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’d like to thank every single one of you for reading. Now, on to the bad (and some good) news.
Jack Hughes / New Jersey Devils – Hughes (hand) has joined the Devils for their morning skate today after cutting his hand open at a dinner in mid-November. Jack had 20 points in 17 games before his annual freak injury, and will hopefully be no worse for wear on his return to the lineup, as he has said he expects to return tonight against Buffalo at home.
J.T. Miller / New York Rangers – Miller is expected to miss some time and the Olympics could be in jeopardy for him, as per Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic. Miller was hit by Nick Seeler of Philadelphia on Saturday and he went down a bit awkwardly after, looking to favor his upper body while lying on the ice. He missed two games in late November as well for an upper body issue, and he was seen after Saturday’s game in a sling. You can find a tweet from an MD in Ian Gooding’s Ramblings speculating on the injury.
Frank Nazar / Chicago Blackhawks – Nazar (upper body) is expected to miss roughly four weeks following his injury in Saturday’s game versus the Senators, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. I feel like we’re seeing more players than ever taking pucks to the face these days. Dentists and plastic surgeons are up big right now. Speaking of that, I could use an NHL job to cover some shocking dentist and ortho bills myself and I will happily count beans or review tape 24 hours a day. Frank has 21 points in 33 games so far on the season, and has done it largely away from Connor Bedard at even strength. Tyler Bertuzzi standing in the blue paint with a golden shovel has helped a lot with that.
Seth Jarvis / Carolina Hurricanes – Jarvis (upper body) was placed on injured reserve Saturday. Jarvis was taken out while driving the net on a not-so-innocent play involving… the Panthers. He went full speed into the post, with his solar plexus and ribs taking the brunt of it. He’s gotta be quite sore today. It’s a shame that Jarvis is on such a fantasy inert team like Carolina because he could be a bangers league god if he wasn’t. 29 points in 34 games so far this season, adding 3.24 shots and 1.26 hits per game. Jarvis might be with team Canada in Milan come February if healthy, given his great performance at the Four Nations tournament.
Brandon Hagel / Tampa Bay Lightning – Hagel (upper body) was put on injured reserve Saturday, Diandra Loux of The Hockey News reported. In somewhat good news, Hagel was wearing a no-contact jersey during Sunday’s practice. Looking at Brandon’s ice time and usage since November 15 when he missed a game, I think it’s clear this issue has been bothering him since that time. He’s only been north of 19 minutes a game in roughly half of his contests since then, and was routinely over 20 minutes a game before then. Power-play time was down after the missed game as well, never really receiving 50 percent of it. He’s also only had two points in his last five games for a pretty steep drop off.
Ryan Leonard / Washington Capitals – Leonard (shoulder) is day-to-day, according to Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post on Saturday. Leonard had just put up a four points night for the first time the game before injury, leaving the next one after being pasted by Jacob Trouba. I’m excited for this player if he can start to get the deployment that matches his production. He’s still a rookie, so I wouldn’t bank on him seeing 20 minutes a night just yet. When and if he does, he could certainly be a problem as we saw in last year’s World Juniors tournament, where he posted 10 points in seven games, not to mention torching the NCAA at Boston College for two years before turning pro.
Bo Horvat / New York Islanders – Horvat (lower body) was not in the lineup for Saturday’s game versus the Sabres. The Islanders have dropped three of their last four games without their leading scorer. They seem pretty anemic on offense without him, which makes sense since he has 19 goals in 32 games this year. Bo’s going for 50, and he’s on the best season point pace of his career so far (79). Get healthy fast Bo, the boos on Long Island need to be stopped!
Jack Eichel / Vegas Golden Knights – Eichel (illness) is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and didn’t join the Knights for their two-game road trip, Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Friday. The “itis” is getting every team by now. Usually around December is when flu season is in full effect, and with teams constantly travelling by plane, train and automobile, they are dropping like flies. I don’t envy one of them. Eichel is doing Eichel things again this year with 41 points in 31 games, on pace for 108 points which should be a career high for him. He’s being propped up right now by over half a power play points per game (0.52 per game).
Tristan Jarry / Edmonton Oilers – Jarry (lower body) was placed on injured reserve Friday. Jarry tweaked something in his stilts when he pushed off on Thursday evening against Boston. Jarry still got the win, as he left with the lead. It ended up being his only start above a .900 save percentage for the Oilers so far, but he hasn’t looked bad at all. He’s been an improvement at the least. Connor Ingram gets his first NHL call up in a while after some personal struggles and long conditioning stint in AHL Bakersfield, where he hasn’t fared very well so far but does have a very young team in front of him.
Colton Ellis / Buffalo Sabres – Ellis (concussion) was said to be re-evaluated this past Friday, but we haven’t received an update as of yet from that evaluation. Concussions are fickle things and you can never tell how someone is going to react initially or how the recovery will go. As bad as it is, it solves a problem for Buffalo who just hired Jarmo Kekalainen as their GM to replace Kevyn Adams, and Jarmo said that they need to deal with their three-goalie situation. Lots of rumors surrounding Alex Lyon, considering the Sabres are high on Ellis and have a lot of money committed to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, not to mention Devon Levi in the AHL as well. I will be going into short detail in the Dobber midseason guide about the goalie situation for all 32 teams, releasing in early January so make sure you pick up your copy!
Zach Werenski / Columbus Blue Jackets – Late in one of Saturday’s late games, Werenski slowly crawled off the ice in pain after blocking a shot. However, the good news is that Werenski has no broken bones and is considered day-to-day, as per Aaron Portzline. Keep an eye on Werenski’s status for next week, though.
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!