Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 17)

The Florida Panthers said late on Monday that the MRI revealed no major injury to defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, but they still expect him to miss another game or more, likely due to some bruising and/or discomfort in the lower-body issue.  He'll be considered day-to-day for the time being.

Good news for Grant, who isn't going to be without Kulikov for too long.  It's a little while, nevertheless, but it could have been much, much worse.

It sounds like Justin Schultz is making progress on returning from his back injury, as he was on the ice for practice on Monday. There is no exact timetable for his return, at this point, but the original prognosis suggested that he would be out for four weeks and he is just finishing up week three.

Stacey C. has been a little bit too regular on the injury page and the blog this season, as his team racked up the injuries this year, but having one return is good news.  The sooner his team can get healthy, the sooner he can figure out if his team has the legs to make it to the big money.

Another name drawing closer to a return is Buffalo's Evander Kane, who suffered a serious knee injury at the end of October, which was slated to be a 4-to-6 week type injury. He's now coming up on the 4-week mark and he was on the ice for the morning skate, alongside his teammates, so that is a real positive sign for the scoring winger.  There was no immediate announcement to when they expect him back in the lineup though.

Derek & Dan are now 11 points clear of last place after a good week in Week Six and they're looking to build on that in Week Seven.  They'll go into a busy night in 23rd place, 5 points out of the top 20.

Are you tired of this "getting closer" nonsense? Well, how about an actual return then.  Defenseman Zach Bogosian is now set to make his season debut in Week Seven, as his lower-body injury has now healed and he has been cleared and good to go against Dallas tonight.

This was an unfortunate pick for Tony, who thought Bogosian would be back long before this, but the injury was obviously worse than reported and there was nothing to say what his status was through the beginning of the season.  Tony took him in the 13th round, 335th overall, which would now be worth about 5 points.

The Philadelphia Flyers confirmed early in the afternoon out on the East Coast, that goalie Michal Neuvirth is dealing with an upper-body injury, despite participating in practice. The Flyers are hosting the Kings tonight and Steve Mason is expecting to get the start, but Neuvirth hasn't been confirmed as back-up or not, there have been no recalls in place, at the time of writing this post.  He is considered to be day-to-day.

Neuvirth has been a huge win for Neil this season, one of the big reasons why he's up in the money, as this bargain picks ranks among the top.  Neil took Neuvirth in the 13th round and now ranks 92nd overall, a huge win.  He shouldn't be out too long, which isn't terrible news for Neil and his side.

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