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

Shayne Gostibehere / CAR – Gostisbehere was seen doing some drills on ice this morning before full practice took place. Good news for his fantasy owners (me included) since he is tied with Cale Makar for second in the league amongst defenseman with 18 power play points, trailing only Zach Werenski at 19.

Troy Terry / ANA – Terry missed yesterday's game for the birth of his second child. Congratulations to Troy and Dani, and I would recommend grabbing Terry for the next few weeks as the always successful and very statistically scientific baby bump is bound to show its head. Terry is enjoying a good season taking 102 shots so far with 33 points in 39 games played and with the Ducks playing tons of off days, he can fit in when others can't.

Connor Zary / CGY – Last night against the Ducks, Zary took the puck in across the blueline on offense and started to cut to the middle. He realized at the last second that Drew Helleson had made the move to take the body and seemed to almost freeze in the middle of his move inside. The players came together and the first point of contact was the knees, although the contact was made pretty much directly below center mass. Helleson got a five-minute major and was ejected from the game for kneeing but in my humble opinion, this collision is just a hockey play, and it's one of those unfortunate things that is going to happen from time to time when 230lb men are routinely looking to touch each other while skating opposite directions at 20 miles per hour each.

Scott Wedgewood / COL – Wedgewood went down very awkwardly in their game against Buffalo after Zach Benson was pushed into him. Wedgewood was clearly injured and Benson did what any hockey player worth a contract would do, and put the puck in the net quickly after on a wrap-around while Wedgewood lay like an upended tortoise, knees tucked to his chest while on his back. Elliotte Friedman wrote yesterday in 32 Thoughts about why referee's do not blow the play dead during this type of scenario, and it is an actual rule that the play does not get blown dead for an injury in the event of a scoring chance with some historical reasoning. I also don't think that Benson deserves any of the vitriol he's been receiving from Av's fans. He was pushed in, he didn’t see the injury, and he kept playing hockey. Unfortunate play, and fairly annoying to watch as a fan, but rules are rules friends. Jared Bednar said on the 5th that Wedgewood’s injury isn’t a high ankle sprain, and he's in a walking boot until Monday when he will be re-evaluated again.

Gabriel Landeskog / COL – This morning Jared Bednar said that they are "optimistic" about Gabriel Landeskog moving in the right direction and ventures to guess that he's further along in this process than he’s ever been. There is still no timeline for Landeskog but he's finally been seen skating with the team so hopefully there is more good news on this front to come in the next few weeks. Landeskog has been out of the lineup since October of 2022 after what was supposed to be a four- to six-week recovery for knee surgery. Here's to overcoming the odds.

Jake Walman / SJS – Walman is looking to return to the lineup this Friday against Utah, so keep an eye on his eligibility as we near that date.

Mason Marchment / DAL – Marchment, injured on December 27th after taking a shot to the face has undergone successful surgery and is still pegged as week-to-week by the team. Weird as this is to say, his absence sort of opened the door for Wyatt Johnston and Jason Robertson's minutes to balloon and in turn the pair has started their climb to relevance again after an abysmal start to the season for the pair.

Aaron Ekblad / FLA – Ekblad has missed the past two games after taking a wrist shot to the hand from Rickard Rakell against Pittsburgh on January the third. All signs point to him returning to action shortly. Ekblad sits 34th amongst defenseman for points and has managed to stay a bit healthier than his career trends this year so far. Fingers crossed this is the only time he misses going forward.

Chris Kreider / NYR – The house has been on fire for the Ranger's and after missing three games in late November from back spasms and more recently being healthy scratched on December 23rd, Kreider is now day-to-day on the IR retroactive to Sunday for an upper-body injury.

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!