Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone. Merry Christmas Eve and Happy holidays! Welcome back to the Injury Ward. My name is Logan Clarkson and every Wednesday and Sunday I will be sleighing 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.
Leo Carlsson / Anaheim Ducks – Carlsson (lower body) is day-to-day and missed the Ducks’ game against Seattle on Monday. Carlsson has turned into one of the most important players on Anaheim this season and has pretty much doubled his points per game pace from last season, sitting at a blistering 1.14 per game right now. That’s including zero points in his last three. He was leading the league for a bit there, which absolutely no one had on their bingo cards.
Seth Jarvis / Carolina Hurricanes – Jarvis (upper body) is week-to-week, the team announced Monday. Jarvis had his legs taken out with a stick as he drove the net last week in overtime against Florida. He took the near post directly to the stomach/sternum area and wrapped around it like a Ford Escort hitting a country strong wooden light pole. Jarvis was on a 70-point pace over the full season, and his potential is great, it’s just limited in the Carolina system.
Elias Pettersson / Vancouver Canucks – Pettersson (upper body) participated in the morning skate on Monday but didn’t play against Philadelphia that night. It’s possible he returns coming out of the break, and boy is he sorely missed. Can’t imagine he’s too pumped to come back to a team now missing Quinn Hughes, but they didn’t just get a slap in the face for him, Zeev Buium has taken his spot.
Ilya Sorokin / New York Islanders – The Islanders announced Monday that Sorokin has a “small nagging issue” and will be sidelined through the league’s holiday break to rest. Sorokin has the lowest quality start percentage of his career so far this season at 41.7 percent. His lowest in any season before that was a 58.9. He should bounce back closer to that number so he could be in for a better end to the year, and New York has some players returning as well.
Tristan Jarry / Edmonton Oilers – Head coach Kris Knoblauch said Sunday that Jarry (lower body) is expected to miss a few weeks, Ryan Rishaug of TSN reports. Jarry had won his first two starts for the Oilers albeit with a save percentage below 0.900, and he has more competition now. Connor Ingram came up from the AHL and has done the same but with a considerably higher save percentage. The Oilers may have solved their goaltending with a brand new 1A-1B situation. Add to that, some soft rumors about Marc-Andre Fleury being offered a spot and who knows where this goes.
Vince Dunn/ Seattle Kraken – Dunn (upper body) was not in the lineup versus the Kings on Tuesday. Dunn is experiencing his slowest season for points in the last four with 19 in 34 games. Oddly enough, he’s hitting career high rates for PPP per game, as well as SOG per game.
Jack Eichel / Vegas Golden Knights – Eichel (lower body) is still day-to-day and did not play against San Jose on Tuesday. Eichel’s now missed four games in a row. Vegas is unfortunately only 1-2-1 in that stretch and Jack is definitely their most important player, as if that was ever a question. He’d recently filled the goal for nine points over the last five, adding 14 shots on goal, seven blocks and six hits.
Adin Hill / Vegas Golden Knights – Hill (lower body) is still considered week-to-week, according to head coach Bruce Cassidy on Tuesday, Jesse Granger of The Athletic reports. Hill has had a nightmare season so far, having one win in five starts to go with an 0.888 save percentage. He’s been out of the lineup since the second week of the year and I myself dropped him long ago, needing the IR space. Hard to hold onto a guy whose spot is hardly guaranteed, with Carter Hart and Akira Schmid doing quite well for the squad since his exit.
Will Smith / San Jose Sharks – Smith (upper body) is week-to-week, per Max Miller of NHL.com on Monday. Smith went out of the lineup after a bit of a cold streak having only two points in his last six games. Smith was seen out of his sling that he was wearing prior but unfortunately with the Christmas break, is still being slowly rolled back into the lineup. I have to agree with letting players take their time to return. Toronto seems to be a team that is having problems with some of their top guys, and I think it has a lot to do with them playing injured.
Zach Werenski / Columbus Blue Jackets – Werenski missed the Jackets’ game on Monday against the Kings, and funny enough it was the first game this season that Columbus managed to score three powerplay goals in a single outing. I say that’s funny because Zach has 10 points in his last five games, and is on a 94-point pace over a full season so far this year. His x-rays apparently came back negative, so hopefully that means he’s not out of the lineup for long.
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!