Injury Updates (Sep 18)

With well over a week to go before the season starts, the Canadiens have got some good news, as their captain, Brian Gionta, has now been given some clearance to take contact, as he moves towards starting on opening night.  Gionta has been on the shelf with an arm injury, which has kept him out of training camp thus far, but it sounds like he should be good to go right away.

This is also good news for us poolies, as I have Gionta projected for a good year and 50 points and if he can go on opening night, he should be good to go.  No projection changes are due, unless there are some setbacks.

In Tuesday night's split squad game against the Flames, in Calgary, Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck left the game with an injury after colliding with defenseman Dennis Wideman. Clutterbuck has reportedly suffered a skate laceration and is expected to miss an extended period of time, which is not good news for the Isles.

Clutterbuck joined Long Island in a deal that sent Nino Niederreiter to the Minnesota Wild and Clutterbuck was expected to add some significant jam to a club, that may have lacked that X-factor, when they finally made the playoffs last season after a long absence.

I had Clutterbuck as a borderline pick for this season's pool draft, considering about 25 people in the draft and he would have been a deep pick.  With this injury, I have him dropped out of contention, since these lacerations have been known to be extremely long-term, if it was indeed deep.

An update to Joffrey Lupul... he has returned to the ice after missing the first part of training camp with a back problem. The oft-injured forward is really under the microscope, as we move towards the draft this weekend. He is all about the risk versus reward for the hockey pool and you have to be aware that he comes with those risks when taking him. He is back, he is with the top line, so you can take it from there.