Noon Player Notes (Nov 29)

The Carolina Hurricanes have made their decision in net and Scott Darling has been tapped as the odd-man out.

The Hurricanes have been running with three goalies ever since the start of the season, when they picked up Curtis McElhinney off of waivers and Petr Mrazek still has his spot from the beginning of the year and those two will now make the duo moving forward.  If Darling clears, he will be sent down to the AHL, but the Hurricanes are hoping that someone will snap up his $4.15 million annual cap hit, which goes for another two seasons after 2019.

Darling has made six appearances this season, posting 2 wins and 4 points, which has hindered Ryan's team in the hockey pool this season, but a move, with teams looking for goalies, has to be somewhat interesting.  If someone claims Darling, it could be like Ryan getting a new goalie in this Waiver Draft.

Noon Camp Demotions (Sep 25)

On Sunday, the Ottawa Senators coaching staff suggested that they would likely be starting the season with 22 players on their roster, as if they were in cap troubles, but they certainly are not. Nevertheless, they were still going to be making some tough cuts and on Tuesday, forward Zack Smith was placed on waivers, likely for the purpose of assignment or possibly, to help move out of town, making way for some more youth.

The 30-year old forward picked up 19 points in 68 games and is considered a fringe player with those numbers, but the Hockey News did project him for a 31-point season, good enough for a real deep draft.

Smith currently carries a $3.25 million cap hit per season, which might be a touch on the high side, but still a manageable number for a team that would want to claim him.  If the Senators see him clear waivers, they will only save about $1.025 million in cap space with him buried in the minors.

Maybe less of a shock, but possibly an important note, was that Byron Froese was also placed on waivers by the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday. He was on my projected roster for the start of the season, but his demotion is likely opening up the door for their top prospect, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, to join the fold to start the season, at the very least.  With Montreal's struggles down the middle and the immediate impact of the 18-year old in the preseason is adding up to the 9-game audition to start the season and it has the possibility of the full season as well.

Froese only had 11 points in 48 games last season and wasn't even really considered much of a fringe player, but the roster spot opening up will likely carry some value.

Noon Camp Demotions (Sep 23)

It sounds like the goaltending battle in Los Angeles has taken a turn, as the Kings have placed Peter Budaj on waivers on Sunday, possibly to demote him down to the AHL, but that isn't quite confirmed yet.  The Kings are in cap troubles, so possibly getting Budaj to be lifted off the roster could open up some space, as he is making just a shade over $1 million this season.  The likely replacement for him, if he does get claimed, would be Jack Campbell, who is only making $675,000.

Morning Camp Demotions (Sep 22)

The Minnesota Wild opened up the Saturday morning news with a number of cuts from camp, which included a projected forward for their roster, Landon Ferraro, who was placed on waivers for the purpose of reassignment.  Ferraro was more of a fringe player on the roster, but on there nonetheless.  Taking his place on the projected roster now, free agent signing Matt Read, but he's only going to figure in to be a fringe player as well right now.

Week Seventeen Newsletter

Keeping with tradition, the Newsletter is being published on Monday morning, even though last week finished off on Thursday night. The Waiver Draft unofficially got started on Friday morning and we've done a couple reviews of what we've seen so far, the All-Star festivities have come and gone and we've reviewed that and awarded the money there as well, but we still have some other weekly honours to hand out this morning and those will be reflected on the standings, as of today.



The hockey pool didn't need a full week's worth of action to get to the usual 8 points for our Player of the Week nod, as Robin Lehner of the Sabres only started two games this past week, one in Edmonton and the other in Vancouver, earning shutouts in both games and getting the job done efficiently.

The Sabres had three games this week, but seeing as two of those were back-to-backs, Lehner got the back half of the Alberta set, making 33 saves against the Oilers and then on the final night before the break, he made another 30 saves against the Canucks, which is pretty good after being pulled at the end of Week Sixteen, after allowing 4 goals on 19 shots against Dallas.  His shutout streak will start Week Eighteen at 119:26 and he'll likely get the nod for their first game, Tuesday night against New Jersey.

This good week now brings up his totals to 11 wins and 3 shutouts for 28 points in 37 appearances this season with the Sabres.  The Sabres got off to a rough start at the beginning of the season, but it looks like they are finding their form of late and Lehner is a big part of that.  His point total now has him ranked 176th in the overall standings, 33rd among all goalies.

