Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 25)

On Tuesday, the Columbus Blue Jackets announced that they had activated forward Brandon Dubinsky from the Injured Reserve, expected to play tonight, when Columbus heads to New Jersey to take on the Devils.  Dubinsky has been out for a couple weeks, dealing with an elbow injury.

This is a good boost to Dale C.'s team, just ahead of the determination of the Waiver Draft order, which is both good and bad, in theory.  Dale's team currently sits in 16th place, 10 points out of the top 10.


The Vancouver Canucks start a 4-game road trip on Wednesday night, taking on the Minnesota Wild, and they'll have one lineup change of note, as Sven Baertschi will come out of the lineup as a healthy scratch, making room for Jake Virtanen coming back in.  Baertschi has been very up-and-down this year, picking up 7 points in 19 games this year.

This becomes another skater game lost for Neil, who picked up Baertschi at the draft this year, taking him in the 9th round.  The early returns haven't been great, but Neil has been making do, keeping pace with the money teams and going into a busy Wednesday night in 4th place, 1 point out of 1st place in a very tight race.

Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen wasn't on the ice for practice on Wednesday, after being pulled on Tuesday night, due to an upper-body injury, as he came in relief for Antti Niemi in the 7-4 blowout loss to the Senators. The Stars are not scheduled to play again until Friday, so there will be a couple days worth of rest for the keeper and whether or not he will be available for their next game.  After a loss to Ottawa on Tuesday, Lehtonen would be the expected starter, if he can go.

There was no indication about the severity of the injury, but his next start would be in question, if the injury is more serious than needing a few days rest.  This could be what Dale C. needs to get that better pick in the Waiver Draft, with Dubinsky coming back tonight.  A bit of give and take this week.

The Calgary Flames appear to have their goaltending situation thought out, as Jonas Hiller appears to be ready for a return, they have placed Joni Ortio on waivers, with the intention of sending him down to the AHL for more starts.  The Flames managed to sneak Karri Ramo through waivers earlier this year and with the way the goaltending has been in Calgary, I couldn't see an issue with sending another one through without issue, but who knows what team is waiting in the weeds for a goalie.

Ryan is sure hoping that Ortio gets picked up through waivers and for that team to give him starts, but the number of teams looking for a new starting goalie does seem to be rather thin at the moment.  If a team does pick him up, they would have to be convinced he could put up the minutes, which is also arguable.

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