Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 17)

The knee problems that Niklas Kronwall were having in the preseason, which kept him out of the World Cup and gave him a late start to the NHL season, have flared up and that has caused him to miss some more time. Kronwall missed out on Tuesday night's game against the Lightning and his status for Friday night's game against the Capitals is more likely that not. The coaching staff are going to rest him when they see fit, just to keep his knee as good as it can be, as they don't believe it will be 100% at all this season.

Our newest pool leader, Brian, hasn't exactly been missing Kronwall, especially since he has 1 point in only five games this season.  There's a fine chance that he will be substituted for at the Waiver Draft.  Brian finished off Wednesday night with a 2-point lead over Benson, but he still has all his top players healthy, so there's no real anxiety happening there.

The growing pains of a top pick in Edmonton are pretty well-documented, except for the odd one, but Jesse Puljujarvi is not one of those guys.  On Tuesday night against the Ducks, the young Finn was up in the press box again as a healthy scratch, given the night off to try and learn something from above.  In 13 games this season, the 4th overall selection in the Entry Draft only has 1 goal and 3 points, a far cry from where some of his projections should have him at this point.

Mike's team is still in pretty good standing, despite the lack of scoring from the top prospect, as his side sits in 11th on Thursday morning, now 14 points out of 3rd place, with plenty of projected games left to play in the week.

The draft pick that the Oilers will get out of the Nail Yakupov might not get that boost from the goal scoring condition, especially if the Russian is going to be a healthy scratch on a regular occasion.  On Tuesday night, at home to Buffalo, Yakupov was back up in the press box, as the gamble St. Louis took on this deal is starting to look more and more like a bust.

Scott took a bit of a gamble on Yakupov as well and he could have really used a better performance, to date, from his 7th round pick, as his team has now dropped out of the money and now sits in 4th place, but only 1 point out of the last payable spot.  Of course, there is plenty of time to recover.