Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. Welcome back to the Injury Ward. My name is Logan Clarkson and every Wednesday and Sunday 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.

Adin Hill / Las Vegas Golden Knights – Hill (lower body) did not return to Tuesday’s game versus the Flames after losing his helmet and then stopping a hard shot in the groin area immediately after. Hill missed 29 games 2023-24 at different points of the season. 2024-25 he fared much better with his health and played in 50 games mustering a 52 percent quality starts stat (games with above league average save percentage or higher than an .885 while facing less than 20 shots. This season had gotten off to a rocky start for Hill, surrendering nine goals in just 149 minutes of ice time, or roughly seven periods of play. Las Vegas scored four unanswered after his exit, giving Akira Schmid the win in relief. Schmid threw a perfect game non-shutout with 19 saves. Schmid will be taking over for now but if the injury is long term, Carter Hart has been rumored to be signing with the team today when the players involved in some infamous off ice legal problems are allowed to sign with NHL teams. Hart and the remaining players involved will not be available to play for whichever team they sign with until December 1st which is a month and a half away.

Brady Tkachuk / Ottawa Senators – Tkachuk (wrist) will be out of action for at least four weeks, according to TSN 1200 Ottawa on Tuesday. Surgery has not been ruled out for one of team USA and the Senators most important players. The NHL cover curse is alive and well, leaving only Keith Tkachuk without injury as Matthew is still recovering from a torn adductor and sports hernia. Brady is a complete unicorn in bangers leagues and regularly finishes top-three in leagues with PIMs or hits, not to mention the 300 plus shots he can be good for. I traded Brady to stack picks and nearly guarantee myself a top-three finish in my main league this year and I've been regretting it since the season started. Hold on to this man for fantasy purposes as long as you can.

Lucas Raymond / Detroit Red Wings – Raymond (upper body) did not return to Monday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Raymond was ridden into the boards and crunched hard by Chris Tanev. The positioning of Raymond’s body going into the boards made it look to be some sort of shoulder separation but, Emily Kaplan of ESPN has now reported that the injury is not long term. Deep breaths! Raymond finished 2024-25 with a full 82 games played and has done so in three of the four seasons he's participated in to date. He managed to get within a hair of being a point per game player with 80, including finding the back of the net 27 times. Another interesting note is that he finished last year with 37 powerplay points which was a major jump from 17 the year before.

Mackenzie Blackwood / Colorado Avalanche – Blackwood (undisclosed) was assigned to AHL Colorado on Monday for a conditioning loan. This signals a return is imminent. Good news, but his Yahoo managers around the globe collectively groaned at this news, since he is now considered NA and will no longer be eligible for an IR or IR+ spot on that platform. Hopefully Mackenzie's AHL stint doesn't last too long, and he has his hand out the window grabbing wins off the side of the road as the Avalanche chew through their schedule. Scott Wedgewood has been a great placeholder, sporting three wins in four games to go along with his .935 save percentage. I picked up Wedgewood myself, after wasting a move on Yaroslav Askarov and thinking better of it. It's a tough decision on where to draw the line with picking up young promising players instead of proven journeymen like Boone Jenner or Chris Kreider to name a few that may be available. In a down year, I love to ride it out with as many of the shiny new prospects as I can while being competitive, but it’s too risky in my mind to fill your roster with high ceiling, unproven players when you still feel you have a shot at winning it all.

Jake Walman / Edmonton Oilers – Walman (undisclosed) is targeting a return to action versus the Islanders on Thursday, Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic reports. Walman came to Edmonton at the deadline and bolstered their top-four greatly. Smart, puck moving defenseman are invaluable in today's NHL. If you can’t move the puck up the ice out of your own zone more often than not, you're going to have a bad time. Even with only second powerplay time, Walman is rosterable in mid to large leagues given how thin defenders are for fantasy purposes. Jake averaged over a half point per game and added over two blocks per game with the Oilers in his 15 regular season appearances after the move.

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!