Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 20)

We are waiting on news on the status of Taylor Hall, as he left yesterday's game against the Senators with an apparent knee injury. Hall collided with Ottawa defenseman Eric Gryba, knee-on-knee, tried to play on it, but it wasn't going to be for him.  I am expecting some bad news, but we'll wait and see first.

You can believe that Mike S. is waiting for good news, possibly even holding his breath for good news.  Hall is one of the Oilers best forwards, so far this year, and is Mike's best forward, through Saturday night's action.

A scary moment for the Montreal Canadiens' Brandon Prust, as he fell awkwardly into the end boards and had to leave the game with an upper-body injury, not to return to the game against the Predators.  There is no injury update expected from the team until their morning skate on Monday morning, but this will be one thing to watch.

Prust has not been one of the most offensive players for the Canadiens, but his multi-faceted game is more than just putting the occasional puck in the net.  In eight games, Prust has 2 goals and 1 assist this season.

Stacey M., sitting in 4th place after Saturday night, picked Prust this season, 318th overall in the 14th round.  Not a bad last round pick, especially if he can come back in good time.

It sounds like it is a minor lower-body injury, which is keeping out Nashville Predators forward Mike Fisher, who's first game out of the line-up was Saturday against the Canadiens.  Fisher is currently listed as out day-to-day with his lower-body injury, questionable for Sunday's game.

Fisher is Nashville's best forward this year, scoring 2 goals and 3 assists in his 7 games played, which likely says more about the depth of offense that the Predators have at the moment.

Ryan M. has Fisher this year, taking him in the 12th year, 282nd overall this year.  Miller is just outside the top 10 after Saturday night, so he'll need whatever Fisher can muster upon his return will be appreciated.

The New Jersey Devils had a couple of player setbacks, the second will be listed below, as they took on the New York Rangers on Saturday, and the first was their captain on the sidelined with the flu.  Patrik Elias was not well enough to go on Saturday, but he is expected to be back in the line-up for the team's next game, now that they are on the board with a win.

Elias has been just 'okay' to start the season for the Devils, scoring 2 goals and 2 assists in his first seven games this year.  The Devils, as a whole, have been struggling, to be fair though.

That counts as a missed game for Chris M., who finished Saturday night, right in the thick of the money race, 3rd place, 1 point back of 2nd and 9 points out of 1st.

The Devils were also without their best forward on Saturday night against the Rangers, as Damien Brunner was held out of the game with upper-body soreness.  There was a suggestion out there that the injury is shoulder related, but in this day and age of as much secrecy as possible, upper-body soreness is going to be the official word.  Brunner is currently listed as out day-to-day.

Brunner has come to a re-tooling Devils team and has done exceptionally well, scoring 3 goals and 2 assists in seven games for Jersey, acting as one of the team's best forwards.

Doug K. picked up Brunner, before he was even confirmed signed, in the draft this year, taking him in the 10th round, 229th overall.