Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 6)

With no game on either side of Wednesday night's game against the Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks forward Teemu Selanne took a surprise night off from the line-up.  There was no indication of any injury or anything else that would suggest that Selanne's absence wasn't a healthy scratch, so I would say it's safe to assume that it was just an extra night off for the 43-year old forward.  It is quite possible that the Olympics have caught up to him as well.

The absence didn't necessarily hurt Chris in the standings last night, as he remained tied for 2nd, 3rd on the tie-breakers, but did lose some extra ground on Allan, who is in 1st place.

During the trade deadline rigamoroll, the Detroit Red Wings announced that they will be shutting down forward Pavel Datsyuk for the next three weeks, due to the nagging knee injury that he has been plagued with. The team has announced that their number one pivot won't require any surgery on his knee, but these three weeks will be for rest and he'll be re-evaluated then. The combination of all the injuries on the team right now, led to the acquisition of David Legwand from the Predators and he'll make his debut tonight.

Ryan V. won't likely lose any footing in the pool, as his 22nd place team has a 32-point gap on 23rd place, but he is only 6 points out of 20th and 10 points out of 19th.  Moving up in the standings would be a small victory, I guess.

It sounds like the season for Ottawa Senators defenseman Joe Corvo has come to an early end... in the NHL, that is. The veteran defenseman cleared waivers on Wednesday and the Senators couldn't drum up a trade for him either, so they were able to find him a spot on the Chicago Wolves roster in the AHL, where he is expected to play out the remainder of the season. The 36-year old blueliner will become an unrestricted free agent in July, but with a cap hit of only $900,000 this year, the likelihood of him signing anywhere next year seems somewhat slim.

A disappointing turn of events for Leo, who is already in last place in the standings, as he won't be getting anymore help from Corvo this year.  Corvo may have been a drop in the second Waiver Draft, but by then, Leo was already resigned to his team's fate and just let him go.

The Calgary Flames were already showcasing some of their young talented players on Wednesday night, thanks to some injuries before their game against the Ottawa Senators. Unfortunately, during that same game, they suffered a couple more injuries, which could lead to a couple more players being called up for a game or two. Forward Jiri Hudler and defenseman Dennis Wideman each suffered upper-body injuries against the Sens and were unable to return. As of Thursday afternoon, there wasn't much word on the severity of the injuries, but I would imagine if it is more serious than day-to-day, we'll have an update here before their game against the Islanders on Friday.

Not likely the news that either Ryan M. or Grant, respectively, were looking for down the stretch.  Ryan sits 14th and Grant sits 12th, going into Thursday night's action and are likely hoping for good news before Friday night's game.

The Carolina Hurricanes placed defenseman Justin Faulk on the Injured Reserve, retroactive to the weekend, so they could recall young blueliner Ryan Murphy from the minors. Faulk was injured in Sunday's game against the Anaheim Ducks and didn't return. The injury is an upper-body injury and it will keep the defender out for about 10 days and the team has concluded that the injury is not a concussion, which I suppose is good news, in the long-term sense.

One person's injury is another's good fortune, as Stacey M. will lose a defender for a few more days, while Allan gets a player back in the active line-up to help extend his lead.  Stacey now sits 8 points out of the prizes in 5th place and is only 5 points ahead of 10th... a slippery slope, indeed.

Lost in some of the hustle and bustle of the trade deadline was the absence of Martin Hanzal from the Phoenix Coyotes line-up, when they played against the Vancouver Canucks.  Hanzal is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, which has him as questionable/doubtful for Thursday night's game against the Montreal Canadiens.  Hanzal has reportedly been dealing with this injury and been getting treatment for it, so there is that chance he might try to play through it, but if the Coyotes are in the playoff mix, they may want to consider a little bit of rest, seeing as though they did acquire Martin Erat at the deadline to help offensively.

Of course, rest won't help Mike's team at all, as he sits in the pack that is just outside of the prizes, right in the mix for some glory.  Mike is having a pretty good week so far, registering 9 points and moved up a spot in the process, sitting 7th, 10 points out of the prizes.