On Tuesday night, the Buffalo Sabres lost the services of defenseman Jordan Leopold to an upper-body injury. Leopold was hurt in the 1st period and didn't return to the game. On Wednesday afternoon, the Sabres have said that he has been ruled out of any action on the weekend. I would imagine that he will be re-evaluated on Sunday or Monday and a further update will be provided, but for the time being, he'll be listed as out day-to-day.Leopold has played in 24 games for the Sabres, scoring 5 goals and 4 assists, currently ranking 270th in pool scoring.
This is one of two hits to Scott G.'s blueline, the other being a little bit further down in this post. A few games away from action won't hurt Scott too badly, but if there is anything more significant, I'm sure he'll be hoping for news before the waiver draft ends. Scott currently sits in 10th spot, 27 points out of 3rd place, going into Wednesday night's action.
The Flames squeaked past the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, but they did pay a small price for their win, as defenseman Marc Giordano left the game with a hamstring injury. There was mention on Wednesday that the injury could be somewhat significant, but there was no official word, so he'll be on the list as day-to-day for the time being, but it sounds fair to assume that he'll miss a couple weeks worth of action.Giordano has not been terribly productive for the Flames early on this season, only having 4 goals and 4 assists in 23 games, ranking 297th in pool scoring to this point.
It has not been a good waiver week for Munden G., who has yet to pick up a point in the first two nights of action. Munden has dropped down to 18th spot and is in real danger of dropping even further down in the standings. It's good timing to have the waiver draft for him, as he should improve his team, but will it be too late?
There is a new coaching regime in Carolina, but that doesn't appear to have stopped the cycle of scratching defensemen, as Jamie McBain made his return to the press box under new head coach, Kirk Muller. It's hard to say what the actual rotation will be like in the end from the new coach, but it hasn't gotten off to a good start for one player, at least. McBain has not been tearing up the Southeast Division by any means, picking up only 6 assists in 21 games this season, good enough for 394th in pool scoring.
This will count as another hiccup in the season for Allan S., who continues to struggle into Week Nine with only 2 points in two nights worth of action. Allan is down in 14th spot at the moment, but fortunately for him, the teams around him are off to slow weeks as well, but the waiver draft will likely help him out greatly as well, with a pretty good spot to pick from.
The Florida Panthers lost the services of defenseman Dimitri Kulikov on Tuesday night to a deep laceration on his leg, which was just above the boot of his skate. There was no word as to what any further evaluation has determined, as to the severity of the injury or how long it will keep the Russian defender out of the line-up, but I imagine it could be a while, given that it is considered a deep laceration.Kulikov had been enjoying a pretty good start to the season, scoring 1 goal and adding 14 assists in his first 23 games this year, providing a good start to many Panthers rushes up the ice or quarterbacking the power play. He begins action on Wednesday night in 131st in pool scoring.
This is a sizeable ding to Peter H.'s foreseeable future, as Kulikov has been his best defenseman in the early third of the season. Peter currently ranks 19th with 152 points, already falling behind quite rapidly to the money leaders. He already sits 53 points back of 4th place.
The Penguins decided to send Kristopher Letang home to Pittsburgh after he was complaining that he couldn't breathe on the ice through his broken nose. There has also been some rumblings that Letang may have also suffered a concussion when he was hit by Max Pacioretty on the weekend, a hit that cost the Habs forward three games. Letang will be re-evaluated in Pittsburgh, but it may be a bit before the official word gets out.Letang has been very good this season, even with the early absence of Sidney Crosby, scoring 3 goals and adding 16 assists, tanking among the best defensemen in pool scoring this year. As of Wednesday afternoon, he was sitting in 70th spot.
This is the second hit that Scott has taken in this post, both hits going to the blueline. Scott's defensemen have been doing well, making up for 43 points or 24% of his total points this year. That's a pretty good number to be at. Unfortunately, both injuries will put a dent in that number.
