Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Welcome to the Injury Ward. My name is Logan Clarkson and every Wednesday I will be chauffeuring you through injury news and updates from around the NHL. I'll do my best to offer useful analysis and opinion as it relates to fantasy throughout. As always I’d like to thank every single one of you for reading. Now, on to the bad (and some good) news.

Rasmus Dahlin / BUF – Dahlin still is not skating with the team as of today due to back spasms, but he has a chance to return this saturday.

Trevor Zegras / ANA – Zegras is seeking a second opinion on the knee injury that he suffered wednesday. Off of a face off in the Ducks zone, it seemingly came out of not a whole lot of contact when Zegras clicked his heel on the toe of William Karlsson's skate as he skated slowly backwards, sending him awkwardly down after tweaking his knee on the bump. It has been a rough couple of seasons for Zegras' as he has only posted four goals and six assists including one power play point over 24 games this season. A far cry from the promise he showed early in his career. Not sure if this guy needs a change of scenery or what but hopefully he can come back and stay healthy for a bit.

Mackenzie Blackwood / COL – After being traded to a contender in Colorado this week, Blackwood seems to have gotten the sickies from the nerves of playing games that matter. Kidding, but he has an illness that kept him out of Tuesday's game against Pittsburgh where the Avs beat up on the Pens including five points from Mikko Rantanen. Blackwood should have a solid chance to become the 1A in Colorado because well, the other option is Scott Wedgewood. Nothing against Wedgewood or Blackwood but this may be another battle of the mids akin to Georgiev and Annunen. They should both continue to get wins even if their rate stats don’t look great but there's a chance you could get a solid save percentage out of one of them as well. Time will tell.

Jonathan Drouin / COL – Drouin had just returned from an injury he suffered in game one that caused him to miss 16 games. He is out again week-to-week with an upper body injury. He managed two goals and two assists to go along with six shots in the four games he snuck in before quietly exiting the ice again.

Cam Talbot / DET – Talbot joins Alex Lyon on the Detroit goalie shelf as day-to-day. This has resulted in a call up for highly touted goalie prospect Sebastian Cossa. If he plays remains to be seen because Ville Husso who has been competing with Talbot and Lyon for starts is still hanging around the crease most nights. Talbot has been winning the numbers battle having similar but better stats to Lyon while Husso has struggled with Detroit this season being winless in his first seven games.

Mats Zuccarello / MIN – Zuccarello has resumed skating alone as of yesterday. The zucchini man should be ready to return in a week or so and will most likely resume top-six minutes to go along with a top power play spot. Zuccarello had posted 14 points in 16 games so far this season before injury. He usually puts up just under half of his points on the powerplay for Minnesota and his shooting percentage on the season is about seven percent above his career stats with the Wild at 20 percent.

Drew Doughty / LAK – Doughty is said to be aiming for an early January return barring any setbacks. Brandt Clarke has taken over the power play and done pretty well in his absence for a rookie defenseman, scoring six of his 16 points in 28 games on the man advantage.

Roman Josi / NSH – Josi left the game last night against Calgary after the first period and did not return. In his wake, he leaves Nashville as they are currently the lowest scoring team in the league at 2.21/gp. Josi has been the unlucky recipient so far this year of a 94.8 PDO. PDO is a big tell for how a player or a team has fared so far in terms of luck. It takes on ice shooting percentage and on ice save percentage to calculate what’s going on when you're on the ice. A PDO of 100 is considered stable. Anything above or below should show a player getting a bit of good or bad luck during play. 94.8 is hilariously low. Josi hasn't been doing terribly with 23 points in 29 games and he should rebound to his career numbers if Nashville themselves can start to get a few bounces. I think Josi is a great buy low candidate, he is still a top-five defenseman in the league and he's getting more offensive zone starts than last year and his career in general.

Mathew Barzal / NYI – Barzal started skating on his own this Monday. No update on when he will return.

Anthony Duclair / NYI – Duclair skated yesterday with a non contact jersey, no update as of yet on a return.

Tij Iginla / UTA via Kelowna Rockets – When Tij Iginla, son of Jarome was taken by Utah sixth overall at the entry draft this past offseason I don't think they had mid-season hip surgery on their list of things they wanted to go down. Alas, that’s where Tij has ended up. Hoping for a speedy recovery for the youngster out of St. Albert, Alberta. He should be back to gameplay for next season.

Anthony Cirelli / TBL – Cirelli was hit the other day against Vancouver and unfortunately, it was into the bench boards where he was folded backwards like your 300 pound uncle sitting in a cheap lawn chair. Due to the absence of Steven Stamkos, Cirelli has stepped up pretty well this year averaging a minute and a half more than his career average with 24 points in 25 games to show for it. He sat out Tuesday against Edmonton in a 2-1 loss and he is designated as day-to-day with an upper body knock.

JT Miller / VAN – Miller has returned to Vancouver and has been skating with the team as of Tuesday. Miller left the team due to personal reasons on November 19th and seems likely to return fairly soon although it has been reported that the Canucks are leaving the decision to return full time up to him. What an odd situation and hopefully as is well with J.T.

Nikolaj Ehlers / WPG – Ehlers picked up a lower-body injury in the game against Vegas on November 29th, and was seen skating alone for the first time since then on Tuesday. Still no timeline for his return but it’s a good step. Ehlers has 25 points in 24 games after finally being promoted full time onto the big boys power play unit.

Tom Wilson / WSH – Wilson was absent from practice for the last few days but has returned today wearing a classic face shield bubble. Something about a 6'4 220 lb man fogging up the protective gear of a 16 year old will always be funny to me. No word yet on if he will play tonight but it seems likely. Wilson has revived himself after posting only 35 points in 74 games last season by converting for 22 points in 27 games this season. Washington needs Ovechkin back badly right now to help keep their supporting cast rolling all season as he continues to skate alone while healing his fibula injury.

Thanks again for reading, and please give me a follow, you can find me here on Twitter/X @LOGoalz for any questions, concerns, or abuse you may want to shower me with. Have a great week people.