Minor Draft Player News (Oct. 30)

The Los Angeles Kings went into Saturday night's game against the Phoenix Coyotes without forward Simon Gagne, who was held out because of an undisclosed injury. Gagne was also held out of Friday's practice, but the first suggestion was that it was because of a maintenance day, but after being out on Saturday, some questions are being raised. Gagne is currently listed as questionable for Sunday's game against the Avalanche, which could go either way, but the lack of explanation keeps this situation under the strange heading.

In nine games this season, Gagne has 3 goals and 4 assists and is off to a pretty good start with the club.

Gagne belongs to the 10th place duo of Kristy and Don, a team that currently sits 16 points out of 3rd place at the moment and with the way that Gagne has been scoring, missing out on more than one game could start to be rather detrimental, especially since it is so close around the top 10.

The Senators already know that their captain Daniel Alfredsson will be taking a number of maintenance days this season, but there is going to be real concern when he suffers an actual injury. Alfredsson was hit by an elbow from the Rangers' Wojtek Wolski on Saturday afternoon, which forced him out of the game in the 3rd period on Saturday afternoon and is now listed as doubtful for Sunday's appearance against the Maple Leafs. The details have been few and far between, but it doesn't sound too good.

The team has recalled forward Nikita Filatov on Sunday, which could be to take the place of Alfredsson on Sunday, if the captain cannot go.

In 10 games this season, Alfredsson has 4 goals and 3 assists, which is a very respectable start for the veteran winger.  Many of those points have come in very important situations in the team's current winning streak.

In the draft, Alfredsson belongs to Clayton C., who has the hottest team in the pool in Week Four, locked in for a Mover and Shaker nod.  Alfie's contribution to the hot week was somewhat minor, with only 2 points in the week, but moving forward, Clayton will want a notable scorer in his line-up, in case someone else goes cold.

Very few details have been released on the upper-body injury that Daniel Briere is dealing with at the moment, as it was somewhat of a surprise note on Saturday afternoon that the diminutive winger wouldn't be dressing for the Flyers against the Hurricanes.  We'll consider Briere as out day-to-day, but this is the third injury that the Flyers have some real concern about from this week, as he is added to the list, which already has Chris Pronger and Brayden Schenn.

Briere has been a very productive player for the Flyers in the early part of the season, as one of five pool players on the team that have averaged a point per game or better this season.  In 10 games played, Briere has 4 goals and 6 assists.

There's no question that Briere has been a huge part of the recent success of Brenda F.'s team in the last couple of weeks, as her team has rocketed up the standings, going from 21st at the end of Week Two to 7th going into Sunday's action.  Of course, the early part of the season still has plenty of movement with all the teams still so close, but that's still quite a big jump.  Brenda's most impressive source of points is her goaltending, as her team shares the pool lead in scoring from the crease.