Of course, the goalie rush at the start of the season, combined with the idea that the Sabres would have been playing closer to this level all season long, made for good reason to take Lehner in the 2nd round and that was what Kristy & Don had done.  Lehner was taken with the 36th overall pick, which looks like a bit of a bust, but it's coming back around, for sure.

On a side note, this was Lehner's first Player of the Week nod of his hockey pool career and this is the first Buffalo Sabres player to get the nod since the 2013 season, when Thomas Vanek did it twice in three weeks, Week One and Week Three.

It was a pretty good race for the Mover & Shaker this past week, with eight teams finishing with 20 points or more with only four nights worth of action.  Heading into Thursday's action, it was looking like Wes was going to take the title, having a sizable lead heading into the day, but his team seemed to have sputtered and Tony's team shot past and finished with 25 points, 1 point clear of his competition for his first Mover & Shaker of the season and only his second nod all-time on the website.  His first coming in Week Twenty-Three of the 2016 season.

Tony's team has really been on the move in the second segment of the season, where he finished Week Ten in 17th place, his team has moved and shaken its way up into the top 10, finishing in 8th place in Week Seventeen, thanks to this big week.  His team is now 2 points out of 5th spot, but still has some work to do for the money, still 29 points out.

Sam Reinhart of the Sabres led the way on Tony's team, finishing with 4 points, while Logan Couture of the Sharks, Loui Eriksson of the Canucks and P.K. Subban of the Predators were all 3-point players in the week.  Only two active players failed to produce points on his team, which is a pretty impressive number, given the limited schedule.

In this second segment, which still has one more week of competition left, Tony's team currently ranks 4th in points (199), only 6 points out of the segment lead, his forwards are tied for 10th (112), his defense is tops at 54 points, while his goaltending is tied for 7th (33), showing that the blueline can be quite the backbone at times.  It's unfortunate that his team couldn't kick it into gear until the second-third of the season, but if he also has a strong stretch run, there could be some money talk.

As for the remaining mini-games, Tony's team is on the positive side of the ledger on the plus/minus game, currently sporting an overall rating of +12, but that is 66 points back of Steve's leading team at the break.  Speaking of the break, Tony's team will be represented by Nathan MacKinnon of the Avalanche and P.K. Subban of the Predators, both on the Central Division team, so his loyalties are not split this weekend.  Those are two pretty good players to have in this game.

Well, if Stacey C. was hoping to get a really good pick in this week's Waiver Draft, then his team went the right way to help him out!  Granted, if he wanted his team to finish respectably, well... he got a much better pick in the Waiver Draft!

6 points is the season-low for the Basement Dweller this year and the shortened schedule does have a lot to do with that, for sure.  Injuries to Semyon Varlamov of the Avalanche and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Oilers also played a big part of that, while a statistic correction to Reilly Smith of the Golden Knights only compounded the problem this week.

Pavel Buchnevich of the Rangers, Leon Draisaitl of the Oilers and Brian Elliott of the Flyers all finished with 2 points a piece, while Lars Eller of the Capitals made up for the correction noted above, which rounded out the quiet week for Stacey's team.

Stacey's team dropped from 20th to 23rd, improving his pick by three and as we've seen in the recap of the early days of the Waiver Draft, he ended up picking the best player available in the draft, Boston's Danton Heinen, which should help him greatly.

There was no change in the top three this week, but the race for 1st place did get a little tighter.  Dale B., the reigning champ, still leads at 440 points, but his lead is now down to 8 points, as Stuart is at 432 and Benson is at 431, well within striking distance, at any given time.

The gap down to 4th place, however, has increased, as Wilton's team is floating there on its own at 415 points, 11 points clear of the two duos, Kristy & Don and Brenda & Seward.  After those two teams, it really is clustered and these teams will need a huge third segment to tear away and join the money teams and also hope that the money teams all suffer from the plague, simultaneously.

Well, Steve's team does seem to have its off weeks, as Week Seventeen wasn't great for his side, finishing with a -8 rating, his first negative week since Week Ten, which was only -1.  His team still carries a monster lead of 30 points over Cam's team, but that isn't impossible to overcome, since anything can happen in this department.  Steve did try to shore up his chances already and having the 1st overall selection in the Waiver Draft will certainly do that for some teams.  He took the best plus/minus guy available, Boston's Zdeno Chara, who ironically enough, belonged to Cam in the first segment.

