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

Frank Nazar / Chicago Blackhawks – Nazar (mouth) left and did not return to Saturday’s game versus the Blues. Nazar is on a 53 point pace over a full season, and he’s right on schedule there for the progression you’d expect in a sophomore season. The Blackhawks are certainly not a notable offensive threat on most nights, but with the arrival of Anton Frondell looking good (nine points in 10 games with 30 SOG), Frank may very well benefit from some easier matchups with the Bedard line becoming far more formidable in the near future, but staying healthy would help a lot going forward.

Carter Verhaeghe / Florida Panthers – Verhaeghe (undisclosed) won’t play Saturday versus the Maple Leafs, Jameson Olive of the Panthers’ official site reports. Verhaeghe has been his usual self this season, being hot for a week at a time, and ice cold when he’s not. That puts him firmly in a rosterable but not exactly keeper level position, unless you’re in a very deep league. He’s also lost a significant amount of powerplay time with all of the returning players on Florida in the last quarter of the season, but three quarters of those returned players are out now again anyways. 55 in 77 so far for Carter, firmly around average for a scoring fantasy forward, with not a ton of peripherals.

Sidney Crosby / Pittsburgh Penguins – Crosby (lower body) did not dress Saturday, but he returned to the lineup for Sunday's rematch with Washington, as did other Penguins’ veterans that were scratched on Saturday (check the Frozen Tools Player News for the latest). This was Crosby’s second game in his last eight that he was unable to dress. In all likelihood it’s nothing serious, and more to do with rest and maintenance of an existing issue right before an improbable playoff run for the aging roster. Crosby hasn’t dipped below 1.10 PTS/GP since 2017-18, and he sits right at that mark currently with 74 points in 64 games played. He truly seems to be ageless. Certainly can’t rule him out as a vampire.

Darren Raddysh / Tampa Bay Lightning – Raddysh (undisclosed) did not play against Boston on Saturday. Raddysh is listed as day to day with a minor injury, and it doesn’t surprise me that he sat out, with many teams doing similar things in order to rest their stars with playoff berths already clinched. Playing 25 and a half minutes a night this season, on the powerplay and the penalty kill as well, there is an argument to be made that Raddysh has approached Nikita Kucherov with just how important he has been to the team this season in terms of production. With 28 powerplay markers and 63 total points in 77 games, Raddysh has been a certified league winner available on waivers in the early season. A rare thing, but extremely valuable to pick out at the right time.

Miro Heiskanen / Dallas Stars – Heiskanen (lower body) has been ruled out for Dallas’ final three regular-season games, Robert Tiffin of D Magazine reports Friday. With 63 points in 77 games, it’s been a good bounce back season for Heiskanen after just managing a half point per game in 2024-25. His managers who held on have to be excited about what they’re seeing now, especially after being threatened by Thomas Harley for powerplay ice time on occasion. 72 percent of the man advantage has surely dispelled any of that anxiety.

Connor Ingram / Edmonton Oilers – Ingram was pulled from Wednesday’s game versus the Sharks due to an undisclosed issue, but he returned to the lineup on Saturday in the Oilers one-nil loss to the Kings. It’s going to be touch and go for the Oilers if this man is not fully healthy going into the playoffs, and they will have to pull Calvin Pickard back up from the grave if something is nagging him too much. Ingram has quietly been a huge win for Edmonton this season. Getting him for peanuts has allowed them to get away from Stuart Skinner, albeit not in the best way possible I’ll admit. Ingram carries a 15-10-2 record for Edmonton this season, but he’s been better than his personal stats suggest with just an 0.895 SV% and 2.72 GAA.

Quarantine / Healthy Scratches

Mats Zuccarello / MIN, Joel Eriksson Ek / MIN, Logan Stankoven / CAR, Jared Spurgeon / MIN,

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