This Waiver Draft brings me back. I think the Week Nine Waiver Draft and how smooth that was made me pine a little bit for the last few years, when the Waiver Drafts went right down to the wire. Okay, this isn't right down to the wire, but it is Sunday afternoon and we are just finishing up the whole process.
Yesterday, we concluded with the waiting of Tony's second round pick, but sadly, it didn't come in time for the process to finish up. Nevertheless, in the idea of fairness, Tony may have missed out on his second round pick, but it had been deemed that it just wouldn't be fair to not give him the pick, since he missed out on time, but rather, if he so chose, after making contact, he could make his pick, after the conclusion of the second round.
So, onward we went and we looked at Dale C.'s pick. Finally, Dale opted to drop Ottawa defenseman Patrick Wiercioch, who had nearly more healthy scratches to his name this season, than he did games played. Instead of that constant scratch, Dale picked up Anaheim veteran Francois Beauchemin, who has been pretty good, since getting healthy from an early season injury. Dale still remains in the money conversation and a few more points from the blueline should help his cause.
Cam had already taken care of one major injury on his team, but didn't think the rest of his injuries would be severe enough to warrant a switch at this time. Being that he is still well in the mix for a money position, that decision couldn't have been taken too lightly. Cam passed and we moved on.
Wes, who was stuck in at 4th place at the beginning of the week, really hummed and hawed his way through this pick, as he mulled over some dropped players and finally, after an evening and a morning, decided on taking Dallas' Cody Eakin to replace the injured Tommy Wingels in San Jose.
All that time to decide may have paid off for Clayton though, as just before Wes made his move the New York Islanders decided to place forward Michael Grabner on the Injured Reserve, which easily paved the way for Clayton to drop him and take Canucks forward Alex Burrows. This may have been his move all along, but you probably won't ever find out the truth.
Grant S. had a significant injury to take care of on his side, as Tampa Bay's Matt Carle was stricken from the blueline with an injury, which may cost him another month and bit, a roster spot better used by an active player. With that move, Grant went back to the well in Colorado, taking defenseman Zach Redmond as the replacement.
Finally, to finish the second round, Kristy & Don, with their huge lead, over 70 points, scoffed at making another pick (or so I will portray it) and they will finish the year with who they picked in September.
With the second round concluding, I did allow for Tony to make one more move, since he was out of the country and it turns out, had a failure of communications equipment, so it was only fair that he keeps his team moving quite along. He decided to drop defenseman Tom Gilbert from the Montreal Canadiens and he decided to go with Kyle Quincey in Detroit, as his replacement.
Finally, since the Evander Kane saga ended with season-ending shoulder surgery in the week of the Waiver Draft and given that Grant K. had already made his two picks in good time, not to mention he's still watching the standings as we go along, he was granted a third round pick as well, where he took Tampa Bay's Cedric Paquette to take his place. Since Grant is down in the bottom half of the standings, his team shouldn't pose a threat to the money and since he's still watching his team, it would be more fun for him to have a healthy compliment of players.
I believe with this move for Grant K., this will be an open invitation for teams to make more selections, if we have time at the end of drafts, as long as everyone has had their chance to make their first two selections beforehand.
Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post, I'm rocking a new writing machine for my travels this week and it doesn't have Photoshop on it yet.
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