Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 8)

There's a bit of concern over a lower-body injury that Dallas defenseman John Klingberg suffered on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The prognosis is only a day-to-day issue, according to the coaching staff, so it likely won't be too long, but I guess you can never be too sure.

Klingberg is a part of the freshman pack that has done Dale B. some wonders in the rookie scoring race, as he was a Week Nine pick-up and hasn't looked back since.  Since Week Nine, the Swede has picked up 27 points in 39 games, better than some forwards in the pool.  Dale's team now holds an 8-point lead in the rookie race, going into Sunday.


The flu bug that took out Jaromir Jagr earlier in the week, took rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad out of commission for Saturday night's game against the Islanders. Ekblad, considered to be a Calder Trophy candidate this season, has been stellar for the Panthers after being selected 1st overall at the Entry Draft. In 65 games this season, Ekblad has 11 goals and 34 points.

He was definitely keeping Grant S. afloat in the rookie race for the longest time, up until Dale B. picked a couple in the last Waiver Draft. Grant's lead on 2nd place has dropped another 3 points this week, now down to 13 points with five weeks to go. Losing Ekblad for a Panthers win may have added up to a point or two lost.

Boy, you take a player off an enormous ironman streak and there's no telling what he'll fall prey to, eh? St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was also a victim of a horrible flu bug as well and that cost him Saturday night's game against the Maple Leafs. It isn't like the Blues needed more help in that game, as they thoroughly wiped the floor with their opponents, it's just good to get those light games in during the run to the playoffs.

And at a 6-1 drubbing, there were likely some extra points to be had for a guy like Bouwmeester, if he were in the lineup, or he could have made things much worse for Toronto and opened up a few more goals on their account that night. No, Allan couldn't be that lucky this year, but his team is still carrying a 5-point gap on Wyllie for the Olli bobblehead at the moment.

There was a late scratch on Saturday for the Canucks, as they visited the Sharks in San Jose in one of the two late games last night. Forward Christopher Higgins was scratched with a lower-body injury and was deemed unfit to play in the game. There has been no such report on how long they expect him to be out, so for now, he'll be on the list as out dya-to-day.

Higgins has been somewhat of a disappointment to Mike since the Week Nine Waiver Draft, only picking up 14 points in 35 games this season, not exactly the production that you would be hoping for in this regard. Mike's team still has 22 points this week, but is still mired in 20th place in the standings at this point. Ryan still needs 23 more points, just to catch him in the standings.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.