The mini-games were included to help keep the season interesting for all teams, especially those who aren't in the money race at the top of the overall standings.  Steve is loving these games, since he's now got $60 in the bank from the All-Star tournament scoring, something you can read more about below.  Steve's team was the best of the bunch, finishing with 7 points out of the three games played and with his team defending well in the plus/minus game, he's coming out like a bandit this year.

It's been a little while since we had an update on the goon pool, which isn't for money (I feel like I should remind us all of that every time), but not a great deal has changed since the last update.  Even though Wes dropped Radko Gudas in Week Nine, his team still continues to lead the faux pool over Brenda & Seward, now up by 18 minutes.

With the bye weeks and the All-Star breaks, we've seen four teams in the last three weeks finish a week with zero minutes in penalties, which has been pretty rare before now, but the schedule certainly allowed for that this season.

Ryan's team currently leads the pool in the Lady Byng consideration, with only 182 minutes in penalties, 9 minutes better than Dale C..  Ryan's team isn't one of those teams to have no minutes in penalties in a week either, so that'll be your food for thought this week.  Dale C.'s team has done it twice.

In the freshmen scoring department, Cam's team overtook Clayton's team a few weeks ago and has held a slight lead ever since.  At the end of Week Seventeen, Cam's team leads 72-68 in the faux competition, while Chris' team has been flying up the ranks in recent weeks and his team currently sits at 60 points.  This would be a pretty good race, if there was money involved, especially with a few decent rookies left to be picked in the Waiver Draft this week.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

It truly was a below-average kind of week for the hockey pool, as some teams were already on vacation, by the last day or two.  Injuries and backup goalies played a pretty big part, as participation was down significantly.  In 35 NHL games this week, the pool only averaged 12.3 points per game in the pool, below the season average of 12.6, but hopefully, all of the players that didn't participate this weekend are all rejuvenated and ready to go for a big stretch run.  The crunch is on for a number of teams and now we start counting down to the trade deadline, which is a month away.

NEWS AND NOTES

The Jaromir Jagr era in Calgary inches closer to being officially over, as the team has put the veteran forward on waivers on Sunday, with the idea that he will be reassigned to a European club in the coming days, if he isn't claimed by another NHL club, which does seem somewhat unlikely.  Health issues have been a major factor of his inability to compete this season and it had limited him to only 22 games, scoring 1 goal and 7 points.

Ryan will still have to sit with him for a week, as the Waiver Draft continues, but Jagr has already got his exit papers from the hockey pool, replaced by Ondrej Kase of the Anaheim Ducks, who will be active in one week's time.

Noon Player Notes in the Draft (Nov 23)

The numbers are not very good for Eddie Lack to start this season: a 1-2-0 record in four appearances, two starts, with a 5.29 GAA and an .813 save percentage.  It's those numbers that have forced the hand of the Flames, placing him on waivers on Thanksgiving Thursday, with the intention of sending him down to the minors.  The Flames open up the post-Thanksgiving schedule with back-to-back games, Friday in Dallas and Saturday in Colorado, so the goaltending situation does become quite interesting.

This quickly becomes a situation for Neil that will have to be rectified in the Waiver Draft, if he does actually head down to the minors.  Neil has a lot of irons in the fire for next week, his team could really use all the help it can get right about now.

Habs Claim Niemi

There are plenty of inappropriate comments one could make about someone being passed around a lot in a short period of time, but this blog is way too classy for that sort of thing.  I think.

On Tuesday morning, Antti Niemi was indeed claimed once again off of waivers, as the Montreal Canadiens deemed him as a suitable backup to Charlie Lindgren, as both Carey Price and Al Montoya are dealing with significant injuries.  Price announcing that his lower-body injury is still bothering him and he will need a few more days to start skating again, while Montoya, a non-pool goalie, is out indefinitely with a concussion.

Niemi, between Pittsburgh and Florida, has made five appearances, three starts, carries an 0-4-0 record with a 6.74 GAA and .822 save percentage this season.  He will now provide a veteran presence behind Lindgren and if the schedule allows for it, someone who could possibly make a start.

Niemi's presence in Montreal now gives them a healthy pool goalie, as Derek B. can rest a little easier that his number two goalie still has an NHL job, albeit with a team that hasn't done well playing defense this season.  If Niemi was to somehow find some chemistry and his game back in Montreal, Derek's team could work its way into the money, but I wouldn't be holding my breath for that to happen.

