Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. Welcome back 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.

Drake Batherson / Ottawa Senators – Batherson (upper body) resumed skating last Thursday, as Claire Hanna of TSN reported. However, he won’t be ready for Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Batherson has been a sneaky good fantasy player available in the mid to lateish rounds of drafts. He gets a ton of powerplay points (31 last season) and shoots a decent amount (~200 shots), not to mention he has played a full 82 games in the past three seasons! I feel as if that’s just not something that is as common as it used to be and should definitely be valued. 

Pavel Dorofeyev / Las Vegas Golden Knights – Dorofeyev (lower body) is set to be a game time decision for Wednesday’s season opener against the Kings, Jesse Granger of the Athletic reports. At practice on Tuesday Dorofeyev had taken the spot of Shea Theodore on the top powerplay. It’s now a five-forward powerplay and this type of setup has rarely lasted very long in recent years on any team that has employed it. Pavel lines up on the third line at even strength flanking Tomas Hertl along with Brandon Saad, and they saw middle-six minutes last year. With a few guys back healthy and a solid top six heading into the year their line may see a slight reduction in time on ice. 

Zach Benson / Buffalo Sabres – Benson (undisclosed) fully practiced with the Sabres on Tuesday and was putting in a hard effort. Zach is slated to start on the wing with Tage Thompson opposite him, and Josh Norris holding down the face off dot for the trio. He’s not one of the Sabres expected to miss the start of the season. 

Ivan Demidov / Montreal Canadiens – Demidov (wrist) was held out of the lineup for the Canadiens final two preseason dust ups. Ivan is at the top of most Calder candidate lists, and mine is no different even though Matthew Schaefer has looked pretty dang slick in his preseason minutes for the New York Islanders. 

Jake Walman / Edmonton Oilers – Walman (undisclosed) is not expected to be available for Wednesday’s regular season opener against the Flames, Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic reports. Walman has just signed a new deal with Edmonton worth $49 million over seven years. Although he’s not the top guy anymore he still holds some decent value if your league counts blocks, he is a 150-block kind of guy. His points potential took a major hit leaving San Jose at the 2024 deadline, as he lost his number one billing at evens and on the powerplay. 

Cole Perfetti / Winnipeg Jets – Perfetti (ankle) is week-to-week and will miss the beginning of the 2025-26 season, per Murat Ates of The Athletic on Sunday. Bad timing for the Jets, as they are now without Jonathan Toews to begin the season as well. The loss of Nikolaj Ehlers has to sting in Winnipeg at the moment. 

Jonathan Huberdeau / Calgary Flames – Huberdeau (undisclosed) won’t be ready to play Opening Night against Edmonton on Wednesday, Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 The Fan reports. Huberdeau had a bit of a bounceback year this past season compared to 2023-24, and was rewarded with an average of two extra minutes of ice time per game. The Flames may be a few years from being a force in the Western Conference again and Huberdeau will be hard pressed to return to his Florida totals since his last season was a 1.44 pts/g but he should be able to continue last season’s pace of 0.77 pts/g with a strengthening cast around him. 

Logan Cooley / Utah Mammoth – Cooley (undisclosed) missed Saturday’s preseason finale for the newly minted Mammoth, but head coach Andre Tourigny has stated that he is expected to be ready for their opening night on Thursday against in Colorado as they take on the Avalanche. If you haven’t seen it, search out the photos of the Mammoth's new seating stand. Don’t drop your wallet in those babies or you might see it get blown to smithereens on the next dump in. Logan is poised for a Mammoth year, terrible joke I know, arrest me. I’m serious though, possible huge year incoming from a few young guns in Utah. 

Alexander Ovechkin / Washington Capitals – Ovechkin returned to the lineup this past week, and received limited minutes to ease him back in. I’m extremely interested to see how this year plays out for the Russian man mountain as well as a few more guys in Washington. Aliaksei Protas, Connor McMichael, and Ryan Leonard all have some tantalizing potential. Does Ovi Fade into the sunset? Or blast his way into the playoffs again. We shall see! 

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen / Buffalo Sabres – Luukkonen (lower body), as expected, was officially ruled out against the New York Rangers on Thursday, Heather Engel of NHL.com reports. He was placed on IR on Monday the 6th. Luukkonen has been a mixed bag throughout his career to date, and usually bounces back after a bad season. His quality start percentage for 2024-25 was just 51 percent. The season prior? 63. The year before that? 36. Bit of an interesting trend but ultimately not all that useful for us, with goalies being harder to pin down than a greased up pig in summer. Alex Lyon and new waiver addition Colton Ellis will maintain the crease for the time being. 

Victor Hedman / Tampa Bay Lightning – Hedman (undisclosed) has been sidelined during the preseason and is uncertain to be available for the Lightning's home opener against the Senators. 

Owen Power / Buffalo Sabres – Power (strain) has been placed on IR as of October 6th. Power has limited fantasy use, but he did manage a half point per game clip last year (0.51 pts/gp) and can fill the blocks category for you at times. Buffalo defenseman are quite thin before the season even begins with Michael Kesselring also not ready for game action just yet. 

Jamie Benn / Dallas Stars – Benn (upper body) was moved to long-term injured reserve Tuesday. Benn underwent surgery at the end of September to repair a punctured lung. General manager Jim Nill stated that he would be re-evaluated at the four week mark. Benn has tailed off in the last few seasons. He is a far cry from what he used to be but we will always have the 2014-15 season where Jamie won the Art Ross trophy by blowing the league away with 87 points. The league is in a much more exciting place offensively in the present day.  

Joseph Woll / Toronto Maple Leafs – Woll (personal) is still on a leave of absence from the team for personal reasons. No updates on the situation as of yet. 

Cole Sillinger / Columbus Blue Jackets – Sillinger sustained an apparent (hand) injury at Thursday’s practice, Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch reports, but is expected to be ready for game one. Sillinger was taken 12th overall by the Blue Jackets in 2021 and in 2024-25 he scored at his best rate since his arrival in the NHL Sillinger is staying consistent with how we expect young players who are not guaranteed stars to progress even if he’s still a bit behind. I’d like to see another jump this year from his 0.51 pts/gp last season. Sillinger can get you hits, face off wins, and two shots per game to go along with his so-far lukewarm point totals. 

Zach Hyman / Edmonton Oilers – Hyman (wrist) was placed on long-term injured reserve Monday, according to PuckPedia. Hyman has been slated to return to the lineup no earlier than November 1st as reported by Mark Spector of Sportsnet. Hyman will most likely return to a top-six role while also slotting back into the first powerplay barring a David Tomasek supernova October while holding his spot on the top unit. 

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!