Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 20)

It was a return to the press box for Coyotes rookie Dylan Strome, as it appears he has been singled out as one of the lesser young players on the active roster this season. Strome has been limited to seven games this season and there is still the possibility that he could be sent back to juniors without burning that entry-level year, but his talent has been said to be better than junior, but they still can't send him to the AHL to properly develop.

John S. will very likely be looking to replace Strome at the Waiver Draft, when his turn comes around, having collected only 1 point this season from the freshman.

I thought I would have included the scratch of Benoit Pouliot in yesterday afternoon's post, because his healthy scratch was reported good and early in the day.  With Drake Caggiula making his NHL debut last night and Matt Hendricks coming off the IR, Anton Lander was sent down and Pouliot was a scratch for the game against the Dallas Stars.  The move seemed to pay off, as the Oilers were dominant for the better part of their 5-2 win.

Pouliot belongs to our defending champ, Jeremy, who is having a good week with his team, picking up 20 points, but was probably disappointed to see the Oilers pot five without his forward in the lineup.  His team is 15th to start Sunday, 4 points out of 8th.

Another injury that should have been reported some time ago is the knee injury that Tomas Hertl suffered this week.  Hertl was unable to play in Arizona last night, as he was already back home in San Jose getting tests done on his injured knee.  The results of those tests were not yet known, but he is expected to be out for a few weeks, but we're waiting on confirmation, just to be sure.  He is currently on the list as day-to-day, but we'll update when the status gets downgraded, like we expect it will.

Troy's proxy team was the 24th team to reach the 100-point mark on the season and is 4 points clear of last place.  Troy is already dealing with one player in the minors, another defenseman has been on the IR since game one and the rest of his lineup is lacking pop... except for the best goalie in the pool.

One positive note for Sunday's action, the Detroit Red Wings are expected to have Thomas Vanek come off the Long-Term Injured Reserve today to play against the Calgary Flames, Vanek was made eligible to come off today and he'll do just that. His placement on the LTIR was key for the team and their cap flexibility.

When Vanek was hurt, Kristy & Don lost their best player and they were ranked in 15th spot in the standings and with him coming back, they dropped down to 18th spot, 28 points out of the money, 35 points out of 1st place.  So yes, they have significantly lost some ground.