Week Six Newsletter

Long weekend Monday!  With any luck, I'm hoping to have long weekends through until the end of the calendar year, which should mean some pretty good Newsletters, in theory.  Try not to get your hopes up too far, but maybe a little bit more than normal.



It was another outright winner in Week Six, as 8 points was the total to beat heading into Sunday and there may have been a couple of players set to try for the title, but through it all, Devan Dubnyk remained as the top dog for the week, earning his fourth Player of the Week nod, once in each of the last four seasons, keeping a fairly impressive streak alive.

Another impressive statistic, one that I don't believe that I have seen before in writing the Player of the Week nods for this Newsletter, is a goalie that started the week 0-2-0, allowing 7 goals against in the first part of the week and then turning around and posting back-to-back shutouts for his 8 points.

Yes, after dropping games against Boston and Toronto earlier in the week, traveling through Montreal and Philadelphia was much easier for him, posting the shutouts on Thursday and Saturday.  The Wild have not been shy, playing their number one goalie, even on back-to-back nights, but that could be more because their regular back-up was away from the team as well.

Nevertheless, the 8 points from 2 wins and 2 shutouts brings his overall total up to 6 wins, 2 shutouts and an assist for 17 points, now good for 50th overall in pool scoring, worthy of being right at the end of the 2nd round today.  It's still fairly early in the season and this is the sign of bouncing back, but Dubnyk was taken 9th overall in the draft, sitting as a slight bust for Brenda & Seward, but again, the bounce back seems to be coming along.

Thanks to Dubnyk's big week, the duo continue to be moving in the right direction in the standings, moving up again from 18th to 14th.

The real Mover & Shaker this week is Grant, as his team finally found some consistency through its lineup and found 32 points to lead the way in weekly scoring.  Grant's lead heading into Sunday's action was only at 2 points for this weekly title, but any of his challengers in the week didn't come close, while Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals added one more win against Edmonton on the final day of this week's action, giving him a 4-point lead at the end of the day.

Of course, with the best points, you're going to see your team move up the standings and Grant's saw his climb back up to 16th from 21st, as its on the way back up from a quick fall from starting the season in 5th place after Week One.  Even being in 16th place after Week Six, Grant's team is only 22 points out of the money and with two Waiver Drafts left to do, that's still a very manageable number to whittle down.

Holtby and Winnipeg Jets forward Blake Wheeler were his two best players in Week Six, both finishing with 6 points a piece, exactly what two of his top three picks of the season should be doing.  Nazem Kadri of the Maple Leafs also chipped in with 5 points, while Patrik Laine of the Jets had 4 points.

Grant's team had three naughts on his team, two thanks to players being on the Injured Reserve, while the other one couldn't get a win out of his only start this week.  Everyone else seemed to be contributing at a pretty good clip and he could be getting one of those injured players back before too long, as Travis Hamonic has started skating with the Flames again this past weekend.

It has been three years to the week, since Grant's last Mover & Shaker nod, as he was last glorified in Week Six of the 2015 season, where he finished back-to-back weeks in the top spot in weekly scoring.  The last season he saw a Mover & Shaker nod, he finished in 2nd place in that pool, but he was also in 1st place when he had that Mover & Shaker.  Being in 16th place with the award means that there is much more of a climb, but it is a positive sign.

The struggle, that was staying out of the Basement Dweller nod, was absolutely real in Week Six, as five teams were scratching and clawing for those last few points, trying to help their team out of the last spot in the weekly scoring race, but in the end, Wes' team was the one holding the emptiest bucket, only able to claw out 14 points in the week, while four other teams finished with 15 points.

To Wes' team's credit, that is now the highest total of points that has been collected by a Basement Dweller team, but at the same time, that took it down from 13th to 19th in the standings.  Sure, that has likely improved his Waiver Draft pick selection in a few weeks, but that's not really what you want.  Wes' team is only 24 points back of the money, so it's not a devastating blow, but they'll just need to work harder is all.

Cam Talbot of the Oilers was his team's best player, finishing with 4 points in the week, while Derick Brassard of the Senators and Jacob Markstrom of the Canucks each had 2 points, so there was some production in there.  His team did have the best Basement Dweller week of the year, after all.  There were five naughts on his team though, one due to a long-term injury, the other four were just cold as ice.

