ATLANTA — It’s a go.

Paul Stastny has been given the green light to play for the Avalanche on Tuesday night against the Atlanta Thrashers at Philips Arena.

Stastny, who has missed 26 games to recover from surgery for a fractured right forearm, will center a line with Ryan Smyth and Chris Stewart.

Wojtek Wolski, who has been anchoring the top line in Stastny’s absence, will skate between Cody McLeod and Milan Hejduk.

“I’ve been looking forward to it for a while,” Stastny said Tuesday morning. “I’m going to get back in the lineup and try and help us get back on the winning track.

“I’m excited. It’s been tough watching the team play for seven weeks. Whatever I can do to help out, I’ll be doing tonight. I’m hoping to be a spark for this team.”

Stastny hasn’t played since Dec. 23. He was injured when he was hit on the arm on a shot taken by Phoenix’s Olli Jokinen while the Avalanche was killing a penalty.

Stastny underwent surgery seven days later.

Despite missing so much time, Stastny is the Avalanche’s fourth-leading scorer with 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists). He is tied with Marek Svatos for third on the team with six power-play goals.

“Paul will help in a lot of areas,” coach Tony Granato said. “His conditioning is very good. He’s skated for the past couple of weeks at a pretty good pace and looked comfortable on the ice. He’s ready to go.”

The Avalanche wasn’t about to skate Tuesday morning because arena workers were still preparing the ice for tonight’s game. The ice was taken out for a circus while the Thrashers were on a four-game trip to the West Coast.

Instead of skating, some players rode stationary bikes and others played soccer in the hallway.