Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening! 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. At the end of the article is the Quarantine section, where any players out due to illness will be listed. As always I’d like to thank every single one of you for reading. So, on to the bad (and some good) news.

Injuries / Leaves

Tom Wilson / Washington Capitals – Wilson (lower body) will be a game-time call ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Vancouver, Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post reports. Great news for Washington and Tom alike. Wilson shot 19.4% last season and has even pushed it a bit further this season with a 22.7%. He's one of the most valuable players in bangers leagues currently, even with a small drop off in hits so far this year he’s still got 110 through 41 games.

Darcy Kuemper / Los Angeles Kings – Kuemper (upper body) left the game and did not return for Tuesday’s game versus the Rangers. Darcy hasn't been living quite up to his numbers of last season, where he posted a phenomenal 0.922 SV% over 50 games. He's currently at a .904 SV% on the year so far in 2025-26 with a 12-9-9 record. Anton Forsberg will be seeing most of the net in the meantime, and Pheonix Copley will be watching from the bench on most nights.

William Nylander / Toronto Maple Leafs – William Nylander / Toronto Maple Leafs – Nylander (groin) was placed on injured reserve Monday, per the NHL media site.  Nylander aggravated his last injury that kept him out for four games. Seeing him go in and out of the lineup has been frustrating for owners, not only because he was a high pick in most drafts but because he has irrefutably been producing as such. 12 points in his last six games played, and a 106 point pace on the season really has people with their head in their hands getting the injury notification every second week.Under the hood, Willy has actually seen a drop off in SOG/g this season, from 3.1 to 2.0 and an increase in S% from 17.7 to 22.7. That indicates him slowing down at some point when he does return, but if he's been doing it while injured half the season in the first place I’m not going to be calling my bookie to ask for odds on that slow down.

Shayne Gostisbehere / Carolina Hurricanes – Head coach Rod Brind’Amour said Wednesday that he hopes Gostisbehere (lower body) will start skating again soon, Ryan Henkel of The Hockey News reports. High risk, high reward this season with the Ghost bear. He's scoring at a ridiculous 0.91 PTS/GP in the 35 games he has featured in, and is even over 2 SOG/GP on the season. The Hurricanes powerplay has figured it out over the last two weeks without him, having nine PPG in their last eight games. Similar pacing to early on in the season when Shayne put up some even more gaudy numbers during its first burst of production. Nikishin has been occupying the blueline in his absence.

Troy Terry / Anaheim Ducks – Head coach Joel Quenneville said Monday that Terry (upper body) is day-to-day and could play on the team’s upcoming road trip, Patrick Present of The Hockey News reports. Troy has 42 points in 43 games so far this year, and has done so with linemates such as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Kris Kreider, and Mikael Granlund. It's always great to see guys with this sort of potential get the help they need and turn in career years.

Frank Nazar / Chicago Blackhawks – Nazar (upper body) is expected to play in Thursday’s game against the Hurricanes, per Scott Powers of The Athletic. Frank has been relegated to the spare parts bin since December 20th, and unfortunately only had one point in the eight games prior to his exit. He should return to powerplay one, and with Connor Bedard back healthy there's potential there for him to pick it up. Nazar's still had some streaks this season and is sitting at 0.64 PTS/G, much higher than last season's 0.49. Shot totals are up a bit, and I believe in the player to do well if he's getting that linemate support.

Kris Letang / Pittsburgh Penguins – Letang missed practice Tuesday because of an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day. The days of Kris Letang helping you win your league have pretty much passed us by unless there's 20 teams in said leagues. Regardless, he's done okay for himself this season scoring at a 0.52 PTS/G pace, mostly assists. His SOG/GP is quite concerning though having fallen off a cliff to just 1.58 /GP this season.

Erik Karlsson / Pittsburgh Penguins – Karlsson (lower body) will not be in action versus Calgary on Wednesday but did practice in a regular jersey, Josh Yohe of The Athletic reports. Karlsson is the other side of the coin from Letang in Pittsburgh, and is still playing upwards of 24 minutes a night managing a 0.75 PTS/G pace. His shots are down a bit too, but he's receiving 71.5 % of available powerplay time and the Penguins are holding their own in a pretty strong Eastern conference.

Dan Vladar / Philadelphia Flyers – Vladar (undisclosed) was put on injured reserve Monday, per Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Outside of Trevor Zegras, Vladar is probably the best story in Philadelphia this year. With a 16-7-4 record and a .905 SV% before injury, he's managed 21 quality starts and a 12.12 GSAx. The options behind him are extremely thin, Samuel Ersson has not been getting the job done at all. The Flyers have given up an awful 28 goals in their last six games played, so I don't think I have to tell you guys it's probably best to stay away from their goaltending at the moment.

Anthony Stolarz / Toronto Maple Leafs – Stolarz (upper body) was reassigned to AHL Toronto on a conditioning assignment Tuesday. I'll be watching Stolarz' performance stats in the AHL before his return with interest, although we've recently seen with Connor Ingram just how flawed comparing goalie performances between the two leagues can be. Stolarz struggled mightily in the early season, going 6-5-1 with just an 0.884 SV% over 13 games played. Maybe a bit of it was due to being overworked, and a bit due to lacklustre play from the team in front of him, but he'll have some work to do to solidify himself after watching Dennis Hildeby put in some solid work while he was away.

Seth Jones / Florida Panthers – Jones (upper body) was moved from regular IR to long-term injured reserve Monday, per PuckPedia. Jones was also replaced on Team USA's roster for the Milan Olympics by Jackson Lacombe of Anaheim after the announcement. Jones has 24 points in 48 games to date this season, getting nearly 62% of powerplay time from the blueline. Uvis Balinskis has taken over for him since the injury, and he has a couple PPP in his last four games.

Carter Hart / Vegas Golden Knights – General manager Kelly McCrimmon said Monday that Hart (lower body) isn’t scheduled to be available until after the 2026 Winter Olympics, SinBin.vegas reports. With the return of Adin Hill, and Akira Schmid playing well this makes things a bit easier for the Golden Knights decisions-wise. Hart has been quite awful as of late.

Luke Hughes / New Jersey Devils – Hughes has reportedly dislocated his shoulder. The injury is of concern, and reports from New Jersey indicate that he is consulting with his Colorado doctor. It will be a couple of days before we know the full extent of the injury and his absence, but at best we’re looking at two or three weeks and at worst – the season. He has already been placed on LTIR.

Quarantine

Drew Doughty, LAK

Mikko Rantanen, DAL

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!