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. As always, I’d like to thank every single one of you for reading. Now, on to the bad (and some good) news.

The book was closed last night on another NHL season, and congratulations are in order to the Florida Panthers for repeating as Stanley Cup champions. As an Oilers fan, it’s a bit of pain again accompanying the end of things again this year. I am fine though if you were at all worried about me, I have become elite at receding into my mental bomb shelter at the first sign of failure, and I have been in my safe space since game two against LA.

Matthew Tkachuk / FLA – Tkachuk (upper body) revealed after winning the cup last night that he has been playing through a torn adductor muscle, and "some type of hernia thing". When is this guy not falling apart at the seams after the playoffs? Tkachuk finished this year's playoffs with 23 points in 23 games. No word yet on any offseason procedures or their possible timelines, but usually hernias require some minimally invasive work as a minimum.

Aleksander Barkov / FLA – Barkov (hand) split his palm open in game one of the finals, and the picture makes my hand hurt. 10-15 stitches directly across the palm of the hand is nasty business to be playing in the NHL finals with. Props to him for gutting that out, hopefully he makes a full recovery soon. I'm sure he will be pouring some beer on it in no time. Barkov finished this year’s playoffs with 22 points in 23 games.

Sam Reinhart / FLA – Reinhart (lower body) was reported by Paul Maurice to have been playing through a grade 2 MCL sprain. I have to admit, I assumed Reinhart was playing through something since he was relatively quiet (not really) in the finals. Reinhart finished the playoffs with 23 points in 22 games including 10 in six games of the finals.

Roman Josi / NSH – Josi (concussion) expects to play in the 2025-26 season after being diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, he has told a Swiss outlet. Reading a little bit about the ailment online, I can quickly gather that it is a syndrome which makes getting up from laying down difficult due to fainting from a fast heart rate, dizziness, and fatigue. This is a new one in NHL injuries but hopefully he doesn’t have too much trouble with it going forward. Josi has beaten the point-per-game mark in two of his last four seasons, his best coming three years ago when he was good for 96 in 80 games played. This year was a down one for Josi and the Predators alike, with 38 in 53 games.

During the playoffs, it's a bit of a barren waste land for reporting on injuries. I can understand why. If I had ailments while playing in one of the most physical forms of sport I would not want every monster of a human on the other side knowing just where to hit my buttons. On the other hand, when a series ends we get a slew of injuries that nearly every player has been dragging themselves through to get a glimpse of Stanley himself. In my humble opinion, the league could do more to protect its players, and the playoffs have become a bit more of a competition of who can hide their repeated attempts to injure, and who can come out in favor of the refereeing while masking their true intentions of drawing calls and using different and subtle forms of interference at all times. It's currently the best way to win the Stanley Cup, and the Panthers are one of the best teams I have watched in years, but I hate to watch the league bow the knee to a team that has very clearly been coached to get away with, and push the envelope of being "abrasive" right to the doorstep of cheating. The NHL has deep ties and feelings towards being considered a rough and tumble sport in my mind, so I can only imagine they are through the roof with happiness about how the playoffs went, and are even happier with their reffing affecting the outcomes and massaging games. I may sound like a scorned fan here with this paragraph, but I don't think the Oilers win this series even without all of the "expert line-walking" done by Florida and that comes down to making better managerial and roster decisions. Florida brought in Marchand and Jones nearing the deadline. The Oilers went with the same goaltending duo that gave them a loss the year prior in the finals, and their big addition was half of one Trent Frederic, who returned to the lineup in the second playoff game of the year and is still dealing with a high ankle sprain even today.

Decisions, decisions. Biggest of all, being the decision to hire Ken Holland instead of Bill Zito in 2019, who now helms the managerial role for the Panthers. Oh how different things could have been! We move on to next season.

Be sure to pick up all of the Dobber guides in order to dominate your leagues across the board next year!

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!