Only 10 more seasons of this to go... in theory. Yes, Rick DiPietro, the franchise goaltender of the New York Islanders, has yet again been injured in action and I'm sure by now, you have seen the reason as to how he was injured. I have posted the video below, just for entertainment purposes or if you have been living under a rock for the past week. DiPietro will be sidelined for 4-to-6 weeks with some facial fractures and some knee swelling, but it's mostly the fractures. This nearly ends his regular season, with only about nine weeks to go in the year and the Islanders will be nowhere near the playoffs again this year.
DiPietro has only appeared in 21 games for the Islanders this season, amassing a 7-10-4 record with 1 shutout for 16 points in pool scoring, ranking him 358th in pool scoring today, 44th among all goalies this season.
In the draft, Larry D. has made the move to drop him from his team and just in time too. Of DiPietro's 7 wins this season, Larry did collect on 4 of them, giving him 8 points in the last nine weeks.Remarkably, in the same waiver draft, Larry actually picked Brent Johnson as well, the goalie that knocked out DiPietro.
Having dropped both goalies in the first waiver draft and now one of those goalies in the second waiver draft, I would have thought that Larry would have the worst goaltending team in the pool this year, but astoundingly, he doesn't. His team is 1 point better than Derek W.'s team, scoring 25 points to 24.
Link to the Injury/News Page
Scoring from Hagman has gone down a fair bit this season, evidenced mainly by his scoring pace. In 2011, Hagman has 23 points (9 goals and 14 assists) in 51 games, giving him a pace of 0.45 points-per-game, down from his 2010 pace of 0.54 points-per-game and his 2009 pace of 0.65 points-per-game. This is not a very good sign for the Flames, who have another year on his deal, nor is it a good sign for poolies out there that are looking for just some steady scoring. Definitely a nasty trend.
The New Jersey Devils decided to make Box 30 defenseman Mark Fraser into a healthy scratch on Thursday night against the Rangers and it seemingly worked in their favour, as the Devils won the game 3-2. Fraser has been a healthy scratch a few times already this year, not to mention missing games due to injury, so it isn't a big surprise that he was singled out.
The Vancouver Canucks have now moved one step closer to welcoming back Box 10 defenseman Sami Salo to their line-up, as they have sent the oft-injured blueliner down to the minors for a conditioning stint. The move will try to finish the rehabilitation needed from an Achilles tendon injury, which he suffered in the off-season in his native Finland. Salo's return would be greatly appreciated, since the loss of Alex Edler to back surgery.
The Red Wings received a little bit of help on Wednesday night against the Senators, as they saw Dan Cleary return to their line-up after missing just over a month with a fractured ankle, which he suffered just after Christmas. At the time, Cleary was the team's leading goal scorer, having a whale of a year, but hit a massive speed bump with the injury. He didn't feature in the scoring in a 7-5 game, but that doesn't mean that th team wasn't happy to have him back.
The last pick made on Saturday night was done by Jani K., as he picked 8th, an improvement in the standings from the last waiver draft, where he picked 5th. With the 8th pick in the second waiver draft, Jani was the first team to swap defensemen, as he dropped Anton Stralman of the Blue Jackets for Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg. Seidenberg was the best defenseman available after Week Seventeen, having a very respectable scoring rate through 50 games and has been a healthy body all year long.
We had to wait until Tuesday morning before our next pick came around and it was another injury swap in the end, as Peter H. ended up dropping the oft-injured Steve Sullivan from the Predators to pick up Blake Comeau of the Islanders, a top line player for the struggling team in New York. Sullivan went down with his lower-body injury just before Christmas and was placed on the Injured Reserve immediately, but after that, there has been no news or any updates on his condition, which had to lead to some concerns. Comeau's play has been improving from year to year, as he is on the verge of setting some new career-highs in points. He gets plenty of ice-time and with the team starting to get healthy again, good things could happen.
Waiting in the wings for the pick from Peter to happen was Larry D., who decided to drop a concussion problem in Marc Savard and take Jason Pominville, who had already suffered a concussion earlier in the season. Savard's career has to be in doubt with yet another concussion to his name and it really made the decision to drop him fairly easy for Larry, while the pick-up of Pominville was made easier by some recent successes that the winger has had with the Sabres, just before the All-Star break. I only hope, for Pominville's sake, that Larry isn't a concussion magnet.
The incredibly slow pace of this waiver draft continued on Wednesday morning, as Stacey C. made his move in the pool. He had to drop the injured Ryan Whitney, who is battling a serious ankle problem in Edmonton, while picking up Cody Franson from the Predators, who is enjoying a pretty good season down in Nashville. Franson was the best defenseman in pure numbers at the time of picking him up, so he should be an adequate replacement for a body that likely won't see much more time in the regular season.
