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. Now, on to the bad (and some good) news.

Injuries / Leaves

Mathew Barzal / New York Islanders – Barzal (undisclosed) won’t participate in the 2026 IIHF World Championship because of a minor injury, Hockey Canada announced Tuesday. Barzal was nearly bang on for his career PTS/GP this season with a 0.88 coming on 19 goals and 53 assists, with 20 of those ink spots on the score sheet coming on the power play. He played in nearly a full season (81 games) and it was a rehab season for Barzal essentially, as he recovers from a small procedure after taking a shot to the knee in 2024-25. He has said that it takes 1-2 years to fully heal from the situation, and had quite a few maintenance days throughout the season to handle the load. 

Joel Eriksson Ek / Minnesota Wild – Eriksson Ek (lower body) will not join the team for Game five in Colorado on Wednesday, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports. Eriksson Ek is dealing with a fairly serious leg injury after going into the boards in game 6 of round one, and is day-to-day for the time being. Joel was averaging four shots a game and had five points in his first three playoff games this year before the injury in his sixth game played. He has been skating at home in Minnesota, so there is hope for his availability later in the series.

Mark Stone / Vegas Golden Knights – Stone (lower body) did not play against Anaheim on Tuesday in Game five. He tied his career high in points with 73, set previously set in 2019-20 -in which he was traded to Vegas during the season. The difference between those two seasons? This year, he played in 17 less games (60 GP). Stone is well known for his band aid boy status, whether it’s a borderline cap circumvention situation or not. I put him down as my prediction for biggest disappointment before the season started, and you can say that’s a bad call, but if I had a 1.22 PTS/GP player out for a quarter of the season or more, I would be pretty disappointed.

Owen Tippett / Philadelphia Flyers – Tippett (undisclosed) was contending with several injuries, including a sports hernia, during the 2026 postseason, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported on Monday. Tippett posted a goal and an assist through six playoff games, before missing out on all four games in the Hurricanes sweep of the Flyers. Tippett had a little bit of a bump from his numbers last season, finishing with 51 points in 81 games and adding 220 shots to go with his career high of 166 hits. 

Jeremy Lauzon / Vegas Golden Knights – Lauzon (undisclosed) probably won’t be an option for Vegas’ second-round series against Anaheim, SinBin.vegas reported Monday. Lauzon is rarely on your fantasy rosters, unless hits and blocks are weighted quite highly, save for later on in the week for your matchups if you’re behind in one of those cats. With 251 hits and 96 blocks, he played that part in 2025-26 just fine if I do say so. 

Mikko Rantanen / Dallas Stars – Rantanen (knee) was in a list of about eight injured Stars that was handed out, almost as if on cue, and as NHL teams do after they are eliminated from the playoffs each season. It must feel good to take the podium as a GM after a failure of a season (finishing anywhere from second to 32nd is a failure to them hopefully) and be able to list out things such as "Our whole top-two lines had nine broken ribs each, and two amputated feet". Softens the blame game a little bit, but the game of obfuscation comes as a protective barrier, so teams can’t target players in their festering wounds during already hard playoff games to exist in. Rantanen tore his MCL at the winter Olympics in Italy, and has been playing with it since. It does not require surgery so he should be good to go for next season. 

Roope Hintz / Dallas Stars – Hintz (hamstring) was taken out by Nathan MacKinnon in March, resulting in a hamstring that was torn in two different places. He hadn’t played since, but was nearing a return and may have had that chance if the Stars were to have conquered the Wild in round one. Hintz had 44 points in 53 games played during the season, for a 68 point pace over a full 82. Hintz has been a fairly healthy player, having missed only 17 games in the four seasons prior to 2025-26, though he does seem to play through injuries more than most. 

Quarantine / Healthy Scratches

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