The latest injury info we could dig up – Injury Ward: Preseason Edition II

Not a long intro tonight, as pretty much everyone who was injured is getting back into games or hasn’t had a change in status (which, ironically, isn’t great for the health of this column). Anywhoos, your Injury Ward for the week:

David Krejci – Krejci played between David Backes and Ryan Spooner for last night’s action against the Habs. He potted two assists in his return from hip surgery and should be a solid fantasy contributor for the year, having never dipped below 54-point pace since his rookie year and having been on 70-point pace last year.

Torey Krug – Like Krejci, Krug returned from a shoulder injury versus the Habs last night. Unlike Krejci, however, he didn’t have any assists.

Phil Kessel – Look for Phil to return to the spotlight tonight against the Red Wings. The Stanley Cup Champion averaged just 60 points in his last two seasons while breaking a point-per-game pace in the three before that. He’s also never missed a game since 2010, so hopefully he keeps some of his chemistry from last June going into this season.

Jamie Benn – Benn’s hip is all better, and he’s back to his old scoring ways. The captain of the Stars managed an assist in his return vs the Panthers, and should not have fallen far on any draft board. He’s one of the most versatile fantasy players in the league.

Duncan Keith – Keith made his return last night as well. He played over 19 minutes and scored two assists. He was aiming for a return by the start of the season, so this is a bit ahead of schedule. Good news for his owners!  

Ryan Callahan – Callahan will miss more than a month of the season because of his recovery from hip surgery. He had over two minutes of powerplay time per game last season, which means that someone’s about to get a huge opportunity to show their stuff. Look for Jonathan Drouin, Brayden Point, or Vladislav Namestnikov to have a breakout year if they take advantage of those minutes.

Matt Murray – Murray is set to miss another two to five weeks with a broken hand. He’s already sat out for one week so far. I wonder how Team North America would’ve finished if he wasn’t put in versus Russia on the second half of a back-to-back with a broken hand, but that’s all done now.

Mark Stone – Stone hopes to play Friday and is expecting to be OK to play in the opener versus Toronto. He’s been out with a concussion and still hasn’t passed the test necessary to clear him for game action yet.

Aaron Ekblad – Ekblad’s neck injury looks like it’s whiplash and not a concussion, and the young elite defenseman expects to play a preseason game to get into form before the start of the season.

Tyler Seguin – Seguin has resumed skating on his own. That’s a good step in his recovery from a heel fracture, but he’s still got a long way to go. He’s been aiming to play in the season opener and that’s a possibility, though I’d consider it unlikely.

Sean Monahan _ The Flames young star bowed out of the World Cup to get ready for the season, citing a back injury. He hasn’t yet played a preseason game and is trying to get one in before the season opener, but it looks like he’ll play game 1 regardless.

Jaden Schwartz – Schwartz collided with Alex Steen in practice and will miss four weeks with an elbow injury.

Pavel Datsyuk – A special note on the Magic Man this week. Either ESPN’s system is screwed up, or ESPN’s fantasy users are, because something is wrong. The live draft tracker on ESPN is showing Datsyuk at 91.8% ownership (!!!). That’s ahead of guys like Jack Eichel (86.6%) and Evgeni Malkin (65.4%!). What is going on there? Gang, if you own Datsyuk, drop him now. He’s in the KHL and he’s done with hockey in North America. I know the appeal of him playing with Max Domi in Arizona, but it’ll never come to pass.

Jon Merrill – The Devils' defenseman returned from shoulder injury only to take a shot off the hand. He suffered a broken finger and is out until November.

As always, thanks for reading, and follow me on Twitter for more frequent injury updates and general hockey-related tomfoolery! @AjayDaCosta, in case that address bar is too far away.