Week Nine Waiver Draft (Dec 2)

When we last left our protagonists in the 2015 Draft Pool, they were through seven picks in the first Waiver Draft of the season, which managed to start on Sunday night and our basement dwellers got first crack at the available players.

It wasn't until the after-work hours until we really got going again, which was great, because we managed another nine picks of the draft in the evening, thanks to the use of the phone, text and e-mail.  You really have to like technology, when you're organizing such an event.

Blake Comeau was the next pick-up in the draft, taken 8th overall by Allan, replacing newly-injured New Jersey Devils forward Travis Zajac.  Comeau has never seen any action in these hockey pools, so he'll make his debut in Week Ten.

With the 9th pick, Leo took the first defenseman, dropping the underachieving Jay Bouwmeester for Tampa pillar, Anton Stralman.  I am somewhat surprised the first defenseman took this long to get picked, but there were quite a few key players taken beforehand, so the points will be coming faster and more furious at the bottom of the table, one would assume.

An injury replacement for Scott, as he dropped Valeri Nichushkin of the Stars, who has been plagued with a groin problem and in return, he picked up Zemgus Girgensons, the Latvian wonderkid in Buffalo.  It may be that Scott just likes to impress all his friends by pronouncing all these players' names.

It was a trip into the unknown for Dale B., who took Dallas defender John Klingberg with the 11th pick, unaware of who the 22-year old Swede really is, but with 8 points in 10 games since his recall, it would appear that he is in the bigs for good now.  Casted out was Vancouver's Kevin Bieksa, who hasn't been offensive at all this year.

One of the top scoring players available for the Waiver Draft, Nick Foligno of the Blue Jackets, didn't go until the 12th pick, when Wes picked him up.  No one seemed to have much faith in the point-per-game player to this point in the season, so it will be interesting to see if Wes will be rewarded for his faith, by dropping Matt Read for him.

Last season, Christopher Higgins wasn't taken in the pool until the second Waiver Draft, so when he was taken by Mike in the first, it was definitely a step up for him.  The Vancouver forward was picked up for Mathieu Perreault of the Jets.

Gamble alert!  The oft-injured Jeff Skinner was snapped up with the 14th pick by Stuart, replacing Alexander Barkov, who hasn't exactly lit up the scoresheet in Florida.

More unknown territory, as pool newcomer, Cam, looked to improve his goaltending with his first pick and did so by taking Michael Hutchinson of the Jets, who has looked good in some early appearances.  Could this be the end of the Ondrej Pavelec era in Winnipeg?  Cam certainly hopes so, dropping Carter Hutton of the Predators, a zero on his team, in the process.

How about another rookie to speak of?  New Jersey Devils freshman defender Damon Severson was picked up to compliment Grant K.'s roster, as Stephane Robidas takes a seat for the foreseeable future.

One bonus pick came from the morning, as we woke up, as Troy dropped Sam Reinhart, who was named to the Team Canada World Junior tryout roster on Monday, and picked up Martin Hanzal from the Coyotes, who has been doing well, early on in the season.

This brings us up to the 18th overall pick, where Stacey M. will drop her selection on us before too long this morning.  We only have six drop/pick selections to make in the first round and it seems more than likely that we'll see those done today and even start up the second round.

I wouldn't mind rewarding everyone with a third round, if some teams needed it, but we'll see how quickly the first two rounds finish up.  What would you think of that?