Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening! Welcome back to the Injury Ward. Injury news has been quite scarce with the majority of the league on a break, but things should be getting back to full steam soon enough with the recent end of the Olympics.

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

Sidney Crosby / Pittsburgh Penguins – Crosby (lower body) had to exit Team Canada's quarterfinal game against Czechia on Wednesday and did not return. He left the ice after being smushed into the ground by Radko Gudas in a compromising position and had his right leg bent awkwardly underneath his body. He looked to be in some pain, skating and walking gingerly to the dressing room after taking a minute or two on the bench to come around to the fact that he was too injured to return. Crosby was unable to go for Canada in the gold medal game, so I would think that it’s pretty safe to say he’s probably going to miss some NHL time in the coming weeks. I feel for him, having to sit on the sidelines and watch such a heartbreaking defeat.

Leon Draisaitl / Edmonton Oilers – Draisaitl (undisclosed) seems to be playing through a hand injury. It may have happened against the Minnesota Wild before the Olympic break, but he's been shown numerous times putting bags of ice on it in between shifts while playing for Team Germany. Germany has been eliminated in the qualifiers, so I wonder if we see him get shut down for a bit by the Oilers before the postseason so he can get closer to 100 percent.

Connor McDavid / Edmonton Oilers – McDavid (hand) has not missed any time, playing in the gold medal game for Canada and taking the honors for best forward in the tournament. It was noticed after the game that McDavid had some fingers taped together in the handshake lineup. With Leon in clear pain during the Olympics and Connor now seeming to have a similar type of injury, it’s business as usual for Edmonton as their beat-up stats help make a push to land in the top spot in the Pacific.

Mikko Rantanen / Dallas Stars – Rantanen (lower body) did not play in Saturday’s bronze-medal game against Slovakia at the Milan Olympics, and it’s uncertain what his status is for the Stars this week. Rantanen has kept pace with his career best totals so far this season having 1.28 PTS/G so far. His SOG/G are down almost a full shot to just 2.31 from his days in Colorado, but his PPP/G are up and he’s hitting a tad more as well, so he's making up for it in other ways. He's lost a good linemate in Nathan MacKinnon, but he's gained two more in some form of Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, and Wyatt Johnston at times. Averaging just over 20:30 per game in his last 13 games played has certainly helped too.

Robert Thomas / St. Louis Blues – Thomas (leg) participated in Friday’s practice session, Lou Korac of NHL.com reports. Thomas has three points in his past three games played, and the Blues will be praying for him to continue that kind of pace over a longer stretch. He was seeing less ice time over those three games, down to an average of 17:30 from closer to 20:00 on a regular night this season, but that’s almost certainly due to the recent injury and trying to keep him in the lineup while the team flounders. Lots of talk about trades within the St. Louis camp, most recently the rumor that Jordan Kyrou has made it known that he's ready for his exit to be facilitated. Things may get a bit bleaker for the Blues before a turnaround happens.

Zach Benson / Buffalo Sabres – Benson (upper body, undisclosed) is not expected to play Wednesday against the Devils, Heather Engel of NHL.com reports. Benson has stayed relatively healthy this season, missing only five games so far. With four points in his past six games before injury on February 2, Benson has been a bit streaky throughout the year but the hope is that he gets extended exposure to Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch, giving him a big boon to continue and kickstart his production.

John Carlson / Washington Capitals – Carlson (lower body) is day-to-day, according to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com on Sunday. Carlson has been turning back the clock this season, torching his last three season's totals with 0.84 PTS/G. He's shooting 8.7% so far, but hasn't been shooting more than normal. His pairing with Slovakian Olympian Martin Fehervary has been working quite well for the pair, sporting a +17 so far throughout their roughly 510 minutes on ice together so far. Carlson and Jakob Chychrun have better fancy stats together in 250 minutes together, but have seen varying results coming in at just a -2 in that time.

Josh Morrissey / Winnipeg Jets – Morrissey (undisclosed) left Team Canada's game on Thursday against Czechia and did not return. Morrissey missed the rest of Canada's games in Milan, so I would expect him to be missing some NHL games as well. We will probably receive an update once all the players are back to their respective cities during a morning skate or practice.

Quarantine
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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!