Sunday, December 17, 2017

Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 17)



On Sunday morning, the Toronto Maple Leafs placed defenseman Nikita Zaitsev on the Injured Reserve, citing a lower-body injury as the reason.  There wasn't a whole lot of information about when the Russian defender was hurt or how long anyone expects him to be hurt, but it looks like he played the better part of the game on Friday night against Detroit, so one might ask if he was hurt in practice.  Regardless, the defenseman won't be in the lineup for a couple of early week match-ups, likely not eligible to return until Saturday night in New York.

Looks like it is a minimum of two games for Stacey C.'s team, stricken from the projected games next week.  Stacey's team made some strides in Week Eleven, already with 21 points before Sunday's action and his team has moved up to 19th in the process.  Positive strides with more than half the season to play is a good thing!

The Washington Capitals have an extra day off in between games, so they are going to take advantage of that with their waiver exempt players, sending pool forward Jakub Vrana and non-pool defenseman Madison Bowey down to the AHL on a paper transaction, saving an extra few bucks against the salary cap, possibly for future transactions this season.  This shouldn't be an extended period of time, rather both should be up and back on the active roster before Tuesday's game in Dallas.

The Washington rookie forward Vrana has been a fairly consistent contributor, pitching in 15 points in 33 games this season for the Caps, ranking him 225th overall in pool scoring.  Using the 341st overall pick to take him, Dale C. has found quite the bargain pick in him and has helped to keep Dale's team in the race, starting Sunday only 14 points out of the money.

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