Week Nine Waiver Draft (Dec 4)

The end of the first Waiver Draft of the season is already upon us and it's only Thursday.  Can you believe it?  I sure can't.  Previous years of trying to rush the last few picks in seems to be a thing of the past.  Thanks to all the participants this year... huge help!  Hopefully, you're all returned in kind with a bounty of points... but not as many as I might get, of course.

We're playing for money and a kick-ass trophy... what did you think I'd say?

We begin with the 6th pick of the round, where Wilton upgraded his offense up front with the acquisition of Jimmy Hayes of Florida, dropping the Kings captain, Dustin Brown.  Brown's playoff performances usually act as a red herring to a good regular season and Wilton got caught in that lie this season.

Word from Down Under... Dan Hamhuis' injury was more than enough to warrant a drop, as he won't be back in the Canucks lineup anytime soon.  With the drop, Brian took Los Angeles defenseman Brayden McNabb, who has more points than Brown above.

I had a feeling that Jay Bouwmeester wouldn't last through the Waiver Draft without getting picked up, so Allan has taken a chance on the currently injured defender, dropping Oilers captain Andrew Ference to pick him up.  Not too sure what is more of a talking point... an injured defenseman with only 2 points gets picked up after getting dropped or two NHL captains being dropped within three picks.

Leo and his love of Flames players, past and present, saw two former players pass each other on the list as Olli Jokinen, now of the Predators, is on the way out, making room for Lee Stempniak of the Rangers.  The swing in offense is somewhat staggering.

In St. Louis, the offense has been a three horse show and Patrik Berglund isn't one of those guys, so he's on his way out of Scott's lineup, making room for Elias Lindholm of the Hurricanes.  Lindholm has been doing some good things for a poor team in Carolina, so this does appear to be a good move on paper.

It might be worth a study, especially for the second Waiver Draft, nine weeks from now, but I'm pretty sure Alex Semin has been dropped a lot of times in this pool.  I'm sure he has been picked up a couple times as well, but he has sure been disappointing.  Dale B. dropped the enigmatic winger, opting to pick up Mike Santorelli of the Leafs, who is having a decent season.

Opening up the archives for some old time scoring was Wes on Wednesday night, as he dropped a minor league Ryan Murphy in the Hurricanes organization and picking up veteran defender Sergei Gonchar, who now belongs to the Canadiens.  Wes isn't getting any production out of his youngster, so he decided to go with an aged veteran to scrape up some numbers.

One of the healthiest teams in the pool, belonging to Mike, having no names on the injury list, decided to pass and run with the one change.  He starts Thursday night only 24 points out of the money and has a forward change coming on Monday, so we'll see how well that works out for him.

Stuart spent the evening weighing out a number of statistics, trying to figure out whether or not dropping Eddie Lack was the right idea going forward and decided for the drop and picking up James Reimer in Toronto, hoping for a string of starts and he isn't picky on how Reimer would possibly get them.

The Sabres are not getting many points, so another NHL captain had to go... Brian Gionta was the next player dropped and a currently-hurt Justin Abdelkader in Detroit was his replacement.  Of course, it sounds like Abdelkader should be back for Week Ten, so this should prove to be a decent move in the end.

I have been reading conflicting reports, but the Maple Leafs coaching staff believe that Leo Komarov's upper-body injury isn't too serious, according to some pressers, so we'll let Grant K.'s selection stand, as he drops Columbus' Cam Atkinson in the process.  Komarov might be back in time for Week Ten, when he becomes active on Grant's team, so this might just work out in his favour.

Finally, the last official pick that was made on Wednesday night, saw Troy drop another Flyers player in R.J. Umberger and picking up Flames forward Joe Colborne, who should be getting close to a return from a wrist injury, which has kept him out since the end of October.  Colborne was one of the hottest players not taken in the draft, at the time of his injury and the Flames wouldn't mind adding that much flair to their lineup, which has been doing well these days.

So, where does this leave us?

Thursday morning, we're waiting for Stacey M. to decide on what her team is going to look like, whether or not she will use her second round pick for good or for nothing.  Tony already has a clear idea of what he wants to do, as does Clayton.  Dale C. is potentially the last team to pick, as both Grant S. and Kristy & Don both skipped the first round and are likely to do the same in the second.

If this draft finishes by midday on Thursday, it will be an absolute coup for me, the organizer.  I can make the transition a little bit smoother on Monday, when these players go live.