Happy Valentine’s Day to all those who celebrate and welcome to the newest edition of the Injury Ward. Here you will find the latest NHL injury updates and also which players may benefit from these situations. My name is Blake Creamer and I will be tackling this topic every single week. I want this article to work for you, so if there are players you want to see, or anything you want added, please reach out to me on Twitter/X @BlakeCreamerAG. Now, let's get to business.

Jarred Tinordi – Tinordi, who was dealing with a nagging groin injury, has been activated off of the IR and should be available to play on Thursday against the Penguins. If you are rostering Tinordi in fantasy, it's purely for the peripheral stats like hits, blocks and PIMs. This guy is a beefer and has value in some formats.

There is an illness making its way through the Leafs locker room and the current casualties are William Nylander, Mitch Marner and John Tavares. They are all questionable to play in Thursday's game at home against the Flyers. Ultimately, if one or more of these boys can't play, look for Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi to stick on the first power play unit with Matthew Knies continuing to get top-line deployment with Auston Matthews. Also, if you didn't know who Bobby McMann was, now you do as he popped off for a hat-trick to go with six shots, five hits and two blocks. He is not anywhere close to an add at this point, but it's a terrific game for the undrafted 27-year-old.

Jakob Pelletier – The Jacob Trouba train has claimed another victim in Pelletier after he crunched the young winger in open-ice. He was favoring the same shoulder he had surgery on previously but the news isn't all bad. Pelletier got the results back from an MRI and while we don't have the details, he is considered day-to-day and appears to have dodged a more significant injury. Upon return, his fantasy value will be muted unless the Flames decide to be full sellers at the trade deadline in which case, Pelletier could get more opportunity. 

Mario Ferraro (lower-body) and Mikael Granlund (upper-body) have both been activated off of the IR and are likely to join the Sharks for Wednesday's game against the Jets. The pair had been playing some of their best hockey before their respective injuries. In 47 games this year, Ferraro has a goal and 13 assists to go with a gaudy 82 hits and 138 blocks. Granlund has had a resurgence of sorts this campaign and is pacing for 63 points despite playing for the worst team in hockey. He has seen an expected spike in his IPP (74% up from 41% last year) seeing as how he doesn’t have much to work with at even strength or on the power play. With Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture injured, he should walk back onto the top line/top power play as well as continue to add to his career-high 20:35 ATOI. It is not going to be pretty, but Granny can provide some fantasy value for you moving forward due to the sheer number of minutes he will be on the ice in offensive situations. He is viable. 

Jake Sanderson – The Senator's young stalwart Dman, is nearing a return after suffering a lower-body injury on February 1st. The hope is that he can play on Saturday against the Blackhawks. Sanderson has been given some decent deployment this year and that has translated into seven goals and 17 assists in 47 games. He has skated on the top power play unit at times and if he is able to take that spot back from Thomas Chabot, it obviously raises his ceiling. The Sens will need him at his best if they want to dig themselves out of the massive hole they've created in the standings. They have just 46 points on the year and are 14 points out of the wild card spot. For fantasy purposes, if your playoffs are on weeks 23-25, the Senators have a terrific schedule during that time with 11 games played including two off-nights. Sanderson could definitely help your squads even if he doesn't get the top power play. Just something to think about. 

Artem Zub – There is a chance that Zub plays on Thursday versus the Anaheim Ducks even though he did not skate on Wednesday. He is nursing a lower-body injury sustained in last Saturday's game against the Leafs. Zub has been quietly effective despite being left off of the power play. He has three goals and 15 assists in 40 games this season. 

Rasmus Ristolainen – According to Kevin Kulz of The Athletic, Ristolainen will miss the next two-to-three weeks with an upper-body injury that will require some type of procedure. He will be re-evaluated at that time. This could throw a wrench in the Flyers trade deadline plans as Risto was being talked about in potential deals. In the meantime, Egor Zamula could get a boost in fantasy but he's not an add at this point. 

Ville Husso – Husso couldn't finish the game on Tuesday against the Oilers due to a lower-body injury that is eerily similar to the one that kept him out since December 18th. His relief, Alex Lyon, was thrown to the wolves and proceeded to get lit up for seven goals. Husso has had troubles staying healthy this year and his bad luck continued here. Lyon will get the lion's share of starts moving forward and should be owned for fantasy but manage your expectations. Lyon has been better than average but he also has never played the role of a true number one goalie. In 23 games, he has produced 14 wins, seven losses and two overtime losses. 