How about that money race?  We currently have a tie for 1st place and the difference of 10 points takes us all the way down to 9th in the standings, which suggests a monster week within the top 10, in the next week or two, could drastically change the face of the money standings.  That's pretty exciting, if you ask me.  Even 10 points from 3rd place, gets us down to 12th place, which is tight!

Nevertheless, Brian still holds the current tie-breaker in goals scored, leading Dale C. by 10 in that category, which makes them 1st and 2nd, respectively.  Jeremy was dethroned this week, his first week outside of 1st place this season, thanks to being one of those four teams that just narrowly avoided the Basement Dweller nod.  Benson fell out of the money this week too, dropping from 2nd to 6th, being in the same boat as Jeremy this week.  Dale B. made a big leap, from 10th to 4th, proving the point about a big week doing great things, as the reigning champ is ready to let go yet.

It took until Saturday night, but we did have all ten surviving teams get their win again this week, making it three weeks in a row that we've finished with ten teams in the goalie survivor pool at the end of the week.

The last team to be eliminated was Brian in Week Four and since then, he has had more than enough wins, but that's not the whole point of the survivor pool now is it?

Grant, Mike, Cam, Stacey M., Chris, Wilton, Benson, Stacey C., Tony and Jeremy remain as the ten teams still in the pool.

The plus/minus crap shoot, which is a mini-game, saw a change in leadership this week, as Dale B.'s team not only bounced up in the overall standings, but played responsibly at both ends of the ice as well, having a +14 rating in the week and taking the lead in the category, now sitting at +27, 1 point better than Dale C. after Week Six.

Unfortunately for our Basement Dweller, Wes, his team set a new weekly record for the worst plus/minus in the week, dropping a -16 on the last seven days, dropping his team to 21st in the standings.

And just for shits and giggles, who was gooning it up this past week?  It looks like that would be Stuart and Clayton's team, both finishing with 24 minutes in penalties this week.

It wasn't a record-setting week, by any means, as Wes' team has found that record, back in Week Four, picking up 42 minutes in penalties, which has helped his team to the overall lead in the category, out-pacing his rivals, Brenda & Seward, by 22 minutes, through six weeks.

The rookie non-pool isn't nearly as interesting these days, as Clayton's rookies, Clayton Keller of the Coyotes, Nico Hischier of the Devils and Joel Eriksson Ek of the Wild have started to run away with it, now leading Cam's rookies by 10 points.  It doesn't mean anything, but it's there to hold onto in the Newsletter.

There are quite a few good rookies that will be taken in the Waiver Draft, early on as well.  If you're shopping for some scoring help, you'll trip over some freshmen, like Alexander Kerfoot of the Avalanche, Jesper Bratt of the Devils and Yanni Gourde of the Lightning, so this race could get a little more exciting, as the season moves on.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Scoring was disgustingly down this week, as the pool dropped down to a season-worst, 11.2 points collected per NHL game, giving us our worst total of the season since Week One, 537 points among all 25 teams.  This was the second time we had 48 NHL games in the week this season and the first time was Week Two, when we finished with 627 points, the season-high total.

We have seen some participation levels drop from Week Two to Week Six, thanks to injuries, demotions and retirements, so there certainly is a reason, but the trend line is going the wrong way.  Arguably, this is almost better for the bottom teams, as usually when there are a lot of points, the top teams are running away with the lead, but as we've seen in the Trophy Talk, things are still pretty close.

The schedule is down to 45 games this week, so if the scoring trends are continuing to go down, we might see some ugly lows this week.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed that our players use some extra rest to boost their scoring numbers.

NEWS AND NOTES

With John Gibson offically returning for the Anaheim Ducks, it made the lower-body injury to Ryan Miller a little more bearable on Sunday night, as Gibson was able to make the start, albeit a loss to Los Angeles, but they didn't have to go to their number three for a big divisional game. Miller was reportedly hurt in his last start on Thursday, wasn't able to practice on Friday and wasn't able to dress on Sunday. He's considered to be day-to-day, but that's all we know at the moment.

The return of Gibson offers hope to Tony's team, which is still in the survivor pool, but takes hope away from Cam, also in the pool, but also trying to keep his team within reaching distance of the money as well.  He's hoping that day-to-day is exactly that and his goalie can get back into a proper rotation.