Finally, in this all-defenseman edition of the draft player news, Alex Pietrangelo sat out of the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night, thanks to a flu bug. Pietrangelo will likely be ready to go for the team's next game, which goes on Friday night, so there is some good news to this little bit. He's just day-to-day for right now.The young defenseman hasn't quite put up the numbers that some may have expected from him yet this season, scoring 4 goals and 5 assists through 23 games, but those numbers are not too bad, ranking him 278th in pool scoring to date.
The 11th place team belonging to Benson G. missed out on a Pietrangelo start, which is somewhat disappointing, since he is in the thick of the top 10 race going into Wednesday night. As for the money, he only sits 27 points back of 4th place.
On Tuesday, it was announced that Box 24 forward Andreas Nodl was claimed off of waivers by the Carolina Hurricanes, picking him up from the Philadelphia Flyers, who were looking to send him down to the minors. Nodl has been a healthy scratch on a number of occasions and has also had some troubles with some minor injury knocks, limiting his season to 12 games with the Flyers, but this claim should provide a new lease on life and he was in the line-up for the Hurricanes right away on Tuesday night, so he's already off to a good start. I don't think he will be a good pool pick-up though, having only 1 assist in 13 games now this season, he should be avoided.
The defenseman carousel may have stopped for the time being, as Box 14 defenseman Justin Braun has been sent down to the Worcester Sharks of the AHL, after what was reported as a fairly disastrous flub against the Kings on Monday night. Braun has been on a cycle with Jason Demers in the sixth defenseman spot, but with this recent demotion, it appears that Demers will likely get to remain in the spot for a little while or the foreseeable future. 
Hall has had a very good start to the 2012 season, scoring 7 goals and 11 assists in the first 22 games for the Oilers, slotting him in 69th in pool scoring after Monday night's action. He had certainly found some new chemistry with his linemates in Edmonton and he was a big reason for the Oilers' early season successes in the standings. His spot will be a tough one to fill, but it is all part of the game and Edmonton has plenty of young talent to help ease the burden left behind.
Between Hall's scoring rate and the possibility of only being out for a couple of weeks will likely see the young winger stay on Clayton C.'s team through this week's waiver draft, especially since there are a couple of other players who have worse injuries and far worse scoring rates to speak of. If you're hoping that Hall might be dropped, you may want to look elsewhere for someone to gamble on this season.
On Monday, the NHL Department of Player Safety came down on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty for his hit on Penguins defenseman Kris Letang over the weekend, a hit you can see below. Pacioretty was handed a 3-game suspension for the hit, as it was cited that he could have made a better attempt to hit Letang's body when he came across the ice to hit him, catching his head in the process.
Pronger's age isn't showing in his production, having 1 goal and 11 assists in 13 games played for the Flyers, which is good enough to rank him 195th in pool scoring and he's missed a boatload of time already. Pronger has been solid in most of the situations he's been put in, picking up points at even strength and on the power play, but the Flyers will have to wait for a month before he can get back to doing what he does best, leading this Flyers team by example.
As for the waiver draft, we have already gotten started, as the standings were pretty much sorted from the early parts of Sunday evening. Darren S. led the way by picking up Joffrey Lupul, who was the best player available, so he'll be able to pick up some extra points from a brand new forward, trying to close the gap on some of the teams ahead of him and possibly give him a chance to get a jersey prize in the second or third segment. Ryan M. made his selection shortly after, taking Kris Versteeg out of Florida, who has been having a monster start to the year and will be a great add to Ryan's team, trying to keep Darren down in last place. The last pick made on Sunday night belonged to Derek W., who took the best defenseman and arguably the best player available, Marc-Andre Bergeron, trying to shore up his blueline to start the waiver draft. Bergeron has been a machine in Tampa and was well worth the selection this early.
The title of "the year of the back-up goaltender" has been used in a number of spots in the media this season, when describing what we've seen in the creases across the NHL, but we had yet to see it in the hockey pool, until this week, where we have seen our first back-up goalie taking a Player of the Week nod. In Vancouver, it is the actual coming out party for goalie Cory Schneider, who lit up the box scores with wins and shutouts, picking up 10 points and a clear win for the title.
