Draft Player News (Jan. 1)

An upper-body injury may force Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Steve Montador out of Monday night's game against the Oilers, according to a tweet on Sunday morning.  The status for the veteran defenseman is currently 'questionable,' so it is worth noting that he may miss some time at the moment, but there are no more details about the injury at the moment.

Montador has been a key piece of the Blackhawks blueline, picking up 5 goals and 5 assists in 38 games for the club, the occasional offense that can make a difference in a game.  Would be a tough loss, if he did miss out on the game.  We'll consider him day-to-day if he does miss the game.

Montador belongs to a top 10 team, owned by Jani K. this season, who has seen some average production out of his blueliners, collecting 58 points from the blueline.  Jani's team has slowly been climbing upwards in the standings, with one of the healthiest teams, among skaters, in the pool this year.  An injury is certainly worth noting for him.

It appears that the Florida Panthers will be without their number one goalie, Jose Theodore, for a while, as he had left Saturday night's game against Montreal early in the 2nd period with a lower-body injury and was not able to return to the game. The Panthers did win the game in the end, but it was Scott Clemmensen who received credit for the win, not Theodore.

The prognosis after the game is that it is likely a right knee injury and more tests will be needed to determine the severity of the injury.

This is not good news for Wayne H., who just had his other goalie return from a major groin injury and he was not getting his team back into a winning way, reclaiming top spot in the pool in the week.  This could be another big hit.

The Senators had to make veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar into a late scratch on Saturday night, before they took on the Sabres, as he had taken a puck to the head in warm-ups and the team took every precaution necessary to make sure he was okay.  Gonchar is now on concussion watch, with the league and public looking much more closely at the symptoms and the actions taken by teams going forward with these sorts of head injuries.

As of Sunday morning, there was no news on Gonchar's condition, but if there is anything significant to report, it will be posted on the blog.

Another player in the money race having to have a seat to injury, as Dale C. is potentially without a player going forward.  Dale is in the money through Saturday's action and is in striking distance of any of the money spots.  It goes without saying, he'll be watching this situation closely.

The injury bug continues to bite the Pittsburgh Penguins, as they have appeared to have lost forward Pascal Dupuis to an upper-body injury on Saturday night against the Devils. Dupuis had to leave the game early with the injury and as of Sunday morning, there was no new news on the forward's status.

Dupuis has been good for the Penguins this season, scoring 11 goals and 14 assists in 38 games for the club, sitting just outside of the top 100 in pool scoring, making the most of some added responsibility out on the ice.

This goes down as another injury for Munden G., who picked up Dupuis in the waiver draft a few weeks ago and has seen some mild returns since the pick-up.  Munden has collected 4 points in 11 games since the pick-up, which isn't great, but he has tried to keep his pool team afloat with the pick.