Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 13)

The return to the NHL for Viktor Tikhonov hasn't gone quite to plan, I'm sure. Tikhonov was a mediocre player back in 2009, his only season in Phoenix, was okay in the North American minor leagues and pretty decent in the KHL. With no points and 6 PIM in 10 games with the Blackhawks, he has been a very reasonable candidate for the press box, as he was on Thursday night against the Devils.

This was Grant's last pick in the draft and it hasn't quite paid off for him, as his list was swinging for the fences for a home run pick.  Good chance he'll be making good use of a drop here to pick up a player that will help him moving forward.

One of the biggest benefactors of the McDavid phenomenon was Benoit Pouliot, who found himself on his wing and was reaping the rewards for it, quite well, actually.  On Thursday night in Arizona, Pouliot was a scratch from the game, as he was reportedly feeling a little bit under the weather.  Just a day-to-day issue, the dry desert air probably had an effect on him and I would fully expect him to be ready to go for the weekend.

It was a skater game lost for Mike, who got off to a rocky start, thanks to injuries, but has since started his rebound, slowly climbing his way up the standings.  This scratch to Pouliot isn't a big deal, so I would imagine that his team will continue its ascent upwards and we'll likely be writing about how good his team is before too long.

I haven't been able to find any indication that Jiri Tlusty was injured last night, although he had been suffering from an upper-body injury earlier this year, but there was nothing new last night about any sort of ailment.  So, on the list, he'll be there as a healthy scratch and we'll assume that it is only a one game occurrence, until further notice.  Maybe the Hurricanes are holding out information on us and he's injured long-term... who knows?

Kristy & Don were definitely hoping for more good luck out of Tlusty this season, as he was a hidden gem for their runaway win last season.  As their 13th round pick, they still haven't been seeing quite the value that they wanted or expected out of him, so he's also working his way to being a Waiver Draft drop this year.

The reports about Patrick Wiercioch in Ottawa are quickly rivaling what we were hearing about his game last season, to which they almost traded him at the deadline, before having a change of heart and hoping he could turn his game around.  That hasn't quite happened this season, having only 3 assists in 15 games, so he was a healthy scratch against the Canucks on Thursday night.  He could be a guy that could be valued elsewhere, if used in a different sort of system, but some team would have to take a chance on him.

Ryan took a chance on him with his 12th round pick and has not seen the returns he'd like either.  Unless Wiercioch was to get traded, we'd just be adding another name to the list of potential drops in a few weeks.  Ryan could use a little bit more help, as his team is 9 points out of the money and just floating along, rather contently, I would imagine.

Brad Boyes hasn't been a stranger to the blog site, so far this season, as this is his third healthy scratch appearance thus far.  The professional tryout worked in his favour in the preseason, but it hasn't translated into a great regular season, likely due to the increased talent and meaning that those games have.  In 13 games played, Boyes has 1 goal and 5 assists, which isn't by any means terrible, but certainly not what the Leafs wanted out of him.

If Benson took Boyes one round later, in the 11th, instead of the 10th, he would have been getting better value for this pick, but otherwise, he hasn't exactly been terrible, besides the healthy scratches.  A late pick, looking for that proverbial home run, didn't quite work out for him yet, but the season is far from over and the Leafs might just turn things... oh, who am I kidding?

It was a little bit of a surprise to see Brandon Sutter's name on the scratches last night, as the Canucks were set to take on the Senators, but there his name was. On Friday morning, the coaching staff only revealed that he was day-to-day, which suggests an injury... an undisclosed injury! That's about all we've got, so that's what we're going with. His availability for Saturday night's game in Toronto is still up in the air, as of right now.

Dale B. is on the verge of catching Neil again this week, only 2 points back, having already made up 6 points through the first half of the week.  The Canucks and Leafs might be a good night for offense, so he'll be keeping some fingers & toes crossed for a quick return.

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