Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 18)

A bite from the travelling flu bug knocked Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Fedor Tyutin out of the line-up on Friday night, as they got set to take on the Washington Capitals.  The Jackets are saying that it is the flu and that he is day-to-day and there is a good likelihood that he could dress for the game in Buffalo this evening.  Tyutin has 19 points in 44 games for the Blue Jackets this season, which is a decent scoring rate from the blueline, but he has now been scratched for four games already this year for various reasons.

Leo, this season, has a very below-average defense corps this year, having only 59 points, which doesn't exactly make up for a pool worst in forwards, earning only 164 points.  It has been a rough year for the 'next best option' team, picked at the draft in September.

Looks like this will be the last time that David Clarkson gets a mention on the hockey pool blog, as he has been dropped by Wes, in a failed Waiver Draft experiment in Week Eight.  Clarkson was placed on the Injured Reserve with a bursa sac injury in his elbow, which will require some attention and likely a fair bit of time off.  It is a good thing that Wes had dropped Clarkson in the second Waiver Draft this week, or else he would have been stuck with another injured body for a significant period of time.

In the eight weeks that Clarkson was active on Wes' team, he played in 22 games, scoring 1 goal and 2 assists, not even making up 1% of Wes' total points this season.

In somewhat of a fluke incident, Kris Versteeg of the Chicago Blackhawks collided with a teammate and the buzzer to end the 2nd period against the Anaheim Ducks and was forced to leave the game, with what is believed to be an arm injury.  It appeared to be a harmless situation of one player unsure of which direction to skate around the net, both ending up going the same way and crashing into the boards, only at a moderate rate of speed.  The team is looking to evaluate him on Saturday and his availability for Sunday's game, home to Boston, will be in question.

Another Waiver Draft pick-up in Week Eight, this time for Scott, is sitting in the midst of the prize race and could really use Versteeg back in the line-up on Sunday.  In 26 games since being picked up, Versteeg has 6 goals and 7 assists for Scott.