Schneider and the Canucks were on the road for three games in Week Eight and Schneider got the start in all three, thanks to an injury to Roberto Luongo and then a very hot hand kept him in the net, when his number one returned to the line-up and was healthy enough to be his back-up.
It was a record-setting week in the draft for Stacey C., who absolutely dominated the weekly standings and cruised up the overall standings, making everyone notice him on the way. Stacey bested the next two teams in the week by 12 points, taking the week with 47 points, moving up from 7th place to 2nd, which was absolutely mind-blowing to a lot of teams in the pool this week. It may not have been the best weeks to do this exactly, as he his waiver draft pick fell from 15th to 21st, but he will still get to improve his team and try to stay among the money teams from here on in.
Having a big weeks in the pool for Stacey were Jordan Eberle and Jimmy Howard, who each had 6 points in the week, while Valtteri Filppula had 5 points and Sam Gagner, Ryan Getzlaf, Michael Grabner, John Carlson and Ian White each had 4 points. This was amazing outputs, especially when you consider he had one zero and a couple of 1-point weeks as well, he took the weekly record by 5 points with this great combination. 
On the low end of the spectrum, it was a disastrous week for Allan S., who was sent tumbling down the standings, faster than Stacey moved up them this week. Allan's team took a weekly low of 11 points, which dropped him from the money race in 6th place, down to 14th and scrambling to gain some traction. 
On the sheet pool, the pool leader remained the same and he took a little bit more of a lead through Week Eight. Jeff E. had a monster week, taking 85 points and opening up the gap between himself and 2nd place to 27 points. The gap is still rather manageable, but does look very daunting, no matter how early it is in the season. Zac H. still sits in 2nd, while we have a new face in 3rd place, as Chris G. stormed his way up with one of the three top weeks in the pool.
Helping out towards the big week for Jeff was Brian Elliott and Tim Thomas, who each finished the week with 8 points each, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had 5 points and then picking up 4 points a piece for him were Jiri Hudler, Ian White, Joffrey Lupul and Johan Hedberg. Jeff had made five trades at the beginning of the week, shoring up some of the healthy players on his team and all five of those players picked up points for him, which was absolutely clutch.
In the afternoon game, the Montreal Canadiens will make an appearance in Hollywood to take on the Los Angeles Kings. Both teams are hitting the one-third mark of the season outside of the playoffs and both teams are in desperate need of finding some offense before too long. There may not be a great deal of history between the two teams, but since they will have to scratch and claw their way back into the playoffs, this could make for a decent game. The top player available for the waiver draft between these two clubs in David Desharnais, who currently has 13 points in 24 games for the Habs and has played some fairly good hockey for the club. He currently ranks 23rd among players available, so there is a chance he is taken this time around.
In the 5pm MT game, it looks as though we'll see the return of the Maple Leafs to our television sets, as they visit Boston to take on the Bruins. This Original Six match-up hasn't disappointed yet this season, as there is plenty of emotion in this one. Both teams are currently fighting for the top of the Northeast Division standings and both are close to the top of the Eastern Conference. There are also a couple of old storylines still to be looked over again, but I don't think I'll have to do that here. This should be a pretty good game. The best player available for the draft pool this time around is goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, who has taken most of the minutes since the loss of James Reimer and he has done well with those minutes. Gustavsson ranks 6th among players available with 17 points and he will more than certainly be gambled upon this season.
The late game will see the Battle of Alberta get renewed for the second time out of six meetings this season, the first one going to the Flames in Calgary, but the second go around will be in Edmonton, where the Oilers have been great this season. The young kids will have a bone to pick with the old boys, showing them that there is a new game in town and it isn't for the slow and aged. I think we'll see a pretty good tilt between the two clubs, especially if the Flames can get their act together, but you'll know that they will bring their A-game to a rivalry match-up like this. The top player available for the draft in this game is Shawn Horcoff, who ranks 9th among available players with 16 points. Horcoff has started to find his scoring touch, playing with a couple of the young bucks on the club, which makes him a pretty good pick-up.