Morning Player Notes (Dec 2)

A couple of healthy scratches to note from last night, the first coming in Vancouver, where the Dallas Stars were taking on the Canucks and they had opted to sit Valeri Nichushkin for the afternoon game, likely because of his lack of offensive output.  In 21 games played this season, the Russian only has 4 assists.  Certainly, the expectations for Nichushkin were higher after pulling him out of the KHL and handing him a new contract to do so.  It hasn't been a great restart to his NHL career, especially at just under $3 million per season.

And for all of these reasons, Brian has set to part ways with the 23-year old winger, dropping him in the Waiver Draft, but he just couldn't squeeze any last points out of him, if he was up in the press box.  A number of teams did get some parting gift points from their drops already this week, but Nichushkin goes out with a whimper.

The New Jersey Devils hosted the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night and before the game, they made defenseman Will Butcher into one of their healthy scratches.  In the last five games, the 23-year old defender has only 1 assist and in total, he has 1 goal and 8 points in 24 games.  In his rookie season, he was just over half a point-per-game in his scoring rate, but has yet to find that rate this season and the Devils are now sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference.  I don't think anyone is blaming that all on the kid, but his lack of production has hurt their offense.

Benson'st team has stayed afloat this week with 17 points, staying well clear of the basement, but still losing ground with the teams up top.  There was no change on Butcher, so he'll be sticking around into next week, but Benson is hoping that he can find his production from last season soon.

Nylander Signs Just In Time

Well, it came down to the very last minute, but the announcement came and all is well in the centre of the universe... for now.

William Nylander and the Toronto Maple Leafs agreed on a 6-year deal, worth $41.4 million in total.  The cap math does get to be a little bit more interesting, as the late signing rules go in the CBA, Nylander's actual cap hit in the 2019 season works out to be $10.2 million, but for the remainder of the deal, it will work out to $6.969 million per season.

For a complete breakdown of how his cap hit for the 2019 season works out, check out CapFriendly's page for this sort of mumbo-jumbo.

Nylander held out as long as he possibly could to get the best deal he possibly could, convinced that his three seasons of fairly consistent scoring was going to be worth a bundle, even for his second contract signed with the team.  Last season, Nylander finished 64th among all forwards in scoring with 20 goals and 61 points in 82 games, so he'll have to bring that kind of scoring rate to the remainder of the season for any sort of positive return on this deal.

The Leafs have already played 26 games and will play again tonight in Minnesota, he'll probably need a week or two to get back up to speed with his teammates, which could cost him upwards of six games, including tonight, missing 32 and leaving 50 on the table.  At his scoring rate last season, that would put him in around 37 points for the remainder of the year.  That should be the target.

Nylander certainly won't save Brenda & Seward's season in the overall standings, already 85 points out of 1st place, but it could get them back into some mini-games for the rest of the year.  Game-winners, they have 8 so far, only 8 behind the leader.  Shootout goals, no goals on one attempt... the leader is 5-for-7.  You never know!

2019 All-Star Game Voting Opens

Last season, the All-Star Game was featured as a mini-game and I think it went pretty well.  For years I've been counting up all the points in the All-Star Game festivities and posting them in hockey pool fashion and this year will be no different.

As of today, the voting has opened on NHL.com (click here to head to the page) and you can vote for the captains of each of the four division teams, as they will go back to the 3-on-3 tournament that has done them so well in recent years.

We'll have until December 23rd to vote for our hockey pool players for this competition and the full teams would likely be announced some time early in the New Year.  The festivities go on January 26th and the results would be posted soon afterwards.

Steve's team was the winner of the mini-game last season, earning his money back with a pretty good showing in Tampa Bay.  Who will get the better of the rest of the All-Stars in San Jose this year?

Goalie Announcements (Dec 1)

A couple of afternoon games again have the blog scrambling around, making mildly-educated guesses for the starting goalies in many of these games tonight.  Thankfully, when you start these posts really early, you can afford a little bit of time before your self-imposed deadline to hit the publish button and wait for those last few confirmed starters to jump out at you.

So, who's playing for what today?

Stacey M. is still looking for her survival win for this week and between Saturday and Sunday, there are three slots where she could pick up starts and/or wins, but will likely only see two of them.  How many will she see today?

Six teams have already pushed the 20-point barrier this week, looking for the Mover & Shaker, Stuart leads the way with 25 points, Ryan is in at 24, Kristy & Don and Steve are at 23 and finally, Grant and Mike are at 21.  A good race.

John P. reeled in the other potential Basement Dwellers a bit last night, as his team starts at 6 points, with Chelsea and Brenda & Seward at 7 points at the start of play today.  Neil would be next in line at 11 points, which may or may not be all that safe.

That leaves 15 teams in between and I'm sure they're all doing fine.

