Week Eight Waiver Draft (Dec 5)

We did it!  The Waiver Draft has concluded and even our basement dwelling teams were able to dispose of some of the extra injured players on their roster.

Last time I finished the post for this Waiver Draft, we still hadn't concluded the opening round of the draft, so let's see how that round finished off.

Scott went with the speedy winger in Montreal, Paul Byron, who isn't quite a rookie, nor is a Philadelphia Flyers player, but he has been a pretty good player, so far this season.  Scott may have dropped this week, but a boost to his offense can't hurt.

Marcin was running the first segment of the season with only one goalie, so he needed to change that for the upcoming segment.  Marcin also went to Montreal for his replacement, Al Montoya, who has done exceptionally well, in his limited action.

For the 2nd place team, Brian had a little bit of tinkering to do.  Jonas Brodin was his first little bit of tinkering, trying to get the best out of the limited blueline prospects available.  Brodin and the Wild have been impressing this season and Brodin is in the middle of it all.

Finally, to finish the first round, Benson had to drop one of the game's best players, due to a major injury, and he managed to snag Jesper Fast of the Rangers to help his cause.  Not sure how much help he'll be, but it'll be better than an injured player.

The second round, thankfully, moved much faster and it kicked off right away with Troy moving to the goon market thoroughly, picking up defenseman Josh Manson from the Anaheim Ducks.  Manson has posted some points, but his time in the box is what he wanted the most.

Wes had a big hole on his blueline, but he opted to take one of the hidden gems for the blueline in Michael Del Zotto of the Flyers, who got off to a late start, due to injury.  Wes was definitely trying to get his team back into respectable territory with his picks.

After a solid World Cup performance, Dennis Seidenberg finally got the call for the hockey pool, as Tony tried to improve his blueline with a little bit more of a veteran presence.  The Islanders have been doing well with their free agent pick-up as well.

Ryan Dzingel has got to be the year's most fun name to say in the NHL and Dale C. tried to improve his forwards with the pick-up of the young forward.  The Ottawa forward has been finding on his way onto the scoresheet more and more often.

The 30th pick slot in the draft belonged to Brenda & Seward, who needed an improvement on their blueline as well, opting for Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning, who was fresh off the Injured Reserve as well this week.  Philly is boasting quite the blueline these days.

The PIM pool leaders only did a marginal job trying to hold on to the title, with one team in particular trying to catch up to them.  Kristy & Don used their second pick for another forward, taking Vancouver's Alex Burrows, who does get into some trouble, from time-to-time, but I wouldn't say he was a goon.

Eric's team fell back a bit in the week, but he has also opted to try and take advantage of some of that new found Minnesota Wild offense, taking forward Jason Zucker.  His team is 31 points back of the money, but a couple of clever picks could shorten that gap up a bit.

Grant voluntarily opted to take a pass in the 2nd round as well, hoping that his team could turn this season around, as it was drafted.

Jeremy lost one of his key defensemen to a long-term injury and needed a quick solution.  He went to the offensive hot bed of the Dallas Stars and the older brother of the pair, Jordie Benn, to try and help his scoring woes.  It's a good thing this pool isn't about defense or that we are relying on the plus/minus stat, because you won't get results for that in the Big D.

One of last year's participants in the PIM pool, Derek B., isn't necessarily going for the title again this year, but he did switch one grinding forward for another, trying to make sure his name stays close to the top of the race.  Derek chose Flames forward Micheal Ferland as his 2nd round pick, which could work in his favour.

Stacey M. was obviously happy enough with her team, that she opted not to make a second move at the Waiver Draft.

Clayton, on the other hand, probably should have improved his goaltending, but since there was nothing on the list, he went ahead and looked to improve his forwards.  He picked up a second rookie forward in Tampa's Brayden Point, trying to make up for his lack of goaltending.

On Stuart's team, his defense was what he identified as a problem spot, so he took on Calvin de Haan to his team.  The Islanders haven't exactly been shooting the lights out, but his previous defenseman was floundering in Colorado, so there is a slight improvement.

Dale B. was really looking forward to snagging Point, but since he wasn't available two picks later, he opted to go with one of the Stars' top forwards, Devin Shore, who has seen some time in the top six and put points up there.

Josh Anderson's name popped up a few times in people's selection e-mails, but Mike was the top dog, able to snag him with the 40th overall pick in the draft.  The Blue Jackets forward did well to post both points and penalty minutes in the first segment.

Mike Condon was another name bandied about, all throughout the draft, but people just were not sure about how many minutes he would get, but it seems safe to say that he is the solid number two now in Ottawa.  Stacey C. will look to him for an improvement to his crease.

The picking were sure getting slim, especially on the blueline, as Ian Cole was the favourite of a few teams in the back half of the draft.  Cam was able to snag him in the 2nd round, replacing an underachiever on his side.

Ryan needed to replace a concussed defender and as much as he was eyeing up Cole, he had to settle for Toby Enstrom of the Winnipeg Jets, who hasn't quite had the same impact as previous years.  Still, he's better than a guy out indefinitely.

Wilton was also looking to move a defenseman, but between Cole and Enstrom going, he opted to move an underachieving forward instead, hoping for a few more points.  Enter Colin Wilson of the Predators, as his Blue Jackets forward that he dropped, wasn't joining in much of those high scoring games.

John S. ditched one of the young Coyotes to go with one of the old Flames players, adding a little more of a veteran presence to his team in Kris Versteeg.  Versteeg has been able to chip in here and there and now that the team is starting to roll, he'll be a part of it, for sure.

I think the Carolina Hurricanes have been an underappreciated team this season, but Marcie added one, the only team to do so in the Waiver Draft, picking up Viktor Stalberg, who has been reasonable to start the season, both with points and the odd minor penalty here and there.

Scott didn't disappoint, taking one of his favourites, Matt Read of the Philadelphia Flyers.  Dale C. was nice enough to mention that he was leaving Read for Scott, some 16 picks ahead of where Scott was drafting.  That was awfully thoughtful, no?

The concussion was starting to plague Marcin's team and he opted to move one of those guys and he may have got himself a bargain with the selection of Andrew Cogliano.  No one seemed to want the Anaheim forward, just no faith that he can keep up what he was doing perhaps?

Brian was skulking around a defenseman who was dropped in the 2nd round, it was hard to say who it was, but he ended up with Dan Girardi of the Rangers instead.  It could have been a Pittsburgh defenseman, maybe one from Colorado... it's just hard to say.

Benson didn't have to make another move, as his team was rolling and healthy after his first drop and pick, so that was that for him.

Then we moved onto the bonus round, where three teams, all near the bottom, made good use of this round to move some injured players for some healthy players.

Tony added forward Dustin Brown of the Kings and goalie Anthony Stolarz of the Flyers, just making the best of a bad situation.  Troy added a couple more PIM prone forwards in Matt Martin of the Leafs and Chris Thorburn of the Jets, while Wes just wanted another body in his lineup, taking Patrick Wiercioch of the Avalanche.

And then... I rested.  Well, until I had to put all of these guys into their respective teams.  That wasn't resting at all.

Bring on Week Seventeen, right?