Jussi Jokinen of the Oilers was playing some regular minutes all week, up until Sunday, where he found himself back in the press box again for the shootout loss in Washington.  Frustration levels for the veteran have to be getting up there and the trade market might not be very kind to him, despite having a very cap friendly hit, he just hasn't given anyone any reason to pick him up yet.

Brenda & Seward's team will likely be looking to drop the lack of production from the Finnish vet, but we've still got three more weeks of these kind of guys in our roster, so we'll all have to be patient, because we all have one or two.

With Roberto Luongo returning to health in the early parts of this week, the tenure of Antti Niemi in a Panthers jersey is coming to an end, as he was placed on waivers on Monday morning.  It was somewhat surprising to see his name get claimed by Florida earlier this season, so there might still be a market for another Finnish veteran, but his numbers will probably scare some teams away.  We'll see what the next 24 hours brings.

It would be crazy to think where Derek B. would see his team, if Niemi was a hit in either Florida or Pittsburgh this season.  His team only sits 6 points out of 1st place today, 4 points to the money.  Of course, the hope would be that Niemi finds a home and finds his form again, but it does seem more likely that he'll be a Waiver Draft casualty as well.

Also on Monday morning, the Ottawa Senators announced that they have activated forward Bobby Ryan from the Injured Reserve, as his latest broken finger has obviously healed enough to get clearance to play.  There is plenty of excitement for this transaction among the Ottawa media types, as the belief is that Ryan will likely be paired with newly-acquired Matt Duchene, to see if there is any chemistry there.

Surely, that has to excite Stacey C.'s proxy team, as it took a bit of hit in the past week, dropping from 15th to 18th.  Getting a pretty good scorer back, inserting him into a pretty hot team at the moment and getting a new partner to play with, could make someone awfully giddy.  Let's see how that improves his team, shall we?

Noon Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 29)

The Arizona Coyotes have been busy reworking their crease, looking for that elusive first win of the season. The Coyotes acquired goaltender Scott Wedgewood from the Devils, since they didn't want to lose him for nothing through waivers, and now it sounds like Antti Raanta is getting close to a return from his lower-body injury, so Louis Domingue has now been placed on waivers, likely to be demoted once he clears.  Domingue has been carrying the load with goalie Adin Hill of late, neither could find that win, so now more options are being explored.

Stuart is certainly hoping that Domingue gets picked up somewhere, as the goalie shuffle has worked pretty well in the pool already this season.  It'll be interesting to see what team would take a flyer on Domingue, if any do.  He certainly comes at the right price, $1.05 million.

You can certainly count me among those who were really excited to see Vadim Shipachyov join the NHL, especially since the stories from the KHL were so grand. His NHL story is not one of much luck, as his contract status and his NHL club winning without him have kept him from a regular shift in North America's best hockey league and it has really soured his experience. Shipachyov has reportedly left the Golden Knights' AHL affiliate, not willing to play in the minors and now he has been suspended by the Golden Knights and it is a real stalemate.  It sounds like trade options have been explored, but no one can fit $4.5 million very easily and taking a flyer on a 2-year deal at that size is even harder.  This could result in a mutual contract termination soon, if it doesn't go anywhere soon.

Stacey M. decided to take a flyer on the Russian veteran and it hasn't been paying off yet.  She took him in the 9th round of the draft and the lack of offense from that spot has limited her team to only 11th place in the standings, after Saturday night.  If this doesn't find a way to ice-time soon, Shipachyov is going to go the way of the Waiver Draft.

Niemi Claimed by the Panthers

There were a few teams that you could provide a decent argument for, in placing a waiver claim on goaltender Antti Niemi and indeed, a team did claim him in the end, as the Florida Panthers threw their hook into the water and snagged him.

The claim would suggest that the injury to Roberto Luongo is far more serious than once thought, as they are not comfortable with running with Reto Berra in the backup spot behind James Reimer, because it could be long enough that Berra would have to start a game or two and the Panthers would prefer more experience on the bench.

Niemi's numbers have been pretty poor in Pittsburgh, but he does have a Stanley Cup ring and plenty of experience, which has to be the big selling point here.  The 34-year old has made three appearances for the Penguins and he does have an assist on his record for 1 point in the pool.

