More Player Notes in the Draft (Feb 24)

There were rumblings of it on Monday, but on Tuesday, it was confirmed. Winnipeg forward Blake Wheeler has been ruled out of Tuesday night's home game against the Stars. Wheeler was not skating on Monday, due to the injury, and all the fears were confirmed early on this morning and it sounds like Eric O'Dell will possibly draw in for him.  Wheeler will be on the list as out day-to-day for the time being.

Sounds like it is a game missed for Wilton in the pool tonight.  His team currently sits in 17th place, but is already being chased down by Grant K. after Monday night and both teams have the same amount of projected games, before Wheeler misses tonight.  Wilton's only remaining honour of note this season is that his team is still in the 3 goals per week streak contest and he has barely scraped by in the last few weeks.  If Wheeler is out for the week, that will drastically hurt his chances of continuing there.

The Oilers appear to be without forward Nail Yakupov tonight, as the Oilers visit the Wild, as the enigmatic Russian winger has reportedly tweaked his groin and has been deemed unable to go.  Yakupov reportedly suffered the injury on Saturday night against the Ducks, skated for a bit on Monday, before leaving early and didn't go at all in the morning skate today.  After the skate, the coaching staff confirmed his absence for the game tonight and his 21 points in 61 games comes out of the lineup for a night.

Third segment contender, Mike, has Yakupov this season and could really use the young Russian going, as his last hurrah this season is the third segment and his team is now 4th in that race, now 18 points back.

11 games on the NHL schedule on Tuesday night and we'll go over some of the key aspects of the night here for our goalies.

First, we have to start with the goalie survivor pool.  Neither team had anyone going last night, so we look to the busy night for any sort of action.  Looks like Pekka Rinne will get a start for Kristy & Don, as the Predators host Semyon Varlamov and the Avalanche.  Brenda & Seward have a goalie going as well, as Ben Scrivens and the Oilers will take on a familiar face in Devan Dubnyk and the Wild.  As mentioned in the Newsletter, this is the first of only two chances for Scrivens this week and it won't be easy.  Each team's second goalie is recovering from injury.

Notable starts, already confirmed for Tuesday night: It will be Chad Johnson in net for the Islanders for their game against Arizona, Karri Ramo gets the nod for the Flames in the Big Apple, Michal Neuvirth appears to be the number one for the Sabres against Columbus, Jake Allen is tabbed for the Blues against Montreal and Michael Hutchinson will go for the Jets against the Stars and their number two, Jhonas Enroth.

Non-pool goalies already confirmed for tonight include: Eddie Lack goes for Vancouver in Boston, Rob Zepp gets the start for the Flyers in Carolina, Anton Forsberg and the Blue Jackets host Buffalo, Scott Darling and the Blackhawks welcome the Panthers and Jonas Gustavsson gets the second of back-to-back games for the Red Wings in Los Angeles.

Otherwise, most other number one goalies are expected to get the start for their respective teams tonight.

An updated list of injuries can be found here.