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\u2019d like to thank every single one of you for reading. Now, on to the bad (and some good) news.<\/p>\n
Logan Cooley<\/a> \/ Utah Mammoth \u2013 Cooley (lower body) is out indefinitely, the team announced Monday. What a crap break for the Mammoth and Logan, as they barely hang on to the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. Lots of season to go but they\u2019re going to need all the help they can get. Cooley was in the midst of matching his coldest streak of the season, having no points in his last four games. Hopefully he can come back a bit stronger and improve on that 0.87 point per game pace from last year. Barrett Hayton<\/a> is the one to watch, filling in for Cooley on the top line.<\/p>\n Thatcher Demko<\/a> \/ Vancouver Canucks \u2013 Demko (lower body) could be ready to play against the Sabres on Thursday after head coach Adam Foote told reporters, \u201cWell, there\u2019s a large percentage that Demko will be going Thursday, probably,\u201d per Canucks Army. Thatcher is nearly ready to come back into the lineup to catch his next ailment. Kidding, but as I\u2019ve said before I have no faith in his continued health. It\u2019s sad to see the promise he has, be continually stymied at every turn, and we can only assume it\u2019s a huge mental battle as well with him being so young.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elias Pettersson<\/a> \/ Vancouver Canucks \u2013 Pettersson (upper body) could return to practice Wednesday, and the Canucks play Thursday at home against the Sabres so it\u2019s possible he returns alongside Thatcher Demko<\/a>. Pettersson had a very slow start to the year but had some good peripherals to take the sting away. Elias turned it on for the month of November and has since slowed his roll a bit again. With all the rumors swirling around Vancouver about Quinn Hughes<\/a> and pretty well every other player, I might try to sell somewhat high on him myself before they almost certainly lose their most important player(s).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott Wedgewood<\/a> \/ Colorado Avalanche \u2013 Wedgewood was forced to leave the shootout of Tuesday\u2019s game versus the Predators after a collision during one of Nashville\u2019s attempts, Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports reports. A weird one for Wedgewood, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen or heard of a goalie leaving the game in the shootout. Wedgewood was piled into by Filip Forsberg<\/a> who caught an edge on Nashville\u2019s second attempt. He was driven backwards while in full splits, taking a shoulder to the head and going down like a piece of laminate flooring. Wedgewood stayed in to face the next shooter after softening Forsberg\u2019s fall. He made the save, but left the game after, while Mackenzie Blackwood<\/a> came in to watch Gabriel Landeskog<\/a> fail in his attempt to keep the game going. Not sure who gets the loss in their record, that\u2019s a weird one.\u00a0<\/p>\n Evgeni Malkin<\/a> \/ Pittsburgh Penguins \u2013 Malkin (upper body) was designated for injured reserve Tuesday. He missed the Pens’ game on December 7th and is slated to be on the shelf for at least another seven days following the designation. Malkin has completely turned back the clock thus far in the 2025-26 season. He\u2019s posted 29 points in 26 games, good for a 91 points pace. To put that into perspective, he hasn\u2019t touched numbers like that since 2019-20 when he touched a 110 point pace. Add to it being a -24 last year in 68 games played (I know it\u2019s a nearly useless stat), and it\u2019s already looking like a huge win for whoever took the risk on him in their drafts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jason Zucker<\/a> \/ Buffalo Sabres \u2013 Zucker sustained a lower body injury against the Flames on Monday and \u201cwill miss some time,\u201d according to head coach Lindy Ruff, per WGR Sports Radio 550. Zucker was supposed to be my ace waiver pick up this week, and he had a great start to that effect after posting two powerplay assists on Monday against Calgary in a 7-4 drubbing that Buffalo was handed. He took a knock on that game unfortunately and was ousted to the spare parts bin (IR).