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
Connor Bedard<\/a> \/ Chicago Blackhawks \u2013 Bedard (shoulder) is not expected to be on the Blackhawks\u2019 road trip through Eastern Canada, which starts Tuesday in Toronto, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Really, really bad news for the Blackhawks. As an Oilers fan, shoulder injuries plague my nightmares. We await an official update on the situation, but I find it hard to have optimism about these types of injuries healing quickly and not affecting the player afterwards. I really hope for the opposite, as Bedard has shown he still has the ability to be special this season. Connor has amassed 44 points in 31 games so far this campaign, and has fired 103 shots in goal in that time.<\/p>\n Will Smith<\/a> \/ San Jose Sharks \u2013 Smith (undisclosed) was injured versus the Penguins on Saturday, and there was no update on his status after the game, Curtis Pashelka of The San Jose Mercury News reports. After Parker Wotherspoon pasted Smith awkwardly into the boards, he caught some hands from a few Sharks players including Macklin Celebrini<\/a>. Such a display of loyalty seemed to ignite something in the team and they started a rampage to come back from a 5-1 deficit and win the game in OT. John Klingberg<\/a> went vintage on the night and had a few really nice plays including slotting home the game winner.<\/p>\n Simon Nemec<\/a> \/ New Jersey Devils \u2013 Nemec (undisclosed) sustained an injury during Friday\u2019s practice and will miss some time, Amanda Stein of the Devils\u2019 official site reports Saturday. Nemec was on a 48-point pace with only one power-play point. He\u2019s a very gifted offensive player, and he\u2019s a bit unlucky to have the likes of Dougie Hamilton<\/a> and Luke Hughes<\/a> clogging up the power-play time in New Jersey. Once Simon sees more than 30 percent of the powerplay time, it\u2019s quite apparent he\u2019s going to blossom. If Quinn Hughes<\/a> signs with the Devils in two years’ time, that goes out the window but that\u2019s nearly not even worth mentioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/a> \/ Tampa Bay Lightning \u2013 Head coach Jon Cooper said Friday that Vasilevskiy (undisclosed) could return to action Monday against the Panthers, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Jonas Johansson<\/a>\u2018s run as starter is coming to an end soon. After going winless in his first five games, Andrei has since more than made up for it by winning 11 of his last 14. He\u2019s only had a save percentage of under .900 in 4 games this season, and three of them were in that first five games stretch.<\/p>\n Jared McCann<\/a> \/ Seattle Kraken \u2013 McCann (lower body) is dealing with an injury that will sideline him for at least three weeks, the team announced Friday. McCann has had an awful season for injuries considering he missed 17 games not too long ago. He\u2019s now slated to miss roughly another 10 games if he returns on January 2 at the three-week mark. Jared has five goals and eight points through his 11 games in the lineup this season.<\/p>\n Bo Horvat<\/a> \/ New York Islanders \u2013 Horvat (lower body) remains day-to-day and did not face the Lightning on Saturday. It\u2019s now been said that Horvat could be out between one to three weeks with this latest knock per Stephen Rosner of NHL.com. Bo is putting together the best season of his career suddenly. He\u2019s on pace for 79 points through a full season and seeing 72 percent of team power-play time. His shooting percentage is a tad high at 17.0 percent but he\u2019s had multiple seasons above 16.0 in his career so with the Islanders stronger offensive play this year, it\u2019s not impossible that he keeps it up.<\/p>\n Logan Cooley<\/a> \/ Utah Mammoth \u2013 Cooley (lower body) was announced Thursday to be out for a minimum of eight weeks. The crash into the post that caused the injury for Cooley didn\u2019t look good at all, but apparently, he has missed out on the worst outcome. Cooley\u2019s numbers have taken half a step back from last season, but it\u2019s come in two five-game waves and the rest still looks good.<\/p>\n Marco Rossi<\/a> \/ Vancouver Canucks \u2013 Prior to their early game on Sunday, the Canucks announced that newly acquired Rossi has been activated from IR. Rossi had been out for the past month with a lower-body injury. Acquired in the Quinn Hughes<\/a> trade, Rossi was seen practicing with the Canucks’ top power play on Saturday, which makes sense given that Elias Pettersson<\/a> is sidelined and the Canucks are thin at centre (more below).<\/p>\n Elias Pettersson<\/a> \/ Vancouver Canucks \u2013 The Canucks also announced that Pettersson has been placed on IR retroactive to December 5. Pettersson has been dealing with an upper-body injury. Backdating the IR designation means that Pettersson could theoretically return soon, but no projected return date has been reported. <\/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