Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 12)

The Colorado Avalanche will start the season with rookie forward Mikko Rantanen on the Injured Reserve, thanks to a preseason ankle injury. Rantanen's recovery time was set at four weeks, back in the middle of September, so he shouldn't be too far away from dressing in the lineup for the Avs. The last reports that were seen said that he was already back on the ice and skating, but for the purposes of a 23-man roster for opening night, the Avalanche had to put him on the IR, retroactive to mid-September.

Rantanen's projected games were already off Wilton's total to start the season, this is just a note to make sure you know why he isn't on the roster for Saturday night's game, home to the Stars.

The Montreal Canadiens reeled for the better part of last season without their starting goalie, Carey Price, thanks to a knee problem, but he's not exactly off to a great start to the 2017 season, as a nasty bout of the flu has had him off the ice for the last few days and he won't be making the trip down to Buffalo for Thursday's season opener against the Sabres.  He's currently listed as out day-to-day and it will likely mean that the team will have to call-up someone to back-up Al Montoya tonight.

There will be more on this in the goalie post this afternoon, but for Benson, who took Price with the 3rd overall pick, isn't exactly opening up the season with much luck.

A nagging hip problem has been deemed to be the reason why the Edmonton Oilers put rookie forward Drake Caggiula on the non-roster/injury list to start the season.  Caggiula made a very positive impression in training camp, earning a spot on the team, but this injury will delay the start of the season for now.  There is no minimum time that he needs to spend on this list, where the Injured Reserve would be a 7-day minimum.  When he gets the green light, the Oilers would have to make room, but they can just slide him in.

Eric decided to take a shot at Caggiula at the draft this season, which actually gave him three rookies on his roster in a non-rookie pool year.  He starts the week with 25 projected games on his roster, with Caggiula taken off to start, which ranks him 21st in the category.

The Bruins will get credit for the first recall of the season, as Tim Schaller will come up to take the spot of Patrice Bergeron for Thursday night's game in Columbus.  Bergeron is currently on the list as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, but there was no word on when and where he suffered the injury.  All we know is that it will keep him out of the team's first game of the season and then we'll all go from there.

Bergeron was Dale C.'s 3rd round pick in the draft, taken 58th overall, after a pretty good World Cup performance.  The hope is certainly that the injury isn't too serious, but the Bruins usually hold their cards close to their chest, so it's really hard to tell most times, just how bad it is.