\u00a0<\/p>\n Victor Hedman<\/a> \/ Tampa Bay Lightning \u2013 Hedman (undisclosed) did not return to Tuesday\u2019s game versus the Canadiens after leaving the Lightnings’ 6-1 trouncing of the Canadiens at the Bell Center. Darren Raddysh<\/a> owners everywhere rejoice, and would happily dance on the grave of this man\u2019s career if he were to go out for good. Raddysh has seen no less than 70 percent of the Lightnings\u2019 powerplay time since November 8th, and is usually a good bit higher than. Hedman has only missed five games in that timeframe, and has had a whopping three seconds of powerplay time since he returned from injury three games ago, so if he is only having his time limited due to a nagging injury, this will not at all help to him get back on that first unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lukas Dostal<\/a> \/ Anaheim Ducks \u2013 Dostal (upper body) is traveling with the Ducks on their five-game road trip, which began Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Derek Lee of The Hockey News reports. Good news for Anaheim, bad news for Ville Husso<\/a>. Husso has wins in his last three starts, the most recent two being quality starts including a 44 save 4-3 shootout win over Pittsburgh Tuesday night. Dostal has been out of the lineup since November 22nd and may need a week or two to get up to speed so splitting starts could be a thing in the short term. Lukas started 17 of Anaheim\u2019s 22 games before injury so they may also want to keep him fresh if they can continue to hang onto a playoff spot in the West. whichIm sure\u00a0 they would probably consider that to be very doable since they\u2019re sitting in first place in the Pacific Division at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Josh Norris<\/a> \/ Buffalo Sabres \u2013 Norris missed Tuesday\u2019s game versus the Oilers due to both illness and soreness, Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic reports. Better news than we all expected for Norris, who has only been able to play in five games so far this year, missing nearly the entire month of October, and actually missing the full month of November. He\u2019s been on a tear since coming back at least, with eight points in four games since being held off the scoresheet in his first game back from his prior injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mats Zuccarello<\/a> \/ Minnesota Wild \u2013 Head coach John Hynes stated that Zuccarello (undisclosed) is \u201cdoing okay,\u201d but he didn\u2019t have a timeline for the winger, Sarah McLellan of The Minnesota Star Tribune reports Monday. This one was a tough watch, as Zucc got put into the tilt-a-whirl. He started to cut into the middle before the Blueline and Vince Dunn<\/a> did his best impression of a homing missile and locked onto his chest perfectly on impact. The slow motion video is genuinely impressive, when you see just how perfect Dunn’s tracking for the hit was. Like leading a sheep to slaughter. Hope Zuccarello is okay, I might light a candle or two for him after that one.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jack Roslovic<\/a> \/ Edmonton Oilers \u2013 The Oilers announced Monday that Roslovic (undisclosed) will likely be in the mix to return around Christmas, Tony Brar of Oilers TV reports. It seems like all the Oilers needed was to lose their best performing forward over the last two months, in order to turn on the jets. They did lose to Buffalo on Tuesday, but a literal last second goal from McDavid got them a point before losing in overtime. Roslovic has been a great fit in Edmonton, and only went pointless in three of his 15 games, for 17 points since October 25th.\u00a0<\/p>\n Charlie McAvoy<\/a> \/ Boston Bruins \u2013 McAvoy (face) will travel with the Bruins ahead of their three-game road trip that begins Tuesday in St. Louis, and he hopes to return at some point during the trip, Scott McLaughlin of WEEI reported. McAvoy took that puck straight to the mouth weeks ago and in a gruesome replay you can see a row of his teeth hit the ejection seat, with no parachutes in sight. Charlie was on pace for 60 points before the hiccup, which would have been his highest point total in his career but he\u2019s never played more than 78 games so that doesn\u2019t help. He will return to nearly 24 minutes a night at all strengths including the top powerplay.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thanks again for reading, and please give me a follow, you can find me here on Twitter<\/a>\/X @LOGoalz<\/a> for any questions, concerns, or abuse you may want to shower me with. Have a great week people!<\/p>\n