Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 6)

With David Backes returning to the Bruins' lineup on Saturday night, someone had to come out and unfortunately for the pool, it was one of the selected players, forward Jimmy Hayes.  Hayes has yet to register a point in his first 10 games this season, ranking well below where he should be in the scoring ranks this season and it should come as no surprise that he was chosen to be the scratch.

For Stacey C., this isn't nearly his fault, except for not showing up to the draft!  Ha!  I kid.  Hayes was the second-to-last pick in the draft, taken 349th overall, so the expectations may have been a bit lower, but no one could think they would be this low.  Maybe this scratch is what he needs to get his game on.

The St. Louis Blues took a fairly risk-free gamble on the former 1st overall entry draft selection from Edmonton, forward Nail Yakupov and things looked to be fairly complimentary, when he had arrived.  Sadly, the young Russian has yet to find any consistency, his numbers are still lacking, only 4 points, including 2 goals, in his first 11 games.  This has him ranked 301st overall in pool scoring, as of Sunday morning.

Yakupov was the 164th overall pick in the draft, taken in the 7th round, so he was far more of a gamble for Scott in the pool, then it was for the Blues in the league, as they gave up a draft pick and a prospect for him.  The enigmatic Russian is tied for 19th in the round, 8 points back of the best player in the round, Philadelphia's Wayne Simmonds.

An injury we're keeping an eye on after Saturday night was an upper-body injury to the Islanders' Travis Hamonic, leaving in the 1st period and wasn't to return.  Hamonic has been a good pool defenseman in the early parts of this season, picking up 2 goals and 5 points, plus 23 PIM, in 12 games this season, keeping his value up in a few spots.  Here is hoping that we have some updates before the start of next week.

For Ryan, Hamonic was his 10th round pick, taken 229th overall and he has been getting relatively good return for that pick, as the defender is ranked 237th on Sunday morning.  Here is hoping that the injury isn't too serious, since his team is in the bottom half of the standings, down in 17th, 18 points back of 3rd.

One note from Sunday morning, the Dallas Stars have placed Jiri Hudler on the Injured Reserve with his undisclosed illness, which means he will be out for today's game between the Stars and the Blackhawks.  The placement on the IR is likely retroactive to the 2nd, which means he will be eligible to come back off in time for their next game, Thursday, away to Calgary, and the team will have an open roster spot for Justin Dowling, who was called up this morning.

Hudler has not been very good for Jeremy this season, only appearing in four games and not registering a point in those games, as previously mentioned this week.  This isn't a great turn of events for his side, but his team has had a lift in the week, up from 18th to 15th, with one more day to go in the week.