Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Mar 16)

The Carolina Hurricanes were able to debut another one of their young prospects with the absence of Ron Hainsey from their lineup on Tuesday night, as the veteran defender was dealing with a bout of the flu.  He's currently listed as out day-to-day for the time being, couldn't imagine he'd miss too much more time.

Ryan's team is still trying to keep some sort of pace in the top 10 this week, ranked among the better teams after two nights with 9 points on the week, staying steady in 8th, trying to push up to 7th, if possible.

The Detroit Red Wings were another team that opted to debut some young talent, rather than use some of their talent that they already have, so instead of Teemu Pulkkinen making another start for the team, Anthony Mantha made his debut for the team.  Pulkkinen was a healthy scratch to make room for young Mantha and it will be interesting to see what they do with Pulkkinen down the stretch now.

Kristy & Don are the team that Ryan is chasing down and they are not off to the best of weeks, so far.  After two nights, their team only has 3 points and they only have a 2-point buffer over Ryan in 7th place.

A lower-body injury was to blame for the absence of Jussi Jokinen from the Florida Panthers lineup on Tuesday night.  There wasn't much for details about the injury, but he is listed as day-to-day, so it shouldn't be thought to be too significant.

Grant really could have used Jokinen in the lineup last night, as his team is trying to defend from dropping into last place down the stretch, only 1 point clear of 27th, but also, only 2 points back of 25th.

Mikhail Grabovski came back into the Islanders lineup on Tuesday night, when they took on the Penguins, but that meant that someone had to come out and by the look of things, it was Brock Nelson that came out as a healthy scratch to make way for the veteran forward.  Nelson, like much of the rest of the supporting cast offensively for the Islanders, have underachieved and now it was his time to sit.

Grabovski's return will aid Derek W.'s 12th place team in the standings, while this funk that Nelson is in and its subsequent scratch is just another hindrance in Troy's 20th place season.  Troy's team is one of two leaders for the Basement Dweller early this week, but still has a 39-point gap to last place.

Click here for the updated injury/news page on the website