Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 6)

Arizona Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski was excused from action on Monday night, when his team took on the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night, as his wife was giving birth on the night.  The Coyotes may have missed their number two defenseman, as they dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to their division rivals.  I think it's fairly safe to assume Goligoski should be back for the team's next game, Wednesday in Vancouver.

Goligoski has been a pretty good offensive player for Benson's 3rd place team this year, picking up 30 points in 63 games, but he has been a bit of a defensive liability, with a -22 rating in the plus/minus department.

It was a rough night for the Dallas Stars, in terms of pool players, as they announced that forward Radek Faksa and defenseman Esa Lindell would miss Monday night's game against the Senators due to a foot injury and illness, respectively. Both players are considered to be day-to-day, neither appear to be very serious. Then in the game, goaltender Ben Bishop was forced from action after the 1st period with a lower-body injury and the update from the team on Tuesday morning is that Bishop is expected to miss the next two games, at least.

So, let's go down the line... Faksa belongs to Stacey M.'s 12th place team, Lindell is a part of Troy's 17th place team and Bishop is one of the goalies for Kristy & Don's team, which currently sits in 7th after Monday night.  No real money implications here.

The struggles of the Edmonton Oilers has meant that the roster is in a constant state of flux and on Monday, with the Coyotes in town, Zack Kassian was one of those fluctuated players, moving from the lineup to the press box as a healthy scratch on the night.  Kassian only has 16 points in 63 games this season and didn't fit the coach's plan to play against the dogs, so up he went.  It's hard to say what the plan is for him moving forward, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was scratched more moving forward.

Wes has to be somewhat disappointed in Kassian, since picking him up in the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft, as he wanted him for his penalty minutes and since the start of Week Nineteen, the agitating forward has only been to the box once for 2 PIM.  Go figure!  Wes still leads the PIM pool by a fair margin, but it should be by such a larger margin by now.