Week Nine Newsletter

We're just about to load up all the changes in the Waiver Draft here today, thanks to everyone for your participation in the week.  I know everyone has some very varying schedules, so I'm glad we weren't pressed too much for time to get it all done, allowing for some time on Sunday to get the bonus round done.  Now, the start of all that shifting of players begins, so if I'm a little late getting everyone in, that just means all the stats from tonight's games will be delayed.  Of course, I should get it all done today.

First things first... the weekly review!



The Winnipeg Jets were a bit of a question mark in the first few weeks of the season, everyone was wondering what had happened to the team that we were beginning to see at the end of last season.  Well, I think they've finally shown up and man, are they flying!  Blake Wheeler narrowly edged Mark Scheifele for the Player of the Week nod, as the two linemates were on fire in Week Nine, finishing with 10 and 9 points, respectively.  The captain, Wheeler, earning the nod in the end, his second career hockey pool Player of the Week.

Wheeler played in four games this week and only had points in three of those games, believe it or not.  On Monday, he started off the week well with a goal and a pair of assists against Minnesota, but followed that up by being shutout by the Avalanche on Wednesday.  He bounced back with a trio of assists against Vegas on Friday and capped it all off with a goal and a trio of assists against the Senators last night, bumping himself to the head of the pack with his big game.

This now brings the 31-year old's totals up to 7 goals and 35 points in 27 games, good enough for 6th overall in pool scoring, to date.  Wheeler is only 4 points out of the overall points lead in the hockey pool, which should make him a certain lock for some premier honours, including a spot on the Central Division All-Star team in February.

This is all very good news for Grant, who managed to scoop up the Jets forward in the 3rd round of the draft, 56th overall, making him into a huge bargain pick.  Wheeler made up one-third of his points in the week, which was a huge help, as Grant's team remains in the super-competitive top 10, currently 9th, 15 points back of the money.

Oh, further to the note about Wheeler's second career Player of the Week nod... his first nod was way back in the 2012 season, Week Twenty, to be exact.

It was a very good race at the top of the weekly standings in Week Nine, as the points were still flying around on Sunday and nothing was quite settled until the final buzzer went.  Six teams all surpassed the 30-point mark in the weekly scoring and all of them were in the top half of the standings, making things pretty difficult for the rest of the pool, even if we were swapping players and they go active this week.  In the end, it was Chris who finished atop of it all, finishing all alone with 35 points and taking his first Mover & Shaker title.

Chris' team had a very good even attack on the hockey pool this week, as only two players failed to get points, one via injury, but the rest was very good across the board.  Leading the way for his team was Chicago rookie Alex DeBrincat and Los Angeles number one Jonathan Quick, as they both finished with 6 points each.  Chris may have been owed that big week by Quick, as he has found his team out of the goalie survivor pool recently.

Also having a good week for the newly minted Mover & Shaker were Aleksander Barkov of the Panthers with 4 points, as well as Brandon Dubinsky of the Blue Jackets, Derek Stepan of the Coyotes and rookie Thomas Chabot of the Senators, all finishing with 3 points each.  I don't have any documentation on this, but I don't believe this is the first time that a player on a Mover & Shaker blog post that has been dropped that week in the Waiver Draft (Dubinsky), I'm sure that's happened at least once before.  A nice sending off, indeed.

With how tight the top half of the standings has been, Chris' big week was only good enough to move his team up a couple of spots in the standings, moving from 10th to 8th, which wasn't exactly the biggest gain in the standings, but it still works.  Closing the gap on the money is certainly important and now with some flesh legs being inserted into his lineup, it will certainly be more competitive down the stretch.

Now that the first 9-week segment is over, I can tell you that Chris' team was 16th in forwards scoring, 10th in defense and then 1st in goalie points, pointing towards his obvious strength this season and allowing the shock to settle in, that he is already out of the goalie survival pool.  Being tied for 18th in goal scoring is probably one of the biggest reasons why his team hasn't been in the money spots since Week Four, as most teams need all three positions firing at the same time to succeed.

As competitive as the top of the weekly standings were, it was just as close, if not closer, down at the bottom of the weekly scoring.  This week, we have to employ the tie-breaking procedures, as both Derek B. and Wes were down at the bottom of the pile in Week Nine, finishing with only 13 points, while Steve managed to get that extra point to steer clear of this tie-break.

First tie-break... least amount of goals becomes the Basement Dweller.  And by a margin of 9-3, Derek B. stays clear of the Basement Dweller, giving the sleeping bag and the lantern to Wes, as he becomes the third team this season to earn his second Dweller nod of the season in nine weeks.

Wes' team was nearly abandoned by his forwards, as only Jack Eichel and Ryan Spooner were the only forwards to pick up points, while the team was led by both Dustin Byfuglien and Zach Werenski, who each had 3 points.  Wes' goalies, Jacob Markstrom and Cam Talbot, each had a win and that rounded out all the players that picked up points for his team in Week Nine.