Martin Jones (Brenda & Seward) versus Craig Anderson (Mike)
The Sens had their goalie announced nice and early for me this morning and Mike could benefit from a Craig Anderson start against the Sharks in what should be a emotionally-charged game.  Mike's team is one of the teams mentioned for the Mover & Shaker and 2 points here would be pretty helpful.  Martin Jones does indeed get the start for the Sharks this afternoon, confirmed amidst writing this post, which is a relief for Brenda & Seward, as they really need those 2 points to stay ahead of John P. today.

Ben Bishop (Clayton) versus Anders Nilsson (N/A)
We know that Ben Bishop is going to return from his lower-body injury on Saturday afternoon in Vancouver against the Canucks, as he has been out for just over a week and Clayton's team couldn't be happier that he's back, as he was running pretty hot when he left.  Clayton's team is in the middle 15, so there's not much to see here.  As for the Canucks starter, was still unconfirmed early on and I'm going to go with starting the backup in the afternoon affair, although they don't play again until Tuesday... so, it could be Jacob Markstrom again.

Frederik Andersen (Derek B.) versus Devan Dubnyk (Wes)
By the time the puck drops on the Maple Leafs and the Wild, the drama surrounding Toronto should be done, right?  Who knows?  Devan Dubnyk is the expected starter for the Wild tonight, giving Wes some more minutes to his pool-leading totals, but trying to get a win out of these Leafs will be difficult.  Frederik Andersen hasn't been confirmed, but does seem exceptionally likely to get the nod tonight.  Derek rejoices!

Jimmy Howard (Tony) versus Tuukka Rask (Jesse)
The Bruins confirmed that Tuukka Rask was going to get consecutive starts for the Bruins on Friday, suggesting that things might be going back to normal for the Bruins these days.  Jesse will be a happy camper with this news, but this is one of Stacey M.'s potential starts wiped away.  The visiting keeper wasn't confirmed at the time of writing, but the word is that the Wings are riding high on Jimmy Howard, good news for Tony's team.

Alexandar Georgiev (N/A) versus Carey Price (Stacey M.)
There were a few people trying to pronounce the Rangers' backup goalie's name through the Waiver Draft, kicking his tires from time to time, but no one jumped on him during the proceedings.  Alexandar Georgiev gets the start today for the Rangers, confirmed, likely, and unconfirmed, to take on Carey Price of the Canadiens at the Bell Centre.  Stacey M. probably has her fingers crossed for this start or else she may have to wait for the Canadiens to take on the Sharks tomorrow.

Louis Domingue (Picked) versus Michael Hutchinson (N/A)
Neither goalie has been confirmed for the Showdown in Sunrise, but the Panthers played last night, which would indicate that the next goalie in line would be up for them tonight.  There is a rumbling that Roberto Luongo could be healthy enough to play tonight, but there was no confirmation of it.  If it does happen, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise, but until otherwise specified, I would think they would go with Michael Hutchinson tonight.

Laurent Brossoit (N/A) versus Cory Schneider (Tony)
Nothing confirmed for the Jets and Devils this morning, but it does seem likely that Tony will get one more start out of Cory Schneider tonight, since the Devils went with Keith Kinkaid last night.  The Jets open back-to-back nights in the New York area, so this game could be a bit of a coin toss and if I had to guess, I would say that the backup gets the Devils and the number one gets the Rangers tomorrow.

Sergei Bobrovsky (Kristy & Don) versus Thomas Greiss (Stuart)
Who would have though that Blue Jackets and Islanders match-up could be the game of the night on the schedule, as it is a swing game in the Mover & Shaker standings tonight.  Both goalies have been confirmed for their starts tonight, Sergei Bobrovsky goes for the duo and Thomas Greiss goes for the weekly leader, so there is some intrigue in this one.  The Jackets have won back-to-back games coming into this one, it will be a tough game for the home side tonight.

Anthony Stolarz (N/A) versus Casey DeSmith (Picked)
The Battle of Pennsylvania could have featured two goalies picked up in the Waiver Draft today, it could have been a pre-Week Ten brother battle that wouldn't count for anything today.  It's not.  Casey DeSmith, picked by Benson, but not active until Monday, will take on the still available Anthony Stolarz, but Michal Neuvirth is expected to backup.

Chad Johnson (N/A) versus Adin Hill (N/A)
The injury-depleted Blues are into Arizona to take on the Coyotes on the second half of back-to-back nights.  That hasn't stopped the Blues from playing their number one on back-to-back starts, but last night's game did go into overtime and they probably don't want to wear Jake Allen down too much, despite where they are in the standings.

Corey Crawford (Benson) versus Pekka Rinne (John P.)
No indication of the starting goalies between Chicago and Nashville tonight, but it seems fairly likely that the number ones will go for each team tonight.  Both pool teams, belonging to Benson and John, could really use the start and more so the points from the win.  Different reasons for both, but those 2 points are very valuable.

