Player Notes in the Draft (Jan 14)

The NHL leaders, Nashville Predators, are holding their breath, as they await test results on Thursday for a lower-body injury to their number one goalie, Pekka Rinne. Rinne was involved in a collision with teammate Anton Volchenkov and Canucks forward Christopher Higgins in the 3rd period of Tuesday night's game, which forced him from the contest.  The team's only update said that Rinne was going to be listed as day-to-day and a proper update would be provided on Thursday, as Wednesday is a day off for the club.  It's just wait and see for now.

Rinne is currently the best player in the hockey pool scoring ranks, leading with 65 points, 8 points better than Marc-Andre Fleury of the Penguins, who is in 2nd.

There is no question that Rinne's success has been a leading contributor to the pool leaders, +Kristy & +Don, and their success in the standings through the first half of the year.  They have managed to wrangle up a 44-point lead through Monday night, so they have a buffer to work with, if Rinne's injury is significant.

Another significant injury occurred on Tuesday night, as the New York Rangers lost the services of forward Derek Stepan to an upper-body injury, which has been speculated to be a hand injury.  There is supposed to be an update on the injury at some point on Wednesday, but if there is nothing major to report, Stepan will be listed as out day-to-day, but if the contrary happens, a proper update will be posted on the blog.

Stepan was the 1st overall pick at the Week Nine Waiver Draft for +Benson and hasn't done too badly for him since the activation, picking up 14 points in 15 games, tied for 3rd in the Waiver Draft scoring.  Benson has moved up to 19th already this week and has other teams ahead of him in his sights, hoping that the Stepan injury is not too serious.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.