Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 22)

So, what was believed to be a healthy scratch to Columbus defenseman Markus Nutivaara is actually an upper-body injury and it actually sounds like it could keep the Swede out for a little bit, hence the team placing him on the Injured Reserve on Wednesday. The placement was retroactive to the 16th, so he would be eligible to come back as soon as tomorrow, but I'm not sure that he will be back that quickly.

For Cam, he's already called it a season, not paying much attention to the pool anymore, so he won't really know how terrible his team is doing. Actually, it hasn't had a bad opening to the week, already with 10 points through Wednesday night's action, but his team is mired in 17th.

The defensemen shuffle in Vegas has kind of kicked off again, as Shea Theodore's illness has put him onto the Injured Reserve, that or it could be a throat injury (I've seen mixed reports), while Jon Merrill returned from the IR and that meant that someone had to come out of the lineup as a healthy scratch and on Wednesday night against the Flames, that was Brad Hunt.  Hunt has been a serviceable option on the Vegas blueline, but there are plenty of those options on this team and his name was the one that was scratched out for this game.

Derek B. picked up Hunt in the last player swap a few weeks ago and since then, he has picked up 3 points in seven games, giving him some decent return for the pick, this late in the regular season.  Derek's team has really fallen off the pace, sticking to the middle of the pack in 13th, hovering there ever so slightly.

The foot injury that Shea Weber has been dealing with will now require season-ending surgery, the Montreal Canadiens announced on Thursday.  Weber has been out since the middle of December and the injury didn't have a great deal of progress in the healing department, so the team sent him off to a couple of specialists and the decision was made to shut him down, as there is some significant tendon damage that needs to be repaired.  It seems very likely that Weber will be ready for training camp in September after the surgery, where he can start his season fresh.

This is the sort of news that Neil could have used a few weeks ago, as he has been sitting on Weber, thinking that he could be back at any given time, despite not really having any thing to base that thought process on.  Weber wasn't really going to save his season, but it might have been a little more fun to have another player active in his lineup instead.