Marc-Andre Fleury (Troy) versus Mikko Koskinen (Picked)
The Oilers are loving life with Mikko Koskinen and Tony is waiting for Monday, when he can start capitalizing on his success.  It won't be tonight though, as confirmed as he is for tonight's game against Vegas, picked players are not live until Monday.  Tony may get a good taste of what he's picking up though tonight.  For Vegas, on the other hand, still not confirmed, but it may be fair to assume that they go right back to Marc-Andre Fleury, offering Troy another start.

Week Nine Waiver Draft (Dec 1)

I'm sure I could go back through the years of these particular posts and check and see if we ever finished a Waiver Draft's main two rounds before the weekend actually got started, but that's a lot of reading, a needle in a haystack, really, so I will go so far as to say I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened before... but it might have?

Considering how quickly the actual draft went in September, I shouldn't be terribly surprised with how quick everything went this week.  Sure, a couple of hiccups, but nothing too major.  I think the pitchforks and torches only came out once.

By the early part of the afternoon, I had already picked up three bonus round moves, because there were some teams chomping at the bit to drop their last major injury.  Just a reminder, the bonus round is technically open until puck drop on Monday night, when Week Ten officially starts. 

When we left off the storied posts of this Waiver Draft, it was Stuart's pick in the 2nd round, 49th overall and the guy tried to circumvent the rules of trying to pick a goalie dropped in the same round.  What a guy!  So, he passed on the 49th pick.

Troy, on the other hand, was feeling lucky!  He wanted to drop underachieving defenseman Thomas Hickey of the Islanders, but the only name that really jumped out at him was Tampa Bay's injured defenseman Anton Stralman, who isn't set to be reevaluated from his upper-body injury until the middle of next week.  Maybe he'll be ready... maybe he won't?  Nevertheless, I don't think that this gamble will sink his ship, which is sailing pretty well at the moment.

So, with those two slots in the draft now in the books, we moved onto the bonus round, where teams can drop their injured players and pick up healthy bodies to round out their team for the second segment.

Scott led it all off with the dropping of Justin Schultz of the Penguins, he has been hurt since the middle of October and isn't coming back until well into the New Year.  He picked up Ben Hutton of the Canucks to fill the void.

Now that we moved onto the bonus round, Stuart could finally get the goalie he wanted, picking up Michal Neuvirth in Philadelphia, who is returning from injury this weekend, dropping Darcy Kuemper of the Coyotes, who this the Injured Reserve this week with a lower-body injury.  Stuart made big moves in the Waiver Draft last year in the crease and it won him the pool.  Did he do it again?

And finally, Derek B. added to his collection of rookies, picking up another Flyers player in Oskar Lindblom, as he was hanging on to injured Vegas forward Paul Stastny, who could be on the way back to full health in the next week or so, but Derek really wants his money back and this might be the way to go for him.

That's where we've left it, as of Saturday morning.  The doors are still open for a couple days yet, so if you're paying close attention and see an injury you'd like to take care of, shoot me a text, e-mail or a phone call and we can get you sorted out with a healthy body.  All injuries are posted on the news page, just in case you've forgotten.

Morning Player Notes (Dec 1)

The Los Angeles Kings followed up the report of Ilya Kovalchuk's ankle injury on Saturday morning, one that forced him to miss Friday night's contest in Calgary, saying that it is an infection in his ankle that has flared up and that there is no specific timetable for a return.  The Kings do have him listed as day-to-day, so there's a good chance that some antibiotics should do the trick here.

Derek B. has been dumping his duds for rookies, setting himself up for a run at the mini-game money and now he does have another player to drop, if he so chooses.  Kovalchuk has 14 points in 25 games this season and could be one of the biggest overpaid signings this year.

Ottawa Senators prized rookie defenseman Maxime Lajoie is a game-time decision tonight, he's dealing with an undisclosed injury at the moment and may or may not go this afternoon against the San Jose Sharks.  Not much to report here, really.  Either he goes and we all look past the whole post or he doesn't and hopefully we learn what the actual ailment is, but if it is a game-time decision today, it couldn't be too bad.

John P. did keep some interest in the rookie mini-game in the Week Nine Waiver Draft, picking up the rookie defender in the opening round.  John's team currently sits in 2nd in the mini-game, 14 points back of the leader and needs some help there.  Not quite sure why he dropped Casey Mittlestadt in the 2nd round though.

The St. Louis Blues took a couple of big hits in the injury department on Friday night against the Colorado Avalanche, losing both forward Alexander Steen and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to upper-body injuries in their 3-2 overtime win.  Steen's injury was only deemed that of the upper-body variety and the coaching staff said that he would be reevaluated today at some point, while Pietrangelo is believed to have suffered hand or wrist injury and also will get a good look by team doctors today.

The Blues are in Arizona tonight, so it seems doubtful that either will be able to play, likely taking away skater games from Stacey C. and Tony, respectfully.  Both players have been only just okay in the scoring ranks this season, which has led to only some mediocre numbers in the standings, 17th and 19th in the standings, respectfully again.  We'll report more, if more comes up later on.