Week Nine Waiver Draft (Dec 1)

It may have surprised some when Derek Stepan became the 1st overall selection in the Week Nine Waiver Draft, but it probably shouldn't be in the end.

Nashville rookie forward Filip Forsberg had been the outright favourite for almost a month leading up to the draft, eventually taken 2nd by Brenda & Seward on Sunday night, but it wasn't to be, as Stepan had the edge in Benson's mind, both in points-per-game at the end of Sunday's play and the overall quality of his teammates as well.

Stepan's numbers may have been a tad skewed, having missed half the season already, but he has shown a hot hand on a fairly prolific team, while Forsberg has had to carry the Predators, somewhat.  It was a tough decision, but not a terrible bet in the end.

The first goalie drop/pick came 3rd overall, as Ryan picked up Robin Lehner of the Senators, taking him over some relatively better numbers from Arizona in Devan Dubnyk.  Lehner is playing on a better team in the standings, but Dubnyk was showing some signs in the desert, trying to turn it around in Arizona.

Islanders dynamo, Brock Nelson, who had cooled down of late, went 4th overall to Wyllie's team, who has been in dire need of some scoring from his forwards.  The 5th overall pick saw a preseason drop picked up, as Chicago's Kris Versteeg went to Stacey C., who had seen some overall improvement in his team, leading up to the Waiver Draft.  Lightning sophomore Nikita Kucherov was the 6th overall pick, taken by Wilton, who saw a share of the pool-high in goals in Week Eight and added a little bit more firepower.  Finally, Dubnyk went with the 7th overall pick, to the team belonging to Brian, who only has 3 wins to his name, ranking 22nd in the category.

We seemed to hit a blockage, as Allan is holding up proceedings on Monday, but that isn't all bad, as I know the further we would have gotten, the slower it would have been, with a couple of teams traveling back from Vancouver for the Grey Cup.

From the first seven picks, no one has wanted to take a flyer on Columbus' Nick Foligno, who was ranked 2nd in points from available players heading into the draft.

As of right now, the team to choose from may be the Canucks, as they lead the available players pool of points with 102.  Four Canucks are in double-digits and available - Chris Higgins, Linden Vey, Alex Burrows and Brad Richardson - all have a combined 48 points.