Player Notes in the Draft (Apr 11)

The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that forward Nathan Horton will need a 6-week recovery period after undergoing abdominal surgery on Friday morning.  The Jackets are playoff-bound and could have used the services of Horton down the stretch, but that doesn't appear to be an option now.  Horton had 19 points in 35 games in his first year with the club, which was marred with injuries.  Here is hoping he can get back to 100% for the 2015 season and then he'll be a legitimate pool player again.

Before the injury bug bit, John was working his way to a late-season Mover & Shaker nod in the final newsletter, but now he has the least amount of projected games to play this week and the weekend may garner some high scoring games, as teams rest some of their better players.

The Montreal Canadiens are coming to the stark reality that they will have to go into the playoffs without one of their brightest stars, as Alex Galchenyuk is expected to miss the first round of the playoffs with a knee injury, which he suffered earlier in the week.  The injury, which you might be able to surmise as a sprain, would usually take a couple to a few weeks to heal up, which will now keep him out of the remaining games on the regular season schedule and may make him a moot point on the Playoff Pool selection sheet.

Galchenyk had an okay year for Stacey M., playing in 65 games, scoring 13 goals and 18 assists in the process.  I'm sure there were some higher expectations, but Stacey is still in the mix for a prize at the end of the year, sitting in 4th, 2 points out of 3rd, but only 1 point ahead of 5th.

More late season injury concerns for the St. Louis Blues, who are already reeling from injuries to Vladimir Tarasenko and David Backes, as T.J. Oshie suffered an upper-body injury after taking a hit from Minnesota's Mike Rupp. Rupp is in line for a hearing from the disciplinarians of the NHL for the hit, but the Blues are not willing to part with the details of Oshie's injury, just saying that he's day-to-day right now.  Oshie will likely be re-evaluated over the next couple of days, but now that we're nearing playoff hockey, teams will be keeping these details tight to the vest.

More injury concerts for Stuart, who has climbed up to 18th in the last couple of weeks, but that may be all he gets, now that his team is falling fast.  The biggest concern about Oshie now is whether or not you would consider him in the Playoff Pool, which will start to go out here shortly.

Saying that Sami Salo is often injured is almost a slap in the face to those who are often injured, as Salo has a record in the infirmary a mile long.  Adding to it this week is an upper-body injury, which he suffered on Tuesday night.  Salo did not dress on Thursday night and I would imagine that the Lightning may wait until the start of the playoffs to get him back in the line-up, for fears of either aggravating the injury or suffering something new.  Salo has played 70 games this year, which is good for him, and he was able to chip in 17 points this season as well.

Salo will be listed as day-to-day, which won't affect Leo's projected games to be played this week, but where Leo is sitting, 23rd place, it really doesn't make much difference in the end.

Making room for some younger talent on Thursday night, Jason Garrison was a healthy scratch for the Vancouver Canucks, who were already eliminated from playoff contention this week and facing a good Avalanche team. Garrison's time in Vancouver has been spotty, at best, but his play of late hasn't been great, so it was Frank Corrado's turn in the line-up.  Garrison has 32 points in 79 games this year, but his two-way game has been suspect all year, as the Canucks struggled in most aspects of the game in 2014.

I don't think Grant will be left on the lurch with Garrison missing any more time, but I suppose that remains to be seen.  The Canucks took another loss and they will likely want to finish on a high note against their Alberta rivals this weekend.

The Winnipeg Jets have only one game left in the regular season and no games in the playoffs coming up.  An elbow injury to their captain, Andrew Ladd, will keep him out of tonight's season finale in Calgary.  Ladd finishes the year with 54 points in 78 games this season, which heading into tonight, has him ranked 83rd in pool scoring overall.  Not a bad year, but he was likely expected to do more and help the Jets into the playoffs.  We all know how well that went.

Leo could have used a better season from Ladd, as his team had the worst crop of forwards this year, as his team only collected 288 from the front lines, compared to the pool-best of 460 points.