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
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen / Buffalo Sabres – Luukkonen (undisclosed) was beaten by Auston Matthews in tight last night and appeared to injure himself while doing the splits and reaching back to try and make the stop. He pulled himself shortly after, and Colten Ellis came into the game in relief, backstopping the Sabres to a 7-4 victory. I was personally very unhappy about this, given he was my first goalie to start this week, and quite late into it not to mention my only one on the night. The poor get poorer, I guess. Alex Lyon is now safe until 6K can return. He and Colten Ellis should trade starts even though Lyon has been a complete workhorse for the fellas so far this year, including a shutout in his last start against the Islanders on Saturday.
William Nylander / Toronto Maple Leafs – Nylander (groin) said Monday that he hopes to return at some point during the Maple Leafs’ upcoming four-game road trip, which begins Thursday in Seattle, Terry Koshan of The Toronto Sun reports. Nylander was also just fined $5,000 by player safety for flipping the bird at a broadcast camera from the press box. Might be a bit frustrated with his situation of injury after injury given you rarely see that sort of thing out of an NHL player. Mikhail Sergachev did the same while leaving the ice last season and received nothing, mind you.
Thatcher Demko / Vancouver Canucks – Demko will undergo hip surgery and miss the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign, the Canucks announced Tuesday. I hate to say I told you so, but this one had all the markings of disaster right from the beginning of the year. Hard to blame the team or the coach for a player who has a major injury history, but he really should not have been handed a decent size load in the midst of even more injuries. Kevin Lankinen is back to number one in Vancouver and he was quite serviceable last season in the same situation, but the team in front of him is now dismal. I don’t trust their team for goalie stats at all at this point.
Dylan Guenther / Utah Mammoth – Guenther (lower body) did not play against Florida on Tuesday. After a relatively slow start for Dylan (15 PTS in 21 GP), he turned up the heat in the second quarter of the season with 21 in 21. Guenther is a big fantasy asset. He’s blasting 3.3 SOG per game this season which is up from 2.9 in 2024-25, and at just 22 years of age he’s up to 0.87 PTS/G. He’s leaned upon in Utah and that’s not going to change any time soon. He should see his powerplay points improve as well, as they are down a good chunk from last season. This is his second injury this calendar year however, having missed 12 games with a lower body injury last February.
Jordan Kyrou / St. Louis Blues – Kyrou (upper body) left and did not return to Tuesday’s game versus the Stars. He has been listed as day to day by head coach Jim Montgomery. Kyrou has been experiencing a fall off of epic proportions this season to date. His ice time has dropped in the last three years from 18:00 per game to just 16:05. His PP% is also down 10 percent over the same stretch, now a hair under 50%. With just 24 points in 43 games this year things are looking quite dire, and that stretches to the rest of the Blue’s squad as well with their highest point total on the team being put up by Pavel Buchnevich at 28 in 53 games. Injuries have certainly taken their pound of flesh from these guys. Mega yikes.
Zeev Buium / Vancouver Canucks – Buium (face) is dealing with a broken bone near his cheek and isn’t expected to be available until after the 2026 Winter Olympics, according to Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet on Tuesday. Buium, who came to the Canucks in the blockbuster Quinn Hughes trade has had a bit less fun offensively in Vancouver. He is a very gifted defender in the attacking zone and he’s only just turned 20 years old last month, so he certainly deserves some time to grow, but Vancouver definitely isn’t helping many of its players to do so lately and looks to be gearing up to ship out a bunch of veterans should the opportunities arise. Zeev has dropped from 0.45 PTS/G in Minnesota before the trade to 0.3 PTS/G in cloudy Vancouver. At least he’s in one of the prettiest Canadian cities now, so he can stare out of his window at the ocean with that thousand yard stare. The positive is that he’s receiving an extra full two minutes of time on ice with his new squad, so he may actually just be sleeping soundly when he’s at home.
Elias Lindholm / Boston Bruins – Lindholm (upper body) left and did not return to Tuesday’s game versus the Predators. Lindholm, thanks to David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie, has seen a pretty large resurgence in points this season. From 0.57 PTS/G last year with Boston, he’s now up to a very solid 0.87 pace so far this year. He’s barely shooting or hitting at all, but does produce decently on the powerplay so he’s definitely rosterable depending on your league.
Brock Boeser / Vancouver Canucks – Boeser (head) has to go through concussion protocol before being cleared to return to the lineup, Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet reports Tuesday. Bryan Rust had a moment of weakness when he cut inside of Brock full speed in front of the net, and made contact with Boeser’s head on the way by. Rust has been suspended for three games for the illegal check to the head, and Boeser will most likely pay a similar price at least. Brock had a concussion in 2019 as well, but only missed a handful of games from that one. The more blows to the head, the worse since our meat computers tend to remember trauma and shut down easier with each successive blow in order to protect themselves. I hope he’s doing alright. Brock has been struggling with the rest of his teammates fantasy wise, with only 25 points in 50 games so far.
Dan Vladar / Philadelphia Flyers – Vladar (lower body) participated in Monday’s morning skate and is set to start tonight, Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports reports. Interestingly enough, Vladar has been the make or break player for Philly this season. He’s 16-7-4 so far with a 0.905 SV% and a 2.46 GAA. His partner Samuel Ersson however, has been the breaker for them with an 8-9-5 record, an 0.860 SV% and a 3.39 GAA. I wonder if maybe Calvin Pickard or Alex Lyon could be a fit for the Flyers?
Quarantine
Simon Holmstrom / NYI
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