Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 3)

The Detroit Red Wings welcomed both Daniel Alfredsson and Stephen Weiss to the fold officially on Wednesday night, as they debuted in the red and white jerseys against the Buffalo Sabres. Both were hindered by injuries through the preseason, but were deemed good to go for opening night and with their presence, they pulled out a 2-1 win.

Neither player registered a point, but just having them in the line-up should be good enough (for now) for Dale C. and Stuart, who has Alfie and Weiss, respectively.

The New Jersey Devils have activated their captain, Patrik Elias, from the Injured Reserve on Thursday and he is expected to be in the line-up tonight, when the team takes on the Pittsburgh Penguins to start their 2014 regular season.  Elias has been dealing with a mystery ailment, which kept him out of the last couple weeks of preseason action, but he has been given the green light to play and that is exactly what he'll do.

Good news for Chris M., who picked Elias in the 4th round of the draft, 80th overall.  If Elias has a healthy year, he could be a bargain pick-up, even from the 4th round.

The word from Pittsburgh Penguins camp is that James Neal is unlikely to go tonight in the season opener against the Devils, as he is dealing with an upper-body injury.  There were some rumblings about the injury on Wednesday and now that it is game day, it appears more and more likely that he'll be out for tonight's match-up.  So far, there is no word as to the nature or the severity of the injury, but we'll have him listed as out day-to-day, until further notice.

Neal was Dale C.'s 2nd round pick, 26th overall, this year, which is a pretty high pick to be missing games from.  Here's hoping that he'll be able to jump back in the line-up before too long.  Dale is off to a slow start, with only 2 points out of the first two nights worth of action.