Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 22)

The Carolina Hurricanes were able to welcome Andrej Sekera back to their line-up on Tuesday night, after he had missed some time with an upper-body injury. When one comes back, one has to come out and that one on Tuesday was John-Michael Liles,  Liles has already been a healthy scratch a couple of times this season, something that may have been missed on the blog already this year,  Liles has only played in three games this year, registering a single assist.

The return of Sekera is good news for Wyllie, but the scratching of Liles is bad news for Stacey C..  Neither player has really jumped off the page in the early part of the season, but the Hurricanes obviously see more value in Sekera than Liles right now, so this might be a regular occurrence.

Another interesting decision on the New Jersey blueline, as some bodies were getting healthy there as well, which has forced the hand of the coaching staff to make some difficult decisions. Eric Gelinas was the odd-man out on Tuesday night, as the Devils took on the Rangers, leaving a non-pool defender in the line-up in Adam Larsson.  In five games this season, Gelinas has 2 assists, which likely isn't quite the production they were hoping for early on and this scratch will aim to be a kick in the rear end to boost his offensive play.

Wilton's defense hasn't been too bad yet this season, picking up 12 points through Tuesday night's action, but is already 6 points behind the pool leader (Wyllie) in the category.  He currently sits in 12th place, 12 points out of the money, right now.

There have been a number of night-ending lacerations in the NHL to start the season, which is certainly a hazard of the job, but it just seems to be a small epidemic in the league. On Tuesday night, Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey left the game against the Maple Leafs with a facial laceration. There were no immediate updates after the game, but on Wednesday morning, Hickey was back on the ice at practice with a little extra protection around his face.

Hickey belongs to Clayton in the pool this season and has only scored 1 goal in six games for the Islanders, falling down in the depth chart after the acquisition of Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.