Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 20)

On Monday morning, the Dallas Stars updated some injury notes on some players, which included the addition of forward Martin Hanzal to the list, as they are expecting to be without him for the next 3-to-7 days with a hand injury.  Likely, Hanzal will be reevaluated in the next three days and if things are not progressing well enough, he will be put on the IR to make room for someone else, otherwise, he'll just be day-to-day and they'll just wait it out for now.

Non-pool defenseman Marc Methot is now expected to miss the next six weeks after getting his knee scoped and that has now opened the door for Julius Honka to return to the club, getting a recall to help fill the void left behind by the veteran defenseman.

Hanzal has been unimpressive on Neil's pool team this season, having only 3 points in 17 games and now an injury on top of that, things are not adding up in his favour at all.  Neil's team currently sits in 18th, 28 points out of the money and Week Eight doesn't look good, having only 38 projected games on his docket this week, well back of some of the other teams ahead of him.

The recall of Honka is a positive for Steve's team, who is in real need of some more positives.  If Honka can find some quality ice-time with the Stars on this recall, maybe his offensive potential could be realized.

The Arizona Coyotes are going to be a little bit more stable at the back, as they are expecting to have defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson back tonight, just ahead of their game in Toronto. Hjalmarsson has been out with an upper-body injury and the defensive struggles of the Coyotes have been very evident in his absence. Offensively, he hadn't exactly been lighting it up before his injury, having only 3 assists in 12 games, but he was chipping in and that's what was important.

Even without Hjalmarsson in active duty, Stacey M.'s defense has been the top of the class through seven weeks, leading the pool with 46 points, 4 points clear of her next competitor.  The addition of Hjalmarsson should be a good add here going forward.

The Minnesota Wild did some bookkeeping on Monday, activating forward Charlie Coyle from the Long Term Injured Reserve after 16 games on the shelf with a broken leg and then placing forward Zach Parise on the LTIR, officially, with his back surgery, which he had at the end of October.

Coyle is officially a game-time decision for tonight's game with New Jersey in town, but if he can't go tonight, he will certainly be in at some point this week. 

Parise has been sitting on the roster with his injury since the beginning of the regular season, but the team finally changed his status over to the LTIR, as the books would reflect better with him on the roster for as long as he was, they'd gain the most from the complicated math that is the cap relief formula.  He's still slated to return in the New Year.

The really good news goes to Wilton, who gets a very good offensive forward back at some point this week and it nearly brings his roster back to full health.  If Coyle can manage some quick offense early, it will be like Wilton got a Waiver Draft selection two weeks before the swap.  His team opens up the week in 7th place, 11 points out of the money.