Week Eighteen Waiver Draft (Feb 2)

The first official day of the Waiver Draft didn't go quite as smoothly, as I would have hoped.  That, in part, for a lack of trying, I suppose, but that's why the head start was so good for the process.

We start this post with the 14th overall pick, where Dale B. tries to stop the bleeding of his side, moving a Week Nine mistake in Calgary's David Jones and opting to pick up Washington's Andre Burakovsky, who was dropped in the Week Nine draft, by Derek W., which didn't really pan out for him at all.  Dale opens up the Week Eighteen playing schedule 36 points behind 3rd place.

Derek W. corrected the mistake he made when he dropped Burakovsky, by dropping Torrey Mitchell of the Habs with the 15th drop/pick, opting to take Antoine Vermette of the Coyotes, who was also a Week Nine drop.  I think there is a growing theme at the draft this season... recycling!  Derek is sandwiched between the two Dales of the pool, 1 point up on Dale B. and 4 points back of Dale C..

Citing little options to make that key move down the stretch and/or Dale B. taking the guy he was eyeing up, Dale C. elected to pass on the first round of the draft, but will reassess later on in the week and may replace, if an injury rears its ugly head.

Next up on the list was Ryan, whose team could go either way with the results of the third segment.  He took care of a key injury on his blueline, dropping Jordie Benn of the Stars, who remains on the Injured Reserve and taking the next best defenseman, Ron Hainsey of the Hurricanes.  Ryan's team is only 2 points out of the top 10 and 30 points out of the money, so he'll need a big push in the last third.

Scott was looking to drop Zemgus Girgensons of the Sabres at the Week Nine draft, but injuries during that draft kind of took care of that plan and he came full circle on him back then.  Here in Week Eighteen, the first move was to drop last year's All-Star and opt for Alexander Wennberg of the Blue Jackets, adding a bit more youth to his side.

On Tuesday morning, while we were sound asleep, our friend from down under, slid his pick under the door of my inbox, as Brian dropped injured defenseman John Moore of the Devils and he picked up Nate Schmidt of the Capitals to reside in his place.  Brian's team isn't out of the money conversation yet, but his team still is in the PIM pool talk, but Schmidt only helps his money cause at the end of the day.