Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 17)

On Monday, the New York Islanders were without recently returned forward Michael Grabner, who was sidelined again with a lower-body injury. The injury forced him to miss the game against the Devils and on Wednesday, he was placed on the Injured Reserve again, likely to make room for one of the injured defenders who are coming off the IR to play against the Red Wings on Friday.

Grabner was Clayton's 2nd round pick-up in the Waiver Draft in Week Nine, but has only managed to play in three games, picking up a goal in the process.  Clayton's team has been hovering in the money race, but injuries will definitely cost him.

Hurricanes forward Jiri Tlusty sat out the last couple of games with an upper-body injury and he is currently listed as out day-to-day. There are no details about the injury, all we know is that he is currently missing time and there is no indication as to whether or not he'll be back any time soon. Since he isn't on the IR, I suppose is a good enough sign that he shouldn't be out for very much longer.

I wouldn't consider this big news on the part of Kristy & Don's team, as they have opened up such a big lead, they'll need more than their final pick in the draft to get hurt, before they feel any sort of pain in the standings.  Perhaps it's a start though.

The Chicago Blackhawks were without their top defender, Duncan Keith, on Tuesday night for their game against the Wild, as he sat out with an undisclosed illness. The coaching staff for the team said after the game that is wasn't likely that Keith contracted the mumps, like many other players in the league, so he should be back sooner, rather than later.

More bad news for Clayton in the pool yesterday and there are rumblings that there may be more coming down the pipe in the next day or so.  If this sort of thing is to continue, he'll fall right out of the money conversation in a hurry.

Sounds like it was a bout of the flu that kept Red Wings forward Johan Franzen out of Tuesday night's game against the Blue Jackets. You can't say illness in the NHL these days without initially wondering about the mumps, of course.  Franzen is currently on the list as out day-to-day, so it shouldn't be too long before he gets back into the lineup.

A game or two missed won't hurt Grant S.'s chances at 2nd place in the standings at this point in the season.  Grant has a sweet buffer between his team and 1st and 3rd place, just floating in the middle, hoping that no one bursts his bubble.

What a strange season it has been for Patrick Wiercioch in Ottawa. The oft-scratched defender has also been dealing with an injury of an undisclosed nature, which has kept him out of the lineup for a little while now. There is no indication from the team what the injury could be or how serious it is, so he may be spending even more time on the injury/news page.

Definitely not the news that Dale C. wanted to hear, but his team is climbing back into the fight for 3rd place in the standings, thanks to a solid start to the week, 9 points in the first two nights of Week Eleven. His team is now 10 points out of 3rd place, a spot his team held already this year for a few weeks.

A family matter kept St. Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie out of the lineup on Tuesday night, as his side took on the Kings at home. The Blues didn't really miss a beat without Oshie around, defeating the visitors, 5-2. The Blues have left home to go out on the road for some matches and it sounds like Oshie was on the plane with the team, so it sounds like he should figure back into the lineup on Thursday, in the return game against Los Angeles.

In terms of a team needing some players in their lineup, Benson is crying out for more games played and more points, as his team continues to spiral out of control.  His team is now 13 points behind 22nd place and is only 1 point up on the current leader for the Basement Dweller of the Week.

The official buzz word attached to Ben Bishop's lower-body injury is 'tweaked.' The large Lightning goaltender apparently pulled something earlier in the week and that forced him from Monday's game in Pittsburgh and led to the debut of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who earned his first win against the Flyers on Tuesday night. Bishop is hopeful that he can return to the Tampa crease by the end of the week, but given where the the Lightning are in the standings and the quality debut of their rookie keeper, I don't think they'll be in a big hurry to push him back.

Of course, that won't sit very well with Scott, who is in 15th place, 38 points out of the money and in need of some more goalie points. These are likely to be considered missed starts from here on out, maybe not Tuesday night's, given it was a back-to-back situation, but any more time missed will be considered lost chances.

Finally for this post, Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba is expected to be out until February with a mystery upper-body ailment.  The downward spiral of news regarding Trouba's injury is somewhat humourous, as there were plenty of reports suggesting that when Trouba missed practice earlier in the week, he'd still be good to play on Tuesday, but then the projections got worse and worse and eventually, the Jets dropped the bomb on everyone, saying he'd be out for two months.  We're not sure what the injury is, but it's big.

Trouba has been decent for Stuart this season, picking up 12 points in 31 games, leaving some to be desired, but still not too bad.  Overall, his blueline is operating above-average in the pool, which has helped his team into 7th place in the standings after Tuesday night.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.