Except for a couple of bodies on the verge of a return, Leon G.'s team is relatively healthy going into the final segment of the season. Instead of moving one of those two bodies, he decided to move the slumping rookie Magnus Paajarvi, who Leon was definitely patient with through the first 17 weeks of the season, trading him away for Drew Stafford of the Buffalo Sabres, who has been having a decent season, but comes with the risk of being somewhat injury prone. Picking 13th in the draft means he has six teams to leapfrog for the money, so switching for more points is a must.
Business picked up a bit on Wednesday night, as Don D. dropped the slumping Kristian Huselius out of Columbus and picked up the surging Erik Cole in Carolina. Don is nicely situated in the hunt for the money and the second segment prize, going into the weekend (to which this pick doesn't apply to), so an improvement up front is greatly appreciated by his squad. This move should pay dividends, since the Blue Jackets are falling in the wrong direction in the standings at the moment.
With the news that Alex Edler will likely miss the remainder of the regular season with the Canucks, Wayne H. decided that he no longer wants to carry that kind of dead weight on his side, being that he is right there in the money hunt as well. He decided to go with Andrew MacDonald of the Islanders, who has been enjoying some added ice-time this season, thanks in large part to the injury situation on the Island. MacDonald has had some good numbers through the first part of the season, scoring at nearly 0.5 points-per-game, which is ideal for most blueliners.
On Thursday morning, Stuart G. finally got off his ass and made a pick, while other teams were waiting for him to get the job done. He decided to also improve his goaltending this time around, dropping the now-back-up in Tampa Bay, Dan Ellis, picking up the back-up in Nashville, Anders Lindback, who enjoyed most of his success when Pekka Rinne was injured earlier in the year. Lindback is expected to get a decent number of starts down the stretch, especially since the Predators are firmly in a playoff spot and will likely want to keep Rinne fresh for a run.
On Wednesday night, while waiting in the on-deck circle for his pick, Benson G. announced his move to the Sherpa, likely knowing full well his brother would be moving a goaltender during this draft. Benson decided to also go the forward route for his waiver draft move, dropping Patrik Berglund of the Blues and picking up fellow Central Division forward Brian Bickell of the Blackhawks. Berglund has suffered from an under-manned line-up in St. Louis, while Bickell has surprised a few with a better scoring performance, likely due to better minutes.
Also on Wednesday night, Chris M. disclosed his move to improve his team, as he went a little off the board by taking Kyle Okposo from the Islanders, who had recently joined the line-up after missing the first 50 games of the season with a shoulder injury. Okposo has started to find his stride in the first four or five games with the club, so he should turn out to be a solid pick-up for Chris. In order to make the move, Chris decided to drop Alex Frolov, who suffered a season-ending knee injury, just inside of the New Year.
It's been another tough year for Smith, as he just can't seem to find a way into the win column enough times to realize his potential. When the 
Jovanovski has had an okay season in the desert, thus far in 2011, but it has been far from where his numbers have been in previous years. In 44 games with the Coyotes, Jovanovski has 5 goals and 9 assists, well down from his 0.5 points-per-game pace he hovers around from year to year. It hasn't been the same kind of offensive system in Phoenix this year, which has led to fewer goals, but the team has played well as a whole, which is the more important part to them (not us poolies though). 
Jokinen has been a big part of the Hurricanes offense this season, ranking 5th on the team in pool scoring with 38 points (12 goals and 26 assists) in 44 games, also ranking him 68th in pool scoring, going into this week. His 2011 scoring pace is only slightly down from his 2010 season total and missing out on these next couple weeks likely won't help his cause much.
On Tuesday night, it was the official restart of the NHL season after the All-Star Break and in San Jose, Sharks forward Logan Couture was not ready to restart his season, because of a bout of the flu. Couture had taken the morning skate, but wasn't deemed physically fit enough to play, thus becoming a late scratch against the Coyotes. The Sharks travel to Anaheim on Wednesday night to take on the Ducks and I would imagine that Couture will be a game-time decision for that one. 
The Tampa Bay Lightning have obviously enjoyed what they've seen out of the depth signing of Nate Thompson from this Summer, as the team has re-signed the rugged forward to a new 2-year deal, reportedly worth $850,000 per season.
With new ownership in tow for the Lightning, became new possibilities and new spending. The Lightning, full up to the brim with talent, having been hanging out around the top teams in the league, in terms of spending. A very good place to be, if one's team can be there. Going down the list, however, there are plenty of potential free agents down the roster, which gives the team plenty of flexibility. With 12 players and two buyouts on the books already for the 2012 season, I have the Lightning at $38.1 million against the cap, with Steven Stamkos yet to be signed to his first deal outside of entry-level. That's pretty good shape, if you ask me. 
In the 2011 season, Jones has quietly had a decent season with the Avalanche, scoring 16 goals and adding 12 assists in 47 games with the club, scoring at over half a point-per-game, ranking 144th in pool scoring this year. In the 2010 season, Jones was off to a fantastic start, scoring at a slightly better pace than he is this season, but a knee injury ended his season early, ending what could have been an excellent year. Nevertheless, Jones has been proving to be a valuable asset over the past couple of seasons in Colorado, one to keep an eye on.