It was a matter of the team's worst fears, that the Calgary Flames will be without captain and All-Star defenseman Mark Giordano for the remainder of the season and the playoffs (should they make it in), due to a torn tendon in his bicep. Giordano is expected to undergo surgery later on this week and the recovery time is in the way of 4-to-5 months.The news finally came down after the trade deadline had passed, as the management team of the Flames didn't want to show all of their cards, thinking it would impact the prices they would see for acquiring certain talent, but they really didn't make any significant moves to buy on Monday, so it was somewhat of a moot point.
That isn't to say the Flames were not active over the weekend, they did manage to pick up defenseman David Schlemko off of waivers from the Arizona Coyotes.
Now that the second Waiver Draft has already passed, it looks like Mike is now stuck with the 48 points in 61 games played that Giordano has already collected, there won't be any drops at this point for him.Unfortunately for Mike, this may mean he sticks in and around the 20th position in the pool, give or take a spot or two. Mike's team has a 26-point buffer from the 21st spot, but the injuries stacking up against him means he won't have as many games to keep that buffer alive. Nevertheless, his team won't be making any drastic moves up the table.
An updated list of injuries can be found here.
The Ducks get a pretty good puck moving defenseman, one that really didn't quite fit in with the Blue Jackets, but has some good potential to make his mark on a high-flying Ducks side.
The Wild should enjoy a bigger frame in their lineup, even though I probably wouldn't have considered them all that small to begin with, but you can't argue with more net presence, especially when you have some reasonable defensemen throwing pucks at the net.
The arguments are out there that Neuvirth is the better goalie of the two and given some of the statistics out there, there is a strong case for that. Nevertheless, Neuvirth, who belongs to Wyllie in the draft this season, gets a goalie that was in a good situation, in terms of minutes, where he'll go to a better situation, in terms of wins. Wyllie is down in the basement and needs wins, but he also needs his players to play. Wyllie's team ranks 22nd out of 23 teams in goalie minutes and this deal won't help that cause any.
Johnson, on the other hand, will get an opportunity to play, but the Sabres are banking on his horrible numbers as the back-up on Long Island to help the team keep their 30th position in the NHL overall standings. The Sabres have a couple of goalies now that have had some upside in their careers, but have never managed to realize it now. Now is a good time for either or to continue down that path, not quite the time to pick up their socks and start winning games. It just doesn't sound like a good situation for Mike, who has Johnson, trying to stay out of the basement in the pool.
In the pool this year, Zidlicky belongs to Wyllie, who may get a little bit of help to get out of the pool's basement with this trade. The Slovak blueliner has been okay for Wyllie this year, but not great, the move to Detroit may open up his offensive gifts a little bit more.
Well, we kick off the weekly review with a tie-breaker, as we have a couple of goalies in contention for the Player of the Week designation, as Corey Schneider in New Jersey and Carey Price in Montreal each shared pretty good weeks in the hockey pool. Schneider went 2-1-1 with a couple of shutouts, while Price went 3-0-0 with a single shutout, the wins take it and we have another appearance on the blog for Mr. Price.
Price picked up wins against St. Louis, Columbus and Toronto in the week, with his shutout coming around against the Maple Leafs. 
Well, if there was ever a title for it, now would be the time to give it out, as Leo takes the lowest team in the standings to pick up a Mover & Shaker nod this season. 
In the basement this week, it is quite the opposite story, as Wilton continues to tumble down, down, down.
It sounds like Christian Ehrhoff was just fine after his first game coming back from injury this week, but the coaching staff may have seen something a little bit differently. The veteran German defender was held out of Sunday afternoon's game, likely for precautionary measures, making sure he doesn't over-extend any injuries or form any new ones.
In Cole, the Red Wings shore up their goal scoring this season, as Cole is on the verge of another 20-goal season. He has been pretty good for the Stars this year in a supporting role, but with the losses of Johan Franzen and even Henrik Zetterberg of late, the Red Wings may lean upon Cole for a little bit more than just a supporting role down the stretch.
In the main pool, Stacey C. snagged Cole in the Week Eighteen Waiver Draft and since then, his team has remained in 14th place, only shifting at the end of one week to 13th, but has since dropped back down. Stacey's team is 16 points out of the top 10 and one of his players gets new life in a playoff-bound city.
Although Glencross' numbers are not quite up to par with where they have been in previous years, he does provide a level of flexibility and experience, which comes from a fairly solid career as a middle-of-the-pack forward.
The Coyotes have been fairly public in their desire to restart the focus of their club, especially after a disaster year, like they had thus far in 2015. Starting that, the team moved out Vermette, who plays a good two-way game, but being a free agent in the Summer will mean a pretty good payday for him, something the Coyotes likely don't want to commit to in a rebuild situation.