The rough week saw his team drop back a couple of spots, from 19th to 21st, but he was able to snag one of the top forwards in the Waiver Draft and also a pretty good minute-eating defenseman as well, so there are some improvements on the way for his team.

Well, it's going to be hard to keep Brian down for too long, as his team jumped ahead and opened a lead in Week Nine, but that's what the Waiver Draft is for, right?  Brian leapfrogged over Dale B. in the week and ran ahead by 10 points, while Jeremy still sits in 3rd and Stuart also got a big jump too, tying himself with Jeremy, both teams only 1 point back of Dale B..  Wilton nestled in tight in Week Nine, as his 5th placed team is only 3 points back of 2nd place, while Kristy & Don fell off a little, but are only 5 points back of 2nd. 

With all the changes in place, this race is going to get crazy.  All of these teams, not to mention Benson and Chris, who aren't very far away either, are going to be making some pretty good pushes in the next nine weeks, barring some massive injuries or any other unforeseeable issues.

Despite having 236 minutes worth of action this week, about four starts, Cam's team was unable to register a win from either Jake Allen of the Blues or Ryan Miller of the Ducks and he becomes the latest team to fall out of the goalie survivor pool in Week Nine.

So, now we're only left with Jeremy, Wilton, Mike and Grant in the survivor pool and Wilton was the only one of the four to make a Waiver Draft claim for a goaltender, picking up Malcolm Subban of the Golden Knights to help cement his chances at a mini-game win.

Amazingly, we are now at the same spot in the survivor pool, four teams, as we were at Week Nine last season.  After Week Nine in the 2016 season, we did have six teams left, so I guess there is that, it's not exactly a record this year, but it has still been a good mini-game, to date.

Holy cow!  I would start with the leaders, you know, being the end of the segment and all, but I think it is definitely worth noting that Kristy & Don's team had the bottom fall out of their club in the plus/minus department, setting a record for the worst week in the mini-game, as they suffered a -27 in Week Nine.  They opened the week in 7th place in the pool, 22 points back of the leader, but then Week Nine happened and they dropped down below even, dropping them down to 18th, 49 points back.  Yikes!

With the move into 1st place in the overall race, Brian leaped up to 1st place in this mini-game as well, jumping both Dale B. and Steve in the process, now sitting at +40, 2 points better than Dale and 5 better than Steve.  This still remains close and we've now seen how much of a disaster week can actually happen in this pool, so we can all hope that it doesn't happen to our team in the future.

If you missed the post earlier this weekend, the NHL has now opened up voting for the captains of the divisional All-Star teams for their 3-on-3 tournament.  You can go and vote for your players to captain their respective divisional team and maybe even win a trip down to Tampa Bay to watch the game as well.  You can submit up to 10 votes a day and if anyone has a Central Division player in need of some votes, I don't have any in that division anymore, so I would be willing to sell my vote to you for a fair price.

No records were set in Week Nine in either the most or the least penalty minutes, but Stacey M.'s team was gooning it up the most, finishing atop of the weekly standings with 24 minutes through the last seven days.  Her team still is the Lady Byng front-runner as the team with the least amount of minutes, not even hitting triple-digits yet, finishing with only 98 minutes in penalties.

Wes' team still holds the lead for the overall goon title, finishing with 216 minutes through the first nine weeks and his team holds a 31-minute lead on Brenda & Seward's team.  Those two teams are the two teams, far and away, the leaders.  Wes dropped Radko Gudas in the Waiver Draft, taking one of his top guys away from the race, while the duo didn't make any drastic changes to their goons.

Clayton finished off the first segment of the regular season in the lead in the non-existent rookie pool, finishing with 44 points, 6 points clear of Cam's team.

Clayton disposed of one of his rookies in the Waiver Draft, as did Cam, so they are both heading into the second segment with a pair of very good rookies this season.

There were a number of good rookies picked up in the Waiver Draft in Week Nine, going active later today, in Yanni Gourde of the Lightning being taken by Troy, Jesper Bratt of the Devils taken by Ryan, Alexander Kerfoot of the Avalanche taken by Stacey M. and Jan Rutta of the Blackhawks taken by Grant.  This race could still be interesting by the end of the year for bragging rights, at best.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

Well, the pool wasn't doing so bad through Week Eight, but it really didn't like Week Nine so much, indicating that we really needed the new players in the Waiver Draft to activate and restore some of these scoring numbers. 

Week Nine was the 2nd-worst week for points per NHL game this season and it looks like it had more to do with the lack of goaltending minutes this past week, we didn't get as many starts or appearances as we would have liked and that hurt the pool, as a whole.  Thankfully, we've made seven changes in the crease in the Waiver Draft, so these numbers should start to improve drastically.