The real gains here are for Reimer, if the injury concerns are real, as he'll get the bulk of the work, and that's a serious gain for Troy's team, which opens Tuesday night in 13th place and the very early leader for the Mover & Shaker nod this week.  It will remain as the status quo for Niemi and Derek B., as this should amount to any more work than he would have had in Pittsburgh, although he has been saved from absolutely no NHL work, which could be a gain in itself.  And if indeed, the injury woes are real, Stuart and his 14th place team takes another good kicking, besides already having Luongo on the shelf for a week, as it is now likely more significant.

Noon Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 23)

It appears that the days in Pittsburgh are numbered for Antti Niemi, as the goalie that worked his way into the backup role behind Matt Murray, didn't quite have what it took to stay there. The Penguins placed the veteran goalie on waivers on Monday and with a couple of teams having some goaltending troubles, someone might kick the tires and save his season. His numbers (7.49 GAA, .797 SV%), however, suggest that a trip to the minors is certainly in his future.

Picking up the backup in Pittsburgh wasn't a bad idea, since Murray isn't quite a 70+ start kind of goalie yet, but Niemi was somewhat of a questionable signing as it was, given his numbers in Dallas over the last couple of years.  For Derek B., this looks like a lost body on his squad until the Waiver Draft and could very well make for two zeroes on his projected games for the next little while.

Noon Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 12)

Well, it appears that the Mark Streit experience in Montreal is over and done with already and we haven't even finished the second week of the season yet.  There were reports circulating on Wednesday, that the Canadiens were shopping the veteran defender, but having signed him as a free agent, late in the summer, already suggested that everyone had already passed on him, no one was biting on a trade request.  On Thursday morning, Streit was placed on waivers and the belief will be, once he clears waivers on Friday, he will be sent down to the minors.

We'll wait for the official word to make any changes to Benson's lineup, but it looks fairly certain that his active status will come off his team list and he won't get any credit for projected games played from the Swiss defender.  Benson's team currently sits 4th in the standings without him registering a point, so far, but we all know how that can go over the stretch.

Afternoon Player Notes in the Draft (Oct 5)

A lower-body injury has now sidelined Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf, as he was not on the ice for the morning skate ahead of their opener against the Coyotes tonight, and it was confirmed later by the coaching staff that Getzlaf won't be in the lineup either.  He's currently listed as day-to-day, but there was no indication about how serious the injury is or how long he'll be out for.

It is an incredibly bad start for Eric's team, as a couple of players getting sent down to the minors ahead of the season starting and then his 3rd round draft pick goes down with injury.  His team was among the 23 teams that picked up a point on opening night, but it could get tougher with bodies falling off the list.

How about some positive news? The Nashville Predators have activated forward Nick Bonino ahead of the game against the Bruins, one of the early games tonight. Bonino hasn't seen a lot of on-ice action since he went down with his broken leg in the playoffs, but he has been deemed good-to-go, so off he goes.

Mike's team got on the board with a win last night, but that was his only 2 points, but a solid boost to his lineup is a healthy Bonino.  There certainly are no worries here, as he has had ample time to recover, it'll now be about shaking the rust off in game situations.

The Boston Bruins are prepping for the Predators with players coming out of their lineup, instead of going back in. Patrice Bergeron and David Backes are not expected to dress tonight, as Bergeron's previously reported lower-body injury will keep him out and Backes has been suffering from a bout of the flu in recent days.  Both are considered to be day-to-day and they may be ready to go for the team's next game, which goes on Monday afternoon with the Avalanche in town.

We had a feeling that Bergeron may not go for Brenda & Seward tonight, but Backes not going for Neil was a bit of a new one.  Again, it doesn't sound like something to get too excited about, but making hay early makes the season a little easier to stomach.

The early part of this season, a season in which they have yet to play a game in yet, has been nothing but curveballs coming from the Vegas Golden Knights. The Golden Knights claimed Malcolm Subban from the Bruins on the waiver wire this week and they seem to think that Subban is a cut above Calvin Pickard and they have opted to keep their new acquisition and put their previously apparent backup waivers on Thursday.  Pickard was an expansion draft pick from the Avalanche in the summer, but the Golden Knights see more of a future with Subban and they don't want to keep three goalies around, so the move was made.

There are no guarantees about how the Pickard situation will go down, as he could get claimed by another team, pass through unclaimed and hang around or go unclaimed and be sent down to the minors for a while.  For Steve, I would be hoping that Pickard gets claimed on waivers by a team in need, instead of waiting for Vegas to play him now.