Sheet Player News (Jan. 20)

With the return of Brad Marchand to the Bruins' line-up from his 5-game suspension, this will mean that Box 25 forward Jordan Caron will have to wait for another shot to crack the full-time roster. On Friday morning, Caron was sent back to Providence of the AHL with non-pool defenseman Steve Kampfer, both looking to get a little bit more ice-time down the stretch, just in case they will be needed.  Caron and Kampfer have led the team in healthy scratches this season, but their role of filling in for injuries is still somewhat valuable, but not in the fantasy pool ways.

I still haven't found the exact reason why Box 11 defenseman Anton Babchuk was out of the Flames line-up for their game against the Kings on Thursday night, but it appears to be a healthy scratch.  Babchuk has yet to score a goal for the Flames this season and that is one of the biggest reasons he is on the team, for using his big shot from the point to light the lamp.  The criticism he had at the beginning of the year was that he wasn't shooting the puck and in the four games before Thursday night's game, Babchuk had only had three shots on net.  I would imagine that a healthy scratch is about right for this kind of production.

Bad news for New Jersey Devils defenseman Henrik Tallinder, as the team announced on Thursday evening that he will be out for the next 6-to-8 weeks with acute thrombophlebitis of the lower left leg, which is more of a blood clotting issue in the leg, not necessarily new to the league, but it's not a pretty diagnosis or word to say.  The veteran defenseman has 6 assists in 39 games for the Devils, which isn't enough to really make a mark in Box 27, but you still hope that he gets better soon.  His scheduled return to the game should be in mid-March, if the diagnosis rings true.

The Devils have had their injury problems up front, not to mention the blueline, which has given Mattias Tedenby quite a good stretch of games since the early parts of the year, but with Jacob Josefson back from the IR and a conditioning stint and Adam Henrique back from a minor groin injury, Tedenby appears to be the odd-man out of the line-up at the moment, as the Box 22 youngster was the healthy scratch on Thursday night, when the team took on the Bruins.  Tedenby has 6 points in 43 games this year for the Devils, which isn't going to cut it and I wouldn't be surprised if he found some time in the minors before too long.

The San Jose Sharks have agreed with Box 16 goalie Antero Niittymaki that the veteran keeper would spend some time in the AHL, on a conditioning stint, to help showcase his health in order to facilitate a trade to a team in need of some goaltending help.  Niittymaki had off-season hip surgery and he was deemed good to go almost a month ago, but with the combination of Antti Niemi and Thomas Greiss doing acceptable work for the team already, there was no need for Niittymaki's services.  The Sharks will be good enough to help him find somewhere to play, but it might be easier said than done.

On Thursday night, the Sharks activated defenseman Colin White from the Injured Reserve, healthy from a lower-body injury, and it was Box 12 defenseman Jason Demers, who had drawn the short straw, likely with some of his recent performances, 0 points and a -1 rating in his last five games.  Demers has been somewhat disappointing this season, after a couple of seasons where he had shown some real promise, but he has yet to fulfil some of those lofty expectations that he had earned himself.  It's hard to say how long Demers may be in the press box, but it couldn't really be for long, could it?

The Maple Leafs have seemingly made their decision as to who is their more-permanent seventh defenseman is going to be for the rest of the season and it appears it will be Keith Aulie, who was scratched in favour of another forward on Thursday night, with the Wild in town.  Aulie only has 1 assist in 15 games this season and never really came around offensively, like Cody Franson has this year, the player with whom he was competing with for the sixth defenseman spot.  Aulie is more of a stay-at-home defenseman with a physical upside, but his offensive game at the NHL level is still to develop, so he'll sit more often when the Leafs only want to dress six blueliners.