Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 14)

Despite a very slow start to the season, it has been somewhat surprising that the Coyotes haven't been in the blog more often thus far. On Saturday night, they did make a splash in their line-up, giving forward Sam Gagner the night off as a healthy scratch, as the Minnesota Wild came calling.  Gagner had only picked up 10 points in 29 games for the Coyotes this season, nowhere near where the team thought he would be, after the series of moves in the Summer that brought him to Arizona.  I would imagine that this is only a one game thing at the moment, but if his numbers fail to pick-up, he has already been earmarked for more time off.

It's hard to find a disappointing player on Kristy & Don's team, as they run away in the standings, even after the first Waiver Draft.  Their side has been too strong this year and they are seemingly poised to run the table, even if Gagner is a healthy scratch once and a while.

A note that had been missed through the weekend's play was that Detroit defender Dan DeKeyser has been out with an upper-body injury, missing out on Friday's game against the Panthers and Saturday's game against the Maple Leafs.  Those are the only two games that DeKeyser was expected to miss through this injury, according to the early weekend reports,   The 24-year old defender is now on the list as out day-to-day and somewhat expected to be back in the lineup on Tuesday, home to Columbus.

From the blueline, DeKeyser's 11 points in 29 games isn't too bad, especially since he wasn't exactly thought of as an offensive dynamo, upon his arrival in Detroit.  Dale C. should be somewhat pleased with that kind of production, but his defense overall has been poor, only picking up 24 points to this point in the season.

The New Jersey Devils have been running into some injury troubles, which may have forced forward Mike Cammalleri to return to the lineup from a lower-body injury too early and thus, forcing him out of action again on Saturday night.  His initial injury, which he was dealing with for a good portion of last week, was a pulled muscle in his buttocks, but there was no word as to whether or not his new injury was just a recurring injury in his rear end or something new.  The Devils are on Long Island on Monday night, so we'll probably hear something about the injury soon.

Leo and his band of current and former Flames hasn't been off the charts in the scoring department, but they haven't been too bad up front either.  Cammalleri has 15 points in 23 games this season, but he could have used a few more points all around, trying to help his 16th place standing through Saturday night.

In the age of the mumps, maybe it's a little refreshing to see something like a stomach virus fell a player for a game? Okay, maybe not, but at least it's something different.  Lightning defenseman Radko Gudas was held out of the lineup against the Capitals on Saturday night, due to the virus, he's is now on the list as out day-to-day.

In 26 games this season, Gudas has 2 goals and 3 assists for Brenda & Seward's team, who is also rocking a very sub-par defense this season, only picking up 28 points through nearly 10 weeks of action.  No, it isn't the worst blueline in the pool, but it is certainly keeping the average down.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.