Good morning, good afternoon, and welcome to the new year everyone! Welcome back to the Injury Ward. My name is Logan Clarkson and every Wednesday and Sunday I will be taking 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. So, on to the bad (and some good) news.

Tom Wilson / Washington Capitals – Wilson (lower body) did not return to Saturday’s game versus the Blackhawks. He will undergo further evaluation, with the team expected to have a better idea of his expected timeline on Monday. Wilson was just named to Team Canada for the Milan Olympics as a bit of a hedge to the Tkachuks' playstyle. The Capitals and Canada will certainly hope that nothing has gone severely wrong here, although the way he went down on his leg with a full-grown man on top of him did not look great.

Aliaksei Protas / Washington Capitals – Protas (lower body) was a late scratch for Saturday’s game against Chicago. Protas is 31st in the NHL this year for 5-on-5 point production with 23. In 2024-25 he was even better, finishing 12th in the league with 50. That's pretty dang good for a guy who has largely been held off of the power play. He did receive about a minute a game over the first quarter of the season but oddly enough, his production slowed. He's since turned it up a bit with 18 points in the last 20 games.

Pierre-Luc Dubois / Washington Capitals – Per Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post, Dubois (abdominal surgery) has started skating. Dubois went pointless in the two three-game stints he participated in through November. He will hope to wipe that from his mind when he does return, while regaining his 0.8 PPG pace from 2024-25.

Seth Jones / Florida Panthers – Jones (upper body) isn't expected to play today (Sunday) against Colorado. He wasn’t able to finish Friday’s Winter Classic versus the Rangers after taking a clapper right off the collar bone. Jones has seen a bit of an icetime dip shorthanded since being traded from Chicago to Florida, but he has retained the rest and it has allowed him to up his PPG totals a bit (0.60 PPG) with some fresher legs at 5v5 and 5v4.

Casey DeSmith / Dallas Stars – DeSmith (personal) was granted non-roster status Saturday. DeSmith has been good again in his limited role (9-2-4, 0.912 SV%, 2.44 GAA) and remains a good spot start when given the crease. 24-year-old Remi Poirier has been called up from AHL Texas, where he has an 8-10-4 record, with a 0.903 SV% and a 2.77 GAA.

Mackenzie Blackwood / Colorado Avalanche – Blackwood (13-1-1, 0.923 SV%. 2.07 GAA) was placed on injured reserve Friday because of a lower-body injury, per Aarif Deen of Colorado Hockey Now. Blackwood has been half of one of the best performing tandems the NHL has ever seen. The Avalanche are on their way to posting the highest point total of any team ever and as good as Nathan MacKinnon has been, Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood certainly deserve their flowers as well. Blackwood since being acquired by the Avalanche is 35-13-4 for the squad. Wedgewood will be joined by Trent Miner from AHL Colorado to back him up. With the Avalanche playing the second of back-to-backs, Miner is the probable starter for today's (Sunday's) game against Florida.

Evgeni Malkin / Pittsburgh Penguins – Malkin (upper body) took the ice in a non-contact jersey Friday but won’t join the Penguins for their two-game road trip, Wes Crosby of NHL.com reports. Malkin has been enjoying his best PPG pace (1.12) this season since the 2019-20 season where he was up to 1.35 PPG. It's been talked about in the last few days that Malkin may get a contract for next year with the Penguins soon and that he's very keen on it.

Bo Horvat / New York Islanders – Horvat will miss at least a week due to his lower-body injury, Stefen Rosner of NHL.com reports Friday. However, he was skating on his own on Saturday, which is promising. Horvat (33 pts in 36 GP) is the top scorer on Long Island, despite playing five fewer games than the next guy in line, Mathew Barzal (32 pts in 41 GP).

Seth Jarvis / Carolina Hurricanes – Jarvis (upper body) returned to practice Thursday, Walt Ruff of the Hurricanes’ official site reports. Jarvis has 29 points in 34 games, which has slowed a bit from his last season's pace. His power-play production has taken a big dip with only three points on the man advantage despite seeing the highest average 5-on-4 time of the forward group at 3:19 per game.

Alex Lyon / Buffalo Sabres – Lyon (lower body) has been out since Wednesday’s road game against Dallas and head coach Lindy Ruff said that he is back in Buffalo rehabbing and will have an update to come in the next few days. Lyon (10-6-3, 0.906 SV%, 2.82 GAA) has been a saving grace in Buffalo this year with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen going down to injury for around a month. Lyon in his last 7 games is 7-0-0 with 5 Quality Starts and a 0.921 SV% to show for his efforts in that stretch.

William Nylander / Toronto Maple Leafs – Nylander (lower body) did not return to last Saturday’s game against Ottawa after sustaining an injury. Willy has now missed time on three separate occasions in roughly the past month, twice due to injury and once for illness. Nylander has missed a full week now, and in the two games prior to his injury he had five points. Before that though he went pointless in the prior three. He's still on pace for his best PPG totals of his career, currently hovering around 1.24 PPG.

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!