Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 18)

The illnesses of every shape and variety have landed in the NHL this season and have affected a good number of players in the hockey pool.  On Wednesday, it was a stomach bug that had the Minnesota goaltending in a tizzy, as Darcy Kuemper sat and missed a start and the Wild called up John Curry to back up Niklas Backstrom.  Kuemper is considered day-to-day for the time being.

Sounds like this was a missed start for Kuemper, which means a missed start for Stacey M. and that had possibly kept her team from the lead in the weekly scoring race.  Nevertheless, her team is right back in the mix, only 11 points back of the money.

A lower-body injury forced New Jersey defenseman Damon Severson from the line-up on Wednesday night, as the Devils took on the Senators at home.  Severson has reportedly been dealing with the injury for a little while now and it finally got the best of him on Wednesday, keeping him out of action.  There is no official word as to how long he'll be out for, but he is listed as day-to-day for right now.

Grant K. picked up Severson at the Waiver Draft and has seen a couple points in five games from the rookie blueliner, which isn't too bad.  Grant is still in the thick of the money race, 19 points back of 3rd, so an expedited return would likely be appreciated.

There were some reports on Wednesday that the Pittsburgh Penguins were testing a number of players for the mumps, one of those being Marc-Andre Fleury.  Of course, panic ensued and there was a lot of speculation suggesting that he would be unable to go against the Colorado Avalanche, but on Thursday morning, the Penguins announced that Fleury's tests came back negative for the mumps and that he would be good to go.

This is good news for Clayton, who has seen a pretty big chunk taken out of his team in the last week.  Clayton is chasing down Tony for 3rd place in the standings today and he'll need all the help he can get, including this goalie start.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.