Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. 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.

Kirill Kaprizov / MIN – Kirill the thrill (lower body) was present at the Wild's morning skate and was a full participant. Great news for the Wild and any of his owners. Him and his teammates were also taking turns shooting on nine-year-old Cameron from Edina, a resident of Gillette's Children's hospital during their skate. Kaprizov is matching his point rates from last year and is on pace for roughly 93 of them per an 82-game season. His PDO is fairly concerning at around 104, suggesting his pace will take a hit at some point throughout the year as he has been the beneficiary of a slightly high on ice shooting percentage and is down almost a full shot/60 from his career average. I wouldn't worry too much about Kirill though, he is a player who could live there for another half of a season.

Brock Faber / MIN – Faber (upper body) has joined his teammates for their skate this morning. Faber has been out after taking a hit holding the blueline against St. Louis earlier in January. No timeline but as he is back fully participating in morning skate, it shouldn't be long before the Wild get some much-needed help back on the blueline.

Jared Spurgeon / MIN – Spurgeon (undisclosed) has been out of the lineup since New Year's Eve after colliding with Zachary L'Heureux and in turn, the boards. It was announced he would be missing two to three weeks a few days into January. No update on him as of yet but the end of that two to three-week timeline is nearing.

Jonas Brodin / MIN – Another Wild defenseman? Yes. Brodin (lower body) blocked a shot and has been out since January 8th. The Wild desperately need some of these guys back and it looks like they may finally be doing just that heading into this weekend. Brodin has minor fantasy relevance, but when your top four or five defenseman are out, it will at the least have some trickle-down effect on the rest of the roster in terms of scoring against.

Charlie McAvoy / BOS – McAvoy (undisclosed) will sit out at least the next two games after landing on the IR Tuesday. Charlie has seen his fantasy relevance take a solid hit this year and has been replaced on the top power play at times. His rate stats are down across the board and his power play stats are something to behold (abysmal).

Samuel Girard / COL – Girard (upper body) skated with the team yesterday in a non-contact jersey, did not play in the evening. The Avalanche are in Winnipeg to butt heads with the Jets on Saturday.

Sean Monahan / CBJ – Monahan (wrist) will be out at least another two weeks while wearing a brace before being reevaluated. Sean has been shredding with Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov all year. Due to his injury, Adam Fantilli has finally been thrust into the spotlight centering this line after being touted in the offseason for a breakout season. Adam has been passed around the lineup all year and is seemingly the only guy not scoring for these underdogs in Columbus. That has ended as he has put up five points with two goals and 12 shots in his last four games on the top line. Fantilli is worth a pick up since this is likely one of the only guys in the league with pedigree to have a shot like this for the rest of the season. I’d value his upside as a hold if this play continues over a few extra games played.

Dylan Guenther / UTA – Terrible news for Dylan Guenther (lower body) as he is going to miss significant time from the Utah lineup after coming together with Aleksander Barkov. With 16 goals, he led the Utah Hockey Club, totaling 34 points in 40 games as a rookie. Not bad. His play was heavily linked to Logan Cooley who was skating on the top line in Guenther's absence. Josh Doan has picked up second line and first power play duties as well.

Brayden Point / TBL – Unfortunately Point missed a team meeting yesterday and was held off the roster by the lightning for their game against the Bruins, only to drop that contest 5-2. Great idea. I think the best way to punish these guys for truancy is internally. Not hurting the whole team, franchise, and fans along the way. Make them sit on the plane for their next flight in a blindfold and earplugs. Point has picked up where he left off last year, sitting in the middle of the bench seat with Kucherov and now Guentzel beside him.

Evander Kane / EDM – Kane (hip+knee) had surgery on his knee and will be out for another four to eight weeks on top of already being out for the full start of the season. Surprising to everyone including the team I would assume.

Charlie Lindgren / WSH – Lindgren (upper body) has skated with the Capitals this morning and will be with them on their road trip. He is a possibility to be in the lineup Saturday. Unfortunate time to go down for Charlie, as Logan Thompson has been a lightning rod for Washington pretty much all year. The Capital's seemed to want to roll it 50/50 regardless of how each goalie was playing individually. Thompson is 19-2-3 with a .921 save percentage and Lindgren sports a 10-8-2 with a .900 save percentage. Not bad for Lindgren, but not great when you look to the side at his partner. I would be worried about the playoffs if I were Charlie, but one might be safe to assume that he will still get starts to keep Thompson fresh for the cup chase barring any significant change in their play and or more injury.

Aaron Ekblad / FLA – Jan 12: Ekblad (undisclosed) won’t travel with the Panthers for the team’s two-game road trip. Panther's stars have been struggling a bit lately outside of Sam Reinhart who apparently is unaffected by regression.

Valeri Nichushkin / COL – Nichushkin (lower body) is not expected back any time soon with head coach Jared Bednar telling reporters Monday the winger “probably has some distance to go”. Frustrating for Nuke owners who drafted him in the mid to late rounds and had him rusting in their IR spots for 25 games already at the start of the year.

Alex Lyon / DET – Lyon is expected to return from injury soon as he has been participating in morning skates, and is travelling with the team for their upcoming four-game road trip.

Semyon Varlamov / NYI – Varlamov (lower body) resumed skating Thursday.

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!