Evgenii Dadonov – The 34-year-old Dadonov will be sidelined for four-to-six weeks with a lower-body fracture. This will open up some more minutes for players like Ty Dellandrea and Craig Smith. 

Owen Power – "The Power Glove" Owen Power has picked up a "week-to-week" tag after injuring his hand in practice. The only real beneficiary to Power's absence would be Henri Jokiharu as he may see some time on the second power play unit. Power owners have had to be patient this year as the expectations he brought with him from his NCAA career have yet to materialize in the NHL. He is a safe, albeit boring, fantasy option when healthy and I am not sure he truly breaks out as long as he is behind Rasmus Dahlin in the pecking order. Power has 18 points in 50 games while skating an ATOI of 22:28 per game. 

"The Power Glove…It's so bad!"

Antti Raanta – It's been an up and down season for Raanta and if we are honest, it has been mostly down. He was put on waivers earlier in the year, made his way back up to the show, and was subsequently injured again. His metrics are truly atrocious and they are headlined by a -15.96 Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) and .874 save percentage which puts him last in the league among goaltenders that have played 10 games or more. This show ain't no good. Pyotr Kochetkov keeps the crease in Carolina with Spencer Martin backing him up while Frederik Andersen recovers from a blood clot issue he's been dealing with since November 2nd.

"Would you like a cookie son?"

Alex Killorn – Reinforcement could be coming for the Ducks in the form of Alex Killorn. He has joined the team on their current 4-game road trip so he could potentially get into some game action at some point this week. He was originally given a four-to-six week timeline on January 20th so he is trending to return on the earlier side of that prognosis. Killorn has seen some negative regression this campaign after tallying 64 points in 82 games in 2022. His oiSH (6.96%) and overall SH% (3.7%) at 5-on-5, are at career-worst numbers and that leads me to believe he has some headroom for offensive production. These numbers will regress to the mean and if you pair that with the fact that he will likely get top line minutes and a spot on the top power play unit, we could see something closer to a 60-point pace as opposed to the 46-point pace he is currently on. 

Connor Bedard – Even though the season we had all hoped for has been derailed by an unfortunate jaw injury, Bedard has been must-watch TV and is right on track to return sometime next week. He has been skating in a non-contact jersey in practice so he will need to shed that and see how he feels, but all signs are pointing in the right direction. Goals are hard to come by in Chicago and Bedard will be expected to do yeoman's work for the remainder of the year for the Blackhawks to have any chance of winning some games. Prior to the injury, Bedard accumulated 33 points in 39 games for a 69-point pace. Nice. 

Tomas Hertl – Hertl has elected to have a procedure done on his knee to remove loose cartilage and this will keep him out of the lineup for multiple weeks. The silver lining could be a boost in young star William Eklund's fantasy value. Eklund has six points in the last five games playing a larger role for this team and there is no reason for that to stop. Finding gems on losing teams is a sneaky strategy in fantasy and the Sharks have a couple in Eklund, Fabian Zetterlund and Mikael Granlund. 

"Am I not Hertly enough for the Hertl club?"

Yegor Chinakhov – Chinakhov was hit in the face with an errant stick and has already missed one game for the Blue Jackets. We don't know the severity of the injury at this point so consider him day-to-day until we hear more. 

Shea Theodore – The long-awaited update on Shea Theodore has finally come. Coach Cassidy stated that he's not sure about Theodore returning on Saturday but that next week is a more likely timeline. He was seen skating in a non-contact jersey in practice so he is close. Upon return, he will almost definitely take his spot back on the top power play as well as top pairing minutes. Alec Martinez will lose a bit of value as he was the primary replacement for Theodore on power play one.

That's it for this week's article. Thank you so much for reading. If you are interested in chatting with me one-on-one, you can reach me on a fantasy sports app called Didit. Click this link to download the app: https://t.co/eJSrN8Xlzp

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Please follow me on Twitter/X @BlakeCreamerAG and come and check out my fantasy hockey musings on the Apples and Ginos Fantasy Hockey Podcast. Celebrate your day. Bye for now.

Article Soundtrack: Casey – How to Disappear