Mock Draft of the Week Nine Waiver Draft

I know some of the basement dwelling teams have been actively lobbying for the Waiver Draft to come sooner and sooner each year, but I have remained firm with the format of the pool and the drafts come at the segment breaks.  It doesn't really help those teams that have had some exceptionally bad luck, but it is designed to punish teams that picked especially poor at the draft.

There is still two-thirds of the season to come after the Waiver Draft, but for some teams, they may need more than two players.  Sadly, that won't happen.

As of the standings on Monday, here is what I've come up with for what I think the Waiver Draft may look like.  Of course, there have been plenty of surprises through the years, as teams went ahead and picked up some dropped players, but that tends to be something that happens more in the second Waiver Draft, when there isn't a great deal to pick from and dropped players can be just as good.

Pool Team	Drop	NHL	Pos	Pick	NHL
Benson	Teemu Pulkkinen	DET	F	Filip Forsberg	NAS
Stacey C.	Dany Heatley	ANA	F	Nick Foligno	CBJ
Brenda & Seward	Ales Hemsky	DAL	F	Brock Nelson	NYI
Ryan	John Gibson	ANA	G	Devan Dubnyk	ARI
Wilton	Jhonas Enroth	BUF	G	James Reimer	TOR
Wyllie	Mikael Backlund	CAL	F	Nikita Kucherov	TAM
Brian	Anders Lindback	DAL	G	Robin Lehner	OTT
Leo	Olli Jokinen	NAS	F	Lance Bouma	CAL
Scott	Alex Stalock	SAN	G	Dustin Tokarski	MTL
Mike	Mathieu Perreault	WPG	F	Justin Abdelkader	DET
Dale B.	Brandon Dubinsky	CBJ	F	Christopher Higgins	VAN
Allan	Vincent Lecavalier	PHI	F	Andre Burakovsky	WAS
Stuart	Alexander Barkov	FLA	F	Tanner Pearson	LOS
Wes	Colin Wilson	NAS	F	Kris Versteeg	CHI
Troy	Sam Reinhart	BUF	F	Martin Hanzal	ARI
Cam	Carter Hutton	NAS	G	Niklas Svedberg	BOS
Tony	Anders Lee	NYI	F	Riley Nash	CAR
Grant K.	Evander Kane	WPG	F	Leo Komarov	TOR
Stacey M.	Mika Zibanejad	OTT	F	Michael Ryder	NJD
Clayton	Teuvo Teravainen	CHI	F	Derek Stepan	NYR
Dale C.	Alex Killorn	TAM	F	Boone Jenner	CBJ
Kristy & Don	Sam Gagner	ARI	F	Brad Boyes	FLA
Grant S.	Matt Carle	TAM	D	Anton Stralman	TAM

The prize for being in last place in the standings is Nashville's Filip Forsberg, who has been on a tear in the last month, jumping up to the top of the available scoring race.  It would be an immediate score for any team to pick him up, but for how far out of the running Benson is for the money, he would be just trying to float up and out of the Basement Dwelling position and try not to sweep the bobblehead race, which aren't the top trophy.

Islanders forward Brock Nelson has cooled off from a very hot start and has dropped down to the 3rd overall pick.  Brenda & Seward would be happy to get him, I'm sure, as they have not seen any real production from Ales Hemsky in Dallas.

The goaltending situation in the Waiver Draft isn't very good, so if your team is in need of some help in the crease, it would be wise to make that move in the opening round, since there won't be much after the fact.  Ryan is projected to make the first goalie move, picking up Devan Dubnyk in the desert, who is seeing a little more action for the Coyotes.

Pool Team	Drop	NHL	Pos	Pick	NHL
Benson	Evgeny Kuznetsov	WAS	F	Mark Stone	OTT
Stacey C.	John-Michael Liles	CAR	D	Damon Severson	NJD
Brenda & Seward	Radko Gudas	TAM	D	Justin Braun	SAN
Ryan	Devante Smith-Pelly	ANA	F	Blake Comeau	PIT
Wilton	Chris Stewart	STL	F	Antoine Roussel	DAL
Wyllie	Jason Chimera	WAS	F	Zemgus Girgensons	BUF
Brian	Niklas Backstrom	MIN	G	Thomas Greiss	PIT
Leo	Matt Stajan	CAL	F	Lee Stempniak	PIT
Scott	Valeri Nichushkin	DAL	F	Alex Burrows	VAN
Mike	Tyler Myers	BUF	D	Zach Bogosian	WPG
Dale B.	Andrew MacDonald	PHI	D	Alexsey Emelin	MTL
Allan	Andrew Ference	EDM	D	David Savard	CBJ
Stuart	Mark Scheifele	WPG	F	Nikolai Kulemin	NYI
Wes	Adam Henrique	NJD	F	Markus Granlund	CAL
Troy	R.J. Umberger	PHI	F	Ryan Carter	MIN
Cam	Brian Gionta	BUF	F	Linden Vey	VAN
Tony	Tom Gilbert	MTL	D	Marco Scandella	MIN
Grant K.	PASS
Stacey M.	PASS
Clayton	Thomas Hickey	NYI	D	Cody Ceci	OTT
Dale C.	Patrick Wiercioch	OTT	D	Sergei Gonchar	MTL
Kristy & Don	PASS
Grant S.	Nick Holden	COL	D	Lubomir Visnovsky	NYI

The second round was good for the defense, which was also a pretty shallow pool to pick from, but a couple of veterans made it down to the bottom of the draft.  I'm sure with this posting, their stock may rise a little bit, but I think we'll see more blueliners taken here.

Let's also not forget the teams passing, as these teams may have a player that they could drop, they are likely better off opting to keep what they have, since there isn't a great deal of improvement in the available players list.

The Waiver Draft will begin on December 1st, so there isn't a lot of time left before we start making these changes.