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

Roope Hintz / Dallas Stars – Hintz (lower body) won’t be available for the first two games of the Stars’ playoff run, Robert Tiffin of D Magazine reported Tuesday. Hintz will close out the regular season missing 22 of the Stars' last 23 contests. He managed a 68-point pace, if he were to have played a full season, giving him 44 points in 53 games played. With his top powerplay time, he did his best posting 19 points on the man advantage. He struggled a bit at five on five, even while lining up next to Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen at times. Hintz has reached a point-per-game in just two of his eight seasons in the NHL with one coming in the COVID shortened year. 

Brandon Hagel / Tampa Bay Lightning – Hagel (lower body) is expected to be in the line up for Wednesday’s regular-season close out game against the Rangers. Hagel caught fire late in the season posting 15 points in his last 10 games played, raising his totals to over a point per game at 74 points in 70 games. The Lightning are slated to take on Montreal in the first round of the playoffs and it should be a doozy. 

Matthew Tkachuk / Florida Panthers – Tkachuk (personal) missed the last four games for the birth of his child and will return to close out the season for the Panthers at home to the Red Wings tonight. Tkachuk managed five points in four games before leaving last week, including a four point effort against Ottawa on March 31st. Tkachuk is a very useful fantasy player when in the lineup, but having only played 82 regular season games over the past two full years, he’s a risky draft pick at this point in my mind. His hitting has fallen off a cliff this season too, so I don’t assume for a second that he’s fully healthy yet either. A long off season will do lots of this Florida roster some good. 

Zach Hyman / Edmonton Oilers – Hyman (undisclosed) isn’t expected to play before the end of the regular season, Jamie Umbach of the Oilers’ official site reported Monday. Hyman has only played in 57 games this season after getting a late start, and missing the last five. He’s still managed 51 points after spending a few months as one of the Oilers hottest players after returning from his initial injury. The children’s author is probably one of the best free agent signings the Oilers have ever made at this point. Edmonton will be hopeful to see both him and Leon Draisaitl return at some point in the first round of the playoffs, where their match up is still to be determined. My bet is they face the Kings yet again. 

Alex Lyon / Buffalo Sabres – Lyon (lower body) will not be an option for Game 1 of the postseason, Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News reports Wednesday. Well, the Sabres have their playoff game one started sorted with this news. Lyon had often outperformed Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen this season, but I think they will still have confidence in 6K to take the through to the second round, 

Jared McCann / Seattle Kraken – McCann is dealing with a lower-body injury that will sideline him for the final three games of the season, the team announced Monday. After an already injury riddled season for McCann, it’s now over. He performed about as expected, right in line with his career averages outside of a 17% shooting stat. The Kraken have had another disappointing season, missing the playoffs by over 10 points. They desperately need some star power in Seattle. 

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. Sitting at 55 points in 77 games so far for Carter, firmly around average for a scoring fantasy forward, with not a ton of peripherals. 

Miro Heiskanen / Dallas Stars – Heiskanen (lower body) is questionable for Game 1 against the Wild in the first round of the 2026 postseason, per Robert Tiffin of D Magazine on Monday. 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. Seeing 72 percent of the man advantage time has surely dispelled any of that anxiety. 

Quarantine / Healthy Scratches

Mats Zuccarello / MIN, Joel Eriksson Ek / MIN, Kirill Kaprizov / MIN, Matt Boldy/ MIN, Quinn Hughes / MIN, Brock Faber / MIN, Logan Stankoven / CAR, Jared Spurgeon / MIN, Mike Matheson / MTL, Josh Anderson / MTL, Phillip Danault / MTL, Kris Kreider / ANA, Marcus Foligno / MIN, Sebastian Aho / CAR, Andrei Svechnikov / CAR, Trevor Zegras / PHI, Owen Tippet / PHI, Travis Konecny / PHI, Egor Chinakhov / PIT, Sidney Crosby / PIT, Erik Karlsson / PIT, Evgeni Malkin / PIT, Bryan Rust / PIT, Rickard Rakell / PIT, Bryan Rust / PIT, Brady Tkachuk / OTT, Thomas Chabot / OTT, Tim Stutzle / OTT, Jake Sanderson / OTT

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!