Draft Player News (Feb. 2)

The Sabres are sinking quite quickly and they just can't seem to escape the news on the blog, which means their key pool players have been taken hits as well. On Wednesday night, Drew Stafford was held out of the line-up, due to a bout of the flu. This is the second time he has been out of the line-up, but it shouldn't keep him out of the line-up for any more than the game against the Rangers, which they lost in the shootout.

Stafford belongs to the 20th overall team that belongs to Wes M., a team that has made missing games a consistent notion throughout the season.  It's unfortunate, but true.  Wes is still making moves in the waiver draft, so he'll try to escape the the bottom third, if at all possible.

The Florida Panthers were also missing a player due to a bug that is going around, as Kris Versteeg was held out of the game against the Capitals on Wednesday night night. This isn't a big deal for the Panthers, who still ended up winning the game and taking the Southeast Division lead, as I would expect to see Versteeg to be back for the team's next game, Friday, at home to the Jets.

Versteeg was one of the first waiver picks of the season, taken by Ryan M. this year, and there has been a great move up the standings for Ryan, since making that pick.  Ryan is only 16 points out of the top 10, but has decided to forego the second waiver draft, either sticking with his team or giving up on catching his biggest rivals.

Now, things don't look quite as rosy for Panthers number one goalie Jose Theodore, who may have returned to the line-up from a knee injury a little too early and is now feeling the effects.  Theodore played in two games before the All-Star break, claiming that his knee was much better, but on Wednesday night, he was deemed unable to play and now there is some concern about his condition.  He's day-to-day for right now, but it's worth paying attention to.

This could be quite concerning for Wayne H., who has had his share of goaltending issues this year, with Kari Lehtonen on the shelf for a long time already once this year.  Wayne goes into Thursday's action in 5th place, holding the last money place, but he was also our pool leader for quite a while.  More goalies troubles could be huge.