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.

Roman Josi / Nashville Predators – Josi (upper body) was placed on IR on Sunday, and is now expected to miss at least another week of time. General Manager Barry Trotz said this on his weekly radio hit with 1025thegame, and also reiterated that the injury is not related to his POTS diagnosis from this offseason. Josi has missed the Predators' last seven games thus far, and will be out for at least the next three given that an IR designation removes any player from rejoining the lineup until seven days have elapsed. Teams can, however, put players on IR retroactively from the date they left the line up, but that is not the case here. In the meantime, Nashville has seemingly split their powerplay time between two units, with Nick Blankenburg having the slight edge in ice time over Brady Skej on the man advantage. Skej has proved twice as successful in the last three games, if you can call being on the ice for two goals during that time success.

Jake Oettinger / Dallas Stars – Oettinger (personal) was believed to be a scratch last night against Edmonton due to the birth of his first child, but ultimately backed up Casey DeSmith in their win, after missing the morning skate. Congratulations to Jake and his wife Kennedi on the new introduction! Prepare for some lost sleep!

Tristan Jarry / Pittsburgh Penguins – Jarry (undisclosed) was placed on injured reserve Tuesday. Jarry has managed the win in five of his seven starts this season, posting a save percentage of 0.911 while doing so. A rising tide lifts all ships, as Pittsburgh has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence as a team this season so far. I’ve always pulled for Tristan after doing some work for him at his offseason home which lies on a barley farm east of Edmonton. He graciously took time to explain some of the pieces from his career he had hanging around on the property. Good to see some success this year after a rough go in 2024-25 having  managed only an 0.893 save percentage in 36 appearances.

William Eklund / San Jose Sharks – Eklund (lower body) won’t play against Seattle on Wednesday, according to Curtis Pashelka of The San Jose Mercury News. Eklund has so far been great on a line with Philipp Kurashev for most of the year and cashing in on 11 points in 12 contests and pushing 2.6 shots per game on net while doing it. Eklund has seen 60 percent of powerplay time, and with a red hot Celebrini that’s something to be excited about. His ice time is robust at just under 20 minutes per game and could continue the near point per game pace when he returns.

Ryan Strome / Anaheim Ducks – Strome (upper body) joined the team at Tuesday’s morning skate, per Zach Cavanagh of The Sporting Tribune. Strome has not yet featured in a buzzing Anaheim line up this season. He has put up 41 points in each of his last three campaigns, playing a full 82 games in all but the one, playing 79.

Pierre-Luc Dubois / Washington Capitals – Dubois (lower body) is not expected to miss the rest of the 2025-26 campaign, Tom Gulitti of NHL.com reports Tuesday. Seems like good news considering the extent of the injury, but it certainly does not inspire confidence in having Dubois stick around in your IR spots. Looks like he will unfortunately be out for quite a long stretch.

Roope Hintz / Dallas Stars – Hintz (upper body) was back on the ice for the Stars' morning skate yesterday before their 4-3 come from behind shootout win against the Oilers. Hintz was still scratched from the game, but this was a record setting loss for the Oilers who have suffered four of them (2 goal leads squandered) in their first 15 games of the season for the first time ever. It was a win that Dallas will no doubt be extremely happy with, given there is some bad blood between the two teams after Hintz was taken out of their playoff series on a bit of a greasy slash from Darnell Nurse. Hintz should be returning to the lineup shortly, barring no setbacks while getting back up to speed.

Zach Hyman / Edmonton Oilers – Hyman (wrist) will need at least another week to return to the lineup, as per head coach Kris Knoblauch. Hyman himself said on October 29th after practice, that he feels good to go, but is at the will of doctor's advice. Zach should have an immediate impact on the Oilers, with their early season struggles being quite apparent. After Hyman leaving the Stanley Cup finals, Edmonton did not and still do not have the same bite. New addition Jack Roslovic has however, added some much needed offense for the team, skating on the top powerplay for the last three games and cashing in on three points on the man advantage during the recent stretch. Roslovic has five points in his last four games total and is skating with Draisaitl at even strength, one of Edmonton’s only lines that hasn’t hit the blender recently.

Elias Lindholm / Boston Bruins – Lindholm (lower body) is considered week-to-week, Joe Haggerty of Boston Sports Journal reports Monday. Lindholm hit the deck after coming together at the knees with Jordan Greenway last Thursday and his MRI has shown something that he and the Bruins are not very fond of. Elias had been great for Boston early on,

Max Shabanov / New York Islanders – Shabanov (upper body) isn’t close to returning to the lineup, according to Andrew Gross of Newsday on Sunday. Maxim has not played a game for the Islanders since October the 23rd, missing seven games in the meantime. Shabanov was great in the KHL last season before making the jump to the NHL, having mustered 67 points in 65 games this past season for Traktor Chelyabinsk. Those totals were good for third in league scoring, but unfortunately he has only seen an average of 11:43 of ice time so far from his head coach Patrick Roy while adjusting to the North American game. 

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!