Preseason Waiver Action in the Draft (Oct 8)

Well, any thoughts of yesterday's waiver action being the last was certainly quite silly, as there were still injuries to take care of and people are reading the blog, so that's a plus too. We have three moves on the final day, which should wrap everything up, as the puck drops on the season tonight.

Wyllie needed to make one move, as his 14th round pick had a press conference for his injury yesterday and Allan needed to make two more changes, as one of his changes got hurt and the other has been on the page for a few days and Allan has opted for the move.

Wyllie has moved Flames rookie Sam Bennett off of his roster, as his shoulder injury may need surgery and that could keep him out of action for the entire year.  It doesn't sound like he'll even be available for junior action and if so, it wouldn't much.

In Bennett's place, Wyllie has picked up a seasoned veteran, Pascal Dupuis of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who is healthy and ready to go.

Dupuis was somewhat of a surprise, not being picked in the original draft on the 27th, as I had his projections in the 55-point range.  I think this could be a big win for Wyllie, assuming that the 35-year old can stay healthy for the entirety of the regular season.

Back spasms for Lubomir Visnovsky has got Allan worried a little bit and rightly so.  Visnovsky has been moved to the IR to start the season for the Islanders, which likely means he'll be missing some action and back spasms among the elder statesmen of the league is never a good sign.

Allan opted for some bigger minutes in Edmonton for his replacement, taking Andrew Ference of the Oilers to help his team out.

The 35-year old blueliner only has a projection in the 15-point range from me this year, which is well down from Visnovsky's 35 points, I had for him in the preseason.  Given the injury, the totals would probably be much closer after game #82.  Ference may have a little bit more upside than 15 points, as he did have a 24-point season in 2012 with the Bruins.

Finally, Allan received some more bad news yesterday, as a previous waiver pick-up, Kris Versteeg, suffered a lower-body injury in the final days of the preseason and the Blackhawks were not very optimistic about his return or the injury.

With that being said, Allan panicked and pulled the trigger on a move that brings Vincent Lecavalier to his side in place of Versteeg, another player that is surprising that lasted through the draft.

In terms of projections, I had Lecavalier a bit lower, down around the 30-point mark, although the Hockey News thought a little bit more about the 34-year old, giving him a 40-point projection.  I had Versteeg in at 35 points, so it could very well be a wash there.

So, in total, we saw seven changes made in the preseason waivers, Allan making four of them, out of necessity, which is crazy unlucky.  At least the waivers were used this year and teams are going into the season fairly healthy, so that's good.  We all want a competitive year and I think we're in for another great year.