Afternoon Preseason Notes (Oct 2)

It sounds like the Dallas Stars will be without returning forward Valeri Nichushkin for their season opener on Thursday night, home to the Coyotes, as he is day-to-day with a lower-body injury at the moment. The Stars coaching staff are hopeful that he will be ready for Saturday's game, at home against the Jets.  It doesn't sound like anything major, but he'll still need a little bit of recovery time.

The 23-year old was in the KHL for the last couple of seasons and has now made his return to the NHL, hoping for some better results, now that he's grown and matured a little bit more during his time at home.  Brian is hoping for much of that as well, but he got him at a very good pick in the 12th round, so a productive season from the young Russian could turn him into quite the bargain pick.

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced their 23-man roster on Tuesday afternoon and in order to get there, they had to place goaltender Tristan Jarry on the non-roster Injured Reserve after he suffered a lower-body injury of his own in the team's last preseason game against the Blue Jackets.  There was no timeline disclosed for a return for Jarry, but it could be cleverly disguising a way to not lose Casey DeSmith through the waiver wire, as Jarry is still waiver exempt, but DeSmith isn't.  We will probably learn more in the next couple of days, but this is the situation as it is.

With the news, as it has dropped, would make Jarry eligible for the preseason Waiver Draft, since it is an injury, post-draft.  Neil does have the option to swap out Jarry for a healthy goaltender, if he so chooses, but it might be tough to find one that might be either better than Jarry or in a better situation for wins.  Let the debate begin!