Second Waiver Draft has Begun

Well, we're slowly but surely getting through the second Waiver Draft and I thought I would go over some of the stats that we've seen over the past couple seasons. Some of the numbers are surprising to how similar they are across the past few seasons. So, much like the first Waiver Draft this season, I thought I would compare the picks and where they finished in the end, just in case you were wondering how you might finish. It's important to know these things, right?

It's important to note that for all three seasons, the number of weeks for the periods have changed from season-to-season, so there is that. This year, we've seen 15 weeks of action to determine the order in which we pick, a week to pick, then 10 weeks of action left in the season. The two seasons previous, we had 9 weeks of action to finish the season and a week or two more of action before we assigned picks. Thanks to the Olympics, we had to do it.

First pick has to come from last place in the pool and John P. made a last ditch effort to drop down to the bottom. So, saying that, he ended up dropping Artem Anisimov of the Rangers and he picked up the best available forward in the Draft, Antoine Vermette of the Blue Jackets. Anisimov was a highly-touted rookie at the beginning of the year, but really didn't score as much as he did in the preseason, hence the drop. Vermette has been hot of late for the Jackets, so John might be able to make up some ground, but don't count on a win or money.

John currently sits 132 points out of the lead, which is the smallest deficit we've seen in the past few years from last place. Grant was 149 points behind in 2009 and Ryan was 174 points behind in 2008, neither of which ever recovered and they spent the last 9 weeks in last.

In John B.'s lowest standing going into the second Waiver Draft of the season, he also decided to move a forward out of his team and take a new one in. He decided to drop the newly-healthy Valtteri Filppula of the Red Wings to pick up Mason Raymond of the Canucks, who has been put on a potent line with Ryan Kesler and Mikael Samuelsson. Certainly not a bad move from his part at all. Filppula has dealt with injuries, like most of the other scoring Red Wings and Raymond has been healthy.

Coming from the 16th spot doesn't really give a great deal of hope either. Although, both seasons before this, the 16th place team does move up to 15th, so a pattern may develop, thanks to the wonderful Waiver Draft pick that they get. Last year, Dennis finished only 140 points out of 1st place and John B. is 120 points out with 9 weeks to go. Interesting test of picks.

The last pick I have received so far came from Trevor, one of our resident Red Wings fans this year. He thought he would just keep his faith in the team going by trading one Detroit player for another in the Waiver Draft. He decided to drop recent press box resident, Ville Leino, another disappointing rookie, for Todd Bertuzzi, who has shown some flashes of scoring touch of late and likely has a better shot at keeping that up, since he had it in the first place. Bertuzzi didn't really rank very well in the available players, this is just a heart move to keep cheering on the team.

The 15th place teams don't fare much better in the standings when its all said and done. 2009, Dale B. finished 16th, 200 points out of 1st, while in 2008, Aaron finished 14th, 205 points out of 1st. Trevor goes into the last segment 118 points out and a faith in team rather than pool pick does make it a bit more questionable.

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