More Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 13)

The Minnesota Wild blueline is where we'll start this post, as they have a good news/bad news situation at hand.  Returning to the blueline is Jared Spurgeon, who has been out since the beginning of the month with a shoulder injury.  He has been cleared to play and looks like he'll be paired with Ryan Suter tonight against the Sabres.

The bad news, however, they'll be without a couple defenders, Marco Scandella and Jonas Brodin, who are both out with an illness.  Fortunately for the pool, neither were taken.  I thought they were in the pool, but they aren't... they'll still get a mention though.

The return of Spurgeon will give Allan a full compliment of healthy players now, as the defender was the only inactive player for his side.  Allan's team has dropped off again in recent days, finding his way down to 12th place in the standings, now 15 points out of the money.

The Tampa Bay Lightning will have bodies back in their line-up on Thursday as well, as Tyler Johnson will be good to go against San Jose, only missing less than a period of action, while Alex Killorn will return from another stint on the shelf with an upper-body injury.  Both players have been a part of the new offensive revolution in Tampa and with the Sharks in town, it could turn into a bit of a barn burner and the Bolts will need all the offense they can get.

Good news for Brian and Dale C., respectively, as one fights to stay out of the basement, the other battles to stay in the money.  Brian is only 1 point out of this week's Basement Dweller nod, while Dale has lost ground to the new leader in the pool and those teams chasing him for that valued money spot.

Tonight will mark the debut of defenseman Dan Boyle at Madison Square Gardens tonight, as the Rangers will get their off-season acquisition to play his second game of the season.  The Rangers host the Avalanche and Boyle will try to make it through the whole 60 minutes.

Grant K. already has one of the hotter teams in the pool in Week Six and he will get a healthy body back in his line-up, so it could work out to be a good week for one of our pool rookies.  Grant has moved up from 11th to 6th in the week, thanks to 13 points through Wednesday's action and he's now in the thick of the race for 3rd place at the moment, now 7 points back.

It isn't the busiest of Thursday nights, but nine games isn't anything to sneeze at.  According to tonight's firm and probable starters on goaliepost.com, three pool teams will have both of their goalies going for points.

Benson and Brenda & Seward will have both of their goalies working tonight from the pool basement, while Wes' goalies will try to get him back to the money promised land, as his team now sits 11 points back.

11 other pool teams have goalies going tonight, which means that nine teams don't have any crease action on Thursday evening.

The most notable starters tonight include Jake Allen going for the Blues, giving Mike a much-needed start; Martin Jones getting a rare start for the Kings, meaning Wyllie gets some more work; and Jhonas Enroth gets the start for Buffalo for Wilton's side.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.