Draft Player News (Dec. 16)

A groin injury kept Avalanche forward David Jones out of the line-up on Thursday night in San Jose. The Avalanche have made a couple of call-ups to help fill a couple of voids, including Jones', so it will be interesting to see how long Jones will be out of action for.  For now, we'll consider him out day-to-day, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was put on the Injured Reserve, just to make room for a little more help.

Jones belongs to Peter H. in the draft this season and you may say he has been a little disappointing this season, more in the sleeper sense.  14 points in 31 games has him ranked well enough to be about where he was selected, but he's the kind of player that would have been chosen as a sleeper, if I had to wager a guess.  Peter currently sits in 20th spot and is having a below-average week in Week Eleven.

The injuries continue to mount up for the Minnesota Wild, as Mikko Koivu left Wednesday night's game against the Blackhawks with a leg injury, not to return, and it looks as though he'll be missing some action because of it.  The coaching staff suggest that the injury is not too serious, but they are not expecting him to dress on Saturday night, when they play the Islanders at home.

Not good news for Niesa S., who hasn't had a great week in Week Eleven, on the other side of having a Mover and Shaker week.  Koivu has been very good for her team, which currently ranks in 8th spot in the standings, right in the thick of some of the good races, so a game or two loss may hurt a little down the stretch here.

Disappointing is probably a good word to use for describing the season that Derek Morris is having for the Coyotes in Phoenix this year. Only having 6 assists in 30 games is nowhere near where the defenseman should be with his offensive totals, as he is currently ranked 468th overall in pool scoring.  That is a good enough reason, in my opinion, to have him scratched for a game, giving someone else an opportunity to possibly help offensively.

This is just another disappointing player that Darren S. has on his side this year.  I would have guessed that Morris would have been one of his better players this season, but he certainly wasn't good enough to be taken 95th overall in the draft this year.  Darren's gap to 21st spot in the standings now stands at 23 points.

As a late scratch, the Vancouver Canucks didn't have the services of Daniel Sedin for their game against the Hurricanes, due to a sore back.  The Canucks were probably guilty of taking the Hurricanes for granted, given where their opponents were in the standings, so scratching Sedin was not much of an issue and their play on the ice really showed a lack of intensity, for whatever that's worth.

It is fair to argue that Niesa's below-average week in the pool in Week Eleven could have found some reason in a sore back from her best player to this point in the year, Sedin.  I would imagine that Sedin will be back in the line-up for Saturday night in Toronto.