Injury Updates (Sep 21, Draft Day Edition)

Today is the day... those who are in my annual hockey pool will be drafting this afternoon, so now is your last chance to bone up on some key injury news. This year will have the 10-day waiver period, where if a player of yours gets injured, you can apply to drop them and pick up a healthy player in the process, but I think I may not be as nice those players with a "preexisting condition." I'm just saying.

I have been posting injury updates on the blog, all throughout training camp and after the draft, I will only be posting injury updates for the players in the pool, just as a heads up.

News on Thursday saw the Avalanche keep the number one pick in this past Summer's entry draft, Nathan MacKinnon, off the ice for practice, due to a hip flexor problem. The reports that have been published have suggested that the Avalanche found the problem when MacKinnon reported for his physical at camp and they are now being cautious with it.

MacKinnon sounds like he'll be a lock for the Avalanche line-up, like most of the other 1st overall picks in the past few years, but a hip problem, one that could flare up through the year, is a concern for us poolies.  Buyer beware.

The breakout season, which included a Vezina Trophy, for Sergei Bobrovsky was pretty special, but after some pretty shaky years in Philadelphia, the move to the Eastern Conference, has me somewhat reluctant to say that he is going to be the same goalie in the 2014 season. That makes the back-up, in my mind, a pretty interesting player this year and one to possibly keep an eye on.  The only question is... who will it be to start the season?

Curtis McElhinney will likely start the season on the shelf with a lower-body injury and he was your best bet, and likely still is in a couple of weeks, to be the back-up, but could someone else snake the job from underneath him?

For the Red Wings, the revolving door of injuries continues to turn. Just as Johan Franzen returns to the ice for a preseason game on Friday night, the news dropped that Patrick Eaves will now miss the next 2-to-4 weeks with ligament strains in both his knee and ankle.  Also of note, Darren Helm is also slated to miss the start of the season, as he recovers from a back problem, which he has been dealing with for quite some time now.

As it kind of stands, Eaves is one of those borderline pool players that would be picked, purely on depth.  He hasn't cut the top 300 forwards in the last couple of seasons, but with how injuries are starting to turn in Detroit, someone is going to get more ice time, by the look of things, and Eaves could have been one of those guys.  Since the season is about to start, that is still true, but he won't be able to play for at least a couple of weeks, so look for him at the waiver draft, as a possibility.