust Awaits a Diagnosis: The NHL Injury Report and Who Absorbs the Minutes

Two veterans who anchor their teams in very different ways are headed for time off. Esa Lindell will miss at least a week for the Dallas Stars with a lower-body injury, coach Glen Gulutzan said Tuesday, and Bryan Rust left the Pittsburgh Penguins' 5-4 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Monday with a lower-body injury and did not return. Pittsburgh has not provided a timeline for Rust, and one report said an update might not come until the team returns home.

Those are the two biggest fantasy-relevant updates from a busy 48 hours, but they are not the only ones. Several players are returning, one Penguins forward had a frightening medical episode on the team plane, and the goaltending picture in Florida changed at practice. Here is where things stand.

The status board

Markstrom's injury has its own story on the site. The short version: Akira Schmid starts, and rookie Cooper Black was recalled to back him up.

Lindell: Dallas loses its defensive anchor

Gulutzan said the injury came from blocking a shot in Saturday's 4-0 win over Chicago. He described one week as certain for now, with Lindell becoming day-to-day after that. Lindell is the Stars' shutdown defenseman and a fixture on the penalty kill rather than a power-play piece, so his absence matters more on the ice than it does in most fantasy box scores.

Dallas answered the loss by stacking its two best puck-movers. Against Boston on Tuesday, Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley were paired together, with Lian Bichsel and Nils Lundkvist on the second pair and Kyle Capobianco drawing in alongside Tyler Myers. Gulutzan said Lundkvist would need to step up in defending top opponents. The Stars beat the Bruins 3-2 in overtime on Mikko Rantanen's hat trick, which finished on a power-play backhand at 3:52 of overtime, and Dallas improved to 5-3-1.

Who absorbs the minutes: Heiskanen and Harley are the obvious winners. A unified top pair means both play the toughest matchups and pick up extra penalty-kill time, and Harley in particular gains even-strength minutes alongside the Stars' best forwards. In leagues that reward blocked shots and hits, Bichsel is the deeper-league beneficiary, since he steps into some of Lindell's defensive-zone role. Lundkvist is worth a look only in very deep formats; his value would come from offense, and the power-play units do not change.

Rust: Pittsburgh's top line loses its trigger again

This is Rust's second setback of the season. He missed the first three games with an upper-body injury from late in the preseason, then posted three goals and two assists in seven games after returning. He had two assists against Utah before leaving in the second period, including one on Rickard Rakell's power-play goal. Pittsburgh's man advantage went 2-for-2 that night, with Erik Karlsson scoring the other, but the Penguins have now lost four straight and seven of eight (1-6-1).

The team's night got much worse after the game. Ben Kindel had a medical episode on the team plane on Tuesday, and the flight returned to Salt Lake City shortly after takeoff. The Penguins said he was conscious and in stable condition at the University of Utah Hospital and did not disclose the nature of the episode. His health is the only thing that matters here; any lineup implications are secondary and the team has given no timeline.

Who absorbs the minutes: When Rust missed the start of the season, Nick Robertson took his spot on Sidney Crosby's wing and scored twice in the opener, and he also filled in on the top power-play unit during camp. He is the first name to watch on Thursday against Florida. Line combinations in Pittsburgh have been fluid, though, with reports from the Utah game describing near-wholesale changes and Egor Chinakhov back on the top line at times. The safest fantasy read is that whoever lands on PP1 next to Crosby, Karlsson and Rakell gains the most, and that role has been Robertson's when Rust is out. Rakell's value rises slightly either way because he becomes the top line's primary finisher.

The returns worth acting on

Rasmus Dahlin returned to practice Monday and said he expects to play Wednesday against Philadelphia, which would restore Buffalo's top power-play quarterback. Anyone who streamed a Sabres defenseman for power-play points should expect that role to go back to Dahlin. Jake Sanderson is expected back for Ottawa on the same night, sliding into captain Thomas Chabot's top-pair spot while Chabot misses one to two weeks.

Mike Matheson participated in Montreal's morning skate Tuesday but still missed a fourth straight game. Sources disagree on his status, with most listing him day-to-day and at least one estimating a return around Oct. 23. Logan O'Connor is expected to make his season debut for Colorado on Friday, and Mats Zuccarello returned for Los Angeles in Tuesday's 5-2 win at Washington, the Kings' first victory of the season. New Jersey also had Jack Brown in line for his season debut, according to the NHL status report.

These are already covered elsewhere on the site, so only briefly: the Islanders are without Calum Ritchie (four to six weeks) and Matias Maccelli (two to four weeks), John Tavares remains week-to-week in Toronto, and Connor Hellebuyck's suspension in Winnipeg ends Friday.

The Verdexed angle

The fantasy priority order is simple. In Pittsburgh, add or start Robertson if he is confirmed on Crosby's line Thursday, and treat it as a short-term play until the team announces Rust's diagnosis. In Dallas, Heiskanen and Harley were already rostered everywhere; the actionable move is in deep leagues, where Bichsel's peripheral stats get a bump for at least a week. In Buffalo and Ottawa, drop the power-play fill-ins once Dahlin and Sanderson are confirmed in warmups.

For betting purposes, Lindell's absence hurts Dallas more defensively than the market usually prices for a non-scoring defenseman, and Pittsburgh's skid plus the Rust uncertainty makes Thursday's game against a Florida team starting a backup goalie unusually hard to read. Verdexed's game-by-game view is at /nhl/predictions, and tonight's slate is broken down at /blog/nhl-picks-2026-10-21.

What's next

The key update is Rust's diagnosis, which should come once the Penguins are back in Pittsburgh ahead of Thursday's game. Lindell's one-week clock runs through roughly the middle of next week, after which Gulutzan will update him daily. Watch Wednesday warmups for Dahlin and Sanderson, and watch for any further update from the Penguins on Kindel's condition.