Week Eighteen Waiver Draft (Feb 7)

It was an absolutely crazy Friday at the office, so there wasn't quite enough time to put together all the blog posts that I wanted, much to the delight of some managers, I would think.  Nevertheless, I'm just about to drop the 24-hour axe on Tony, who hasn't been around, but had been monitoring his e-mails and then I can finish up this business and start getting players on the team pages.

The last updates start on Thursday, where Stuart took his sweet time to try and work out a side bet with the Opiated Sherpa on his pick, which will be highlighted for the rest of the season in the Newsletter, so I will save all the details for then.  Nevertheless, Stuart thinks that Buffalo's Chris Stewart will be dealt on or before the deadline, so he's confident that he will be a bright spot down the stretch for whoever he goes to.  Stewart will take the place of the under-performing Jeff Skinner in Carolina, who hasn't seen nearly the seasons he has had in the past.

Next up, with the 32nd selection line, Stacey C. also did a forward swap, as he dropped an Edmonton player that didn't live up to the hype in Teddy Purcell and picked up Erik Cole in Dallas, who is starting to make his way back into form, coming off an injury of his own.  Stacey is playing for pride and has his rivals near to him, so he needs to make the push in the standings.

At the time, it just looked like a solid move to pick up the New York Rangers back-up, Cam Talbot, but Brian now looks like one lucky son-of-a-gun, as he now has the starter for the club in the Big Apple, thanks to the injury to Henrik Lundqvist this week.  Brian decided to let go of Niklas Backstrom in Minnesota, now that Devan Dubnyk has taken the mantle as the number one and this looks like it will be a positive move.

Right in the middle of the pack, Dale B. has some potential to make some moves in the standings, already jumping up from 13th to 9th in the week, but he has also cut Brandon Dubinsky of the Blue Jackets loose, opting to take another piece in the rookie market, Islanders forward Anders Lee.  Dale has a ways to go to really make some noise in the rookie race, down 23 points, through Friday night, but he also has Dallas defenseman John Klingberg, who has been a good addition to his team this year.

Wilton, who currently leads the rookie race, didn't opt to make a move for another freshman, rather he shored up his defense, dropping the oft-scratched Eric Gelinas in New Jersey and picking up Zach Bogosian for the Jets.  Bogosian was a new addition to the Injury Prone List in the Summer and has missed some time this year.  If he can stay healthy for the stretch, this could be a decent move for Wilton.

To finish the day on Thursday, it was three quick passes, as Brenda & Seward didn't quite know the status of Lundqvist at that point and are likely hoping for the best, knowing that they probably won't find more points elsewhere, unless the King doesn't come back.  Scott already took care of his goaltending concerns in the opening round, so he was good and Stacey M. did well already, but her team is not paying her confidence back, dropping this week to a potential Basement Dweller status.

Only one pick was made on Friday, as Troy picked up San Jose rookie forward Melker Karlsson, trying to feed off the promotions he has seen in the Shark Tank, dropping off Martin Hanzal from the Coyotes, who has seen some injury concerns of his own.  There is no doubt that this is a bold move, which is why I like it, plus it will give Troy a boost in the rookie race as well, as he has only seen 1 point from the freshmen, thanks to Sam Reinhart in the first segment of the season.

This brings us to Tony, who was notified at 11:19am MT of his turn in the pool and at the time of this post, he has just over a half hour to go.  He does have a potential move to be made and sitting in 7th place, 28 points out of the money, he may want to make that move.  Otherwise, we should be finishing off the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft on Saturday and the finishing post should drop tomorrow morning.