Draft Player News (Dec. 9)

Ducks forward Saku Koivu left Thursday night's game against the Blues with a lower-body injury in the 2nd period and didn't return to the game. There was no immediate word as to the severity of the injury early on Friday morning, but I'm sure there will be something in the next day or so. The Ducks play again on Saturday evening in Nashville, so we should hear something before then. If the injury is more significant than day-to-day, then there will be an updating post, but if it is a day-to-day thing, we'll just leave it as this.

Jani K, who sits in 12th place through Thursday's action, is hoping for the least amount of time missed as possible.  Koivu hasn't been one of his better forwards, but he has been good enough to provide some decent support to his players and team.  Jani currently sits 34 points out of the money, going into Friday's action.

It was a return to the press box for Blackhawks defenseman Sean O'Donnell, who has been no stranger to the notion this year. The Blackhawks have not been terribly consistent in their defensive play to this point in the year, but changing rearguards isn't exactly the best way to get consistent, but they need something to start working for them this season.

Surprisingly, O'Donnell was not a waiver draft drop for Munden G. in the draft this year, but he obviously felt that there were bigger fish to fry in that regard.  His team is on the verge of going up a spot in the standings or down a little bit more, sitting in 18th spot at the moment, hoping that his waiver draft moves pay off soon.

In what looks like a scarier situation than the team will let on, the Colorado Avalanche were without defenseman Ryan Wilson on Thursday night against the Flames, due to a head injury. Wilson suffered the injury in practice on Wednesday and was complaining about having some vision problems.  He will be considered to be day-to-day for now, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something more to this.

Wilson was one of Benson G.'s waiver draft pick-ups last week and this just doesn't bode well for the his team, which is struggling to hang on to a top 10 spot in the standings at the moment.  If Wilson can get back in the line-up before too long, there won't be much worry, but the potential to be hurtful is certainly there and worth keeping an eye on (pardon the pun).

As a precautionary measure, the Red Wings held centre Pavel Datsyuk out of the 3rd period of their game against the Coyotes, as he was dealing with a minor lower-body knock.  The coaching staff feels like that Datsyuk will not be missing out on any action in upcoming games, they just felt that it would be better to rest him, especially when they were carrying a comfortable lead into the final frame of the game.  The Red Wings host the Jets on Saturday, where we should expect Datsyuk to play.

I'm sure Dale B. will take those precautionary measures to keep one of his best players healthy for the long-term, especially after he did register a couple of points on Thursday night.  Dale is a part of the current dogfight in the money positions, currently sitting just outside the money in 5th spot, only 3 points back of 4th and 5 points back of 3rd.  He should be able to carry on just fine.

The Senators lost the services of defenseman Sergei Gonchar on Thursday night to an upper-body injury, to which he didn't return to the game.  There was no immediate word as to the significance of the injury on Friday morning, but there will likely be more word when the team hits the ice for their practice later on in the day.  The Senators host the Canucks on Saturday evening and they would likely want to have one of their top defensemen healthy for this game.

Gonchar belongs to the other Dale in the pool, Dale C., who does occupy one of the money spots in the draft standings on Friday morning.  Dale currently sits in 4th spot going into Friday's action, 2 points out of 3rd place.  Since there is no word on the injury, there cannot be any real speculation for the impact on Dale's team.

A touch of the flu was enough to keep Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk out of the line-up for Thursday night against the Ducks. We should be considering the young puck-moving defenseman day-to-day at this point, likely being ready to go for Saturday night, when the Blues host the Sharks.  I suppose there is a small chance that Shattenkirk would not be ready to go, but if it is just the regular flu, he should be okay to go on the weekend.

Shattenkirk belongs to Ryan M. in the pool this season, who sits in 21st position in the standings at the moment and is currently holding the Basement Dweller position in weekly scoring with only 8 points through Thursday night's action, the only team to be in single digits at this point in the week.  There are still a few teams he can catch, so he'll need a big weekend from some of his guys.