Thus Far, in the First Round

Well, we managed to make it through eight picks in the first round and we're poised to make a couple more quick ones, with a dash of delay, likely in the afternoon. It would be super-sweet if we managed to finish the first round here on Tuesday, but I will reserve my hope for a little bit later on in the day. There is still plenty more to hope for here. So, I thought I would give a quick recap of what's happened in the Waiver Draft so far... just because it's a little quiet here in the office this morning.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that Scott Clemmensen of the Devils went first in the Draft to Grant, he's been getting (and winning!) his starts in New Jersey and he does potentially have another 6-8 weeks left before Martin Brodeur comes back from his bicep injury. Even with that much time left on the shelf, Dennis decided that Brodeur would be a good fit for his team, instead of keeping Mathieu Garon, who was dealt to Pittsburgh not long ago. It does look (from the outside looking in) like Clemmensen will get more regular season starts than Brodeur, but Brodeur is coming along quite well with his injury, but that doesn't mean he's ahead of schedule... yet.

Going third in the pool this time around was Manny Fernandez of the Bruins to Dale B., as he's been managing to get some quality starts behind Tim Thomas this year. Fernandez has been troubled by a bit of a back spasm bout, but it shouldn't be long before he's back at it. Fernandez, like the rest of the Waiver Draft pick-ups, won't be active until Monday, so there is plenty of time to get over that.

The prized forward of the Draft actually turned out to be Bobby Ryan, who did have the best points-per-game ratio of all the forwards in the Top 23 heading into the week, at just under 1.00. Ryan was sent down to the minors in the early part of the season as a cap casualty, but when injuries began to pop up, his number was called first and he began to show why he was a number two pick overall in the Draft. Luckily for Larry, Ryan wasn't snapped up really early, as goalies were the flavour of the first three picks in the Draft.

For Chris, he wanted a bit more veteran flavour on his team, as he went with Mats Sundin, who already has seven games under his belt this year, after signing a mid-season deal with the Canucks. Chris was awfully surprised to hear that Sundin was still available at the fifth pick, so he made sure he snapped him up. There was some indication that if Shanahan is available in the 22nd pick, he could have both savvy veterans on his team.

Also taken from the surprise column, it took six picks to finally take the top scoring available forward in the Draft, Tomas Zajac. Don snapped him up in the first round, dropping former rookie leader, Derrick Brassard, who had a season-ending shoulder injury nine games after being pick in the first Waiver Draft. Zajac has been enjoying a great offensive season with 36 points in 47 games, playing alongside Zach Parise in New Jersey. Zajac's selection made three Devils taken in the first six picks and there is still at least one more that can go in this first round.

With the seventh pick in the Draft, Wes decided to drop long-term injury, Marco Sturm, to pick up new Flames dynamo, Rene Bourque. Bourque has been a shot in the arm for the Flames this season, providing the team with some good checking and good second or third line scoring. Bourque entered the Waiver Draft with 31 points in 46 games for Calgary, putting him in sixth amongst available forwards.

Finally on Monday, Derek needed more goaltending minutes, as Pascal Leclaire has gone down to a serious ankle injury, so Derek took on Jonas Hiller, who has taken quite a good number of minutes away from J-S Giguere in Anaheim this year. Hiller was the third ranked goaltender in the available list, with 11 wins and 4 shutouts, with only the fourth highest amount of minutes. That does make for some good economy for your nimutes. This could mean some good things for Derek.

First up on the docket for Tuesday morning is John P., who may be looking for a new forward to help him vault back into the money race.

Click here to see an updated Waiver Draft page.