Player Notes in the Draft (Apr 5)

Three Anaheim Ducks have found themselves in the press box at some time or another this week, as the team vies for top spot in the Pacific Division, looking for some home-ice advantage in the playoffs. Defenseman Sami Vatanen has been a scratch for the better part of the week, coming out of the line-up for Wednesday night's game and not playing on Friday night. Daniel Winnik was scratched for Wednesday's game, but jumped back in for Friday's loss to the Predators. Coming out for Friday's game was young forward Jakob Silfverberg. It looks like the coaching staff is trying to get an extra push out of the younger players, but with Friday's result, it may need to be a bigger push soon.

There are some money implications here, as Wilton has Vatanen and sits in 3rd place, while Stacey M., who is in 5th has Silfverberg and Dale C., 6th place, has Winnik.  Players coming out of the line-up in the late part of the race will make for some serious white-knuckling to the finish.

Just when I think the Bruins may be slowing that carousel for blueliners down, Andrej Meszaros becomes a scratch again and the spinning continues.  This is nothing new to their line-up, but since I had to put him back on the news page, I had to give him a new link to click on.

On another note for the Bruins, Jarome Iginla missed his first regular season game in quite some time, as a lower-body injury forced him out of one mid-week game.  On Thursday, however, he returned to the line-up and was the regular force that he has been this season.  The scratch was likely just precautionary and if it was a playoff situation, he would have likely played.

Not much impact on the money here, as both Meszaros and Iginla belong to teams outside of the money, Wes and Wyllie, respectively.  Wes sits in 14th and Wyllie is currently the leader for the Basement Dweller of the Week, down in 18th.

A lower-body injury has sidelined Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Andrej Sekera this week, as he sat out of Thursday night's contest against the Dallas Stars.  Sekera has been one of the brighter spots on a dull season for Carolina, as the rearguard has posted some respectable numbers, 11 goals and 33 assists in 74 games, scoring at over half a point-per-game this season, which is good for a defenseman, especially one playing on an inconsistent Carolina team.  He is listed as out day-to-day for right now and doesn't expect to dress on Saturday.

Another tough loss to the line-up for Dale C., who has been dropping games this week in his chase for the top four.  Sekera was a 2nd round pick in the first Waiver Draft this season for Dale, collecting 33 points in 50 games.  Dale goes into Saturday in 6th place, 6 points out of 4th.

The Detroit Red Wings are now clinging to their playoff lives and a streak that is over two decades long of being in the playoffs, but injuries have been the bane of their season.  Earlier in the week, Daniel Alfredsson missed out on another game this year with a lower-body injury, but it was the only game he missed in the week, as he did return on Friday night, as did Pavel Datsyuk, as the team begins to get healthier for one last push in Week Twenty-Six.  Alfredsson was a productive member of the team on Friday night against the Sabres, scoring a goal and adding an assist.

More concern for Dale C. down the stretch, as I would have to believe that Alfie isn't 100% heading into the last week of the regular season and the playoffs.  We know where Dale is in the standings and he'll need Alfredsson to improve upon his 47 points in 64 games this season for him to move up any more.

It sounds like back problems are plaguing Florida Panthers forward Brad Boyes, as he had left Tuesday's game against Long Island after only five shifts and then didn't dress on Friday night, against the Calgary Flames.  Boyes had been finding some new life with the Panthers in 2014, scoring 20 goals again in his career, plus adding another 14 assists in 75 games.  It wouldn't surprise me if the Panthers shut down Boyes for the last week of the season, possibly to rest up, while the team plays out the remainder of the year without a playoff push.

Boyes was a Waiver Draft pick up for Tony this season, but he couldn't rescue Tony's team from the depths below 20th place in the standings.  There is no immediate money impact here.

There's no question that the Los Angeles Kings organization breathed a heavy sigh of relief, when the news came down that Drew Doughty may be able to play Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks.  Doughty was hurt on Thursday night against the San Jose Sharks, leaving the game with an upper-body injury, believed to be a shoulder injury.  Doughty was listed as out day-to-day, but since there was a few days between games, the scoring defenseman has been able to recover enough to make another appearance in the line-up, despite the Kings likely finishing 3rd in the Pacific, unlikely to move up or down in the standings in the final week.

No money impact with Doughty's injury, as he belongs to the duo, Kristy & Don, this season, who sits in 16th place after Friday night.

Upper-body injuries to a couple of the Minnesota Wild's top young players will likely make their playoff push a little hairier than they would have wanted. Both Nino Niederreiter and Markus Granlund missed out on Thursday night's game against the Blackhawks, a 3-2 shootout loss, and their status for the weekend is up in the air. Niederreiter may be the closer of the two to returning, but the team has come out and said that they won't rush him back and with a fairly firm grip on their wild card spot, there is no reason to panic yet. Granlund, on the other hand, may be in a little more danger of missing out on more games, as his upper-body injury may be concussion related, but nothing has been confirmed. There is a chance he may be shut down for the final week and then re-evaluated before the playoffs start.

There is some money impact here, as Granlund, who could be shut down, belongs to Scott, who now barely holds on to a 2-point lead in the standings, may be down a key man for the final week.  Scott is being chased down by Allan now, who also has some injury concerns, so this makes for a more interesting race, for sure.  Niederreiter, on the flip side, belongs to Doug, who is now expected to finish last in the standings.

The New Jersey Devils slim playoff hopes took an amazingly tough hit on Friday night, as they lost a few forwards to injury and a couple of them are pool related.  Forwards Patrik Elias and Adam Henrique both suffered upper-body injuries against the Washington Capitals, but the team still managed to pull out a 2-1 victory over a key playoff race rival.  There were no immediate updates on the status of the two forwards, but since the Devils turnaround and play again on Saturday night, away to Carolina, neither will be made available for the game.  A pretty heavy loss, to say the least.  Both players will be listed as out day-to-day.

Both players have money impact, as Chris, 4th place, has Elias and has relied upon him heavily this year, while Wilton, 3rd place, has Henrique, and has enjoyed some mild success with him in the line-up.  If these injuries are deemed more serious, the final week of the year just opened up and the race would really be on.

As if the Toronto Maple Leafs were not playing their way out of their Eastern Conference playoff spot as it was, mounting injuries are now putting in the final nails in the coffin.  Their number one goalie, Jonathan Bernier, left Thursday night's game against the Boston Bruins, a game they managed to win, with a lower-body injury.  Bernier has been diagnosed with an MCL sprain in his knee and will miss the remainder of the regular season and if the Leafs were to make the playoffs, he would likely miss the first round.

Missing out on Thursday's game and likely to miss Saturday's game, Joffrey Lupul has been sidelined with a lower-body injury as well and is listed as out day-to-day.  There is no details on the injury, but we all know that this is coming at a pretty awful time for the Leafs.  Lupul has 44 points in 68 games this season, ranking 128th in pool scoring.

Heading towards the last week of the season, there is no money impact from these Toronto injuries, as Bernier belongs to Mike, who has fallen to 13th in the standings, and Lupul belongs to Stuart, who sits down in 19th place.