NEWS AND NOTES

Good news for the Vegas Golden Knights, it appears that Marc-Andre Fleury is ready to rock and roll, as he has reportedly cleared the concussion protocol on Sunday and now it will be a matter of getting game-ready, which the team's management suggests could be as soon as the end of this week.  We'll know pretty well when Fleury is ready to go, when Maxime Lagace gets sent down to the minors this week.  That will be the sure sign that Fleury is ready.

This is good news for Scott B., as his team kept Fleury through the Waiver Draft, and this will be a big gain, as he tries to get his team out of the basement with his pickups last week.  He opens the week with a ##-point deficit behind the 24th placed team belonging to Eric.

Nashville Predators forward Ryan Johansen collided with teammate Kevin Fiala in Saturday night's game against the Ducks in the 2nd period and wasn't able to return to the contest.  The team did not say what kind of injury that Johansen had suffered quite yet, but we should hear quite soon, as to whether or not he'll be able to dress tonight, when the Predators host the Bruins.

Not great news for Brian's team, as his team is in the midst of the money chase through Week Nine.  Johansen hasn't exactly been dominant this season with only 17 points in 26 games, but he has been a reasonable contributor for Brian's team down under.  We'll have to wait and see how long the centre is out for later on today.

The Winnipeg Jets were without forward Kyle Connor on Sunday night, as the rookie forward was held out of the lineup with a minor lower-body injury. Connor is considered to be day-to-day and the coaching staff doesn't believe that the injury is too serious. Connor has been quite good for the Jets in his first full season with the club, picking up 17 points in 21 games, missing some time early to a demotion to the AHL out of camp, but bouncing back in fine fashion.

For Eric, this is his second year with Connor out of the draft and there was plenty of concern in the first week or two with his demotion, that he might end up being a drop in the Waiver Draft, but that hasn't been the case.  Connor has been one of his best players, but on a 24th place team, that might not be saying too much.

Week Nine Waiver Draft (Dec 4)

There was undoubtedly a lot of excitement about the bonus round in the Waiver Draft this year and rightly so... there were quite a few injured players in the pool coming into this week and through the week as well.  There were a number of pool teams cursing the fact that some guys were taking their sweet time in the compulsory rounds of the Waiver Draft, fearing that there wasn't enough time to get the bonus round done or that their anxiousness of hoping that a certain player would be left behind, would still be there and the waiting was killing them!

So, once Dale B. got his pick in yesterday morning, the blog post review was done, the flood gates were opened via text and e-mail and the first picks came rushing out.

One of those teams pounding at the door for the bonus round was Dale C., as he was absolutely dying to pick up Patrik Berglund of the Blues, who had just recently come back from an off-season shoulder injury and has immediately made an impact, scoring 2 goals in his first three games of the season.  Dale had just recently lost Evgenii Dadonov to a 6-week injury last week, so the move was necessary to stay competitive in the second segment of the season.

Ryan wasn't very far behind in the bonus round, getting excited about his hometown team's emerging forward in Mark Jankowski, who got a late start to his season, lighting up the AHL before getting a full-time call-up a few weeks ago.  Jankowski has been decent in his start, picking up 7 points in his first 18 games this year, so he'll be looked upon to do more.  Ryan parted ways with Washington Capitals forward Andre Burakovsky, who has been on the IR since the end of October with a broken thumb and some reports are suggesting that he won't be ready until Christmas, so this could be a good move.

Cam has been sitting on Los Angeles Kings forward Jeff Carter for far too long, not that it was his fault, but with Carter not having played since the middle of October with an ankle injury, a move needed to be done, especially with the expectation that he would be out until February now.  Recently dropped forward, Paul Byron, who was highlighted in yesterday's post, scored a hat-trick on Saturday night and became a prime target for Cam's team, so he was snapped up right away.

Neil got in on the act nice and early as well on Sunday morning, making a full Dallas Stars swap, knocking out injured forward Martin Hanzal, who has had a very tumultuous start to the regular season with injuries, filling in his spot with Mattias Janmark, who was flying under a lot of radars out there, thanks to a long-term injury last season, which forced him to miss the entire 2017 season.  Janmark has 13 points in 26 games already this year, which should make him into a good fit on Neil's team, especially since he is getting some quality minutes in the team's top six.

The duo of Brenda & Seward were fairly busy getting rid of some duds in this early part of the season and they were able to find one more in the bonus round, dropping Edmonton defenseman Adam Larsson and they picked up the recently dropped Jeff Petry from the Canadiens.  Larsson hasn't been nearly as effective as his counterpart in the trade that went over to New Jersey before last season and the fact that he was injured was a blessing in disguise for the duo, as they were able to find someone who was doing a bit better and has been healthy to start the year.  One team's drop is another team's treasure.

An executive decision was made, given some circumstances, which allowed Steve to move Calvin Pickard off of his roster and allow him to pick up Aaron Dell of the Sharks.  Pickard isn't injured, rather he was sent to the minors after being dealt away from the Vegas Golden Knights before the season had started, shocking just about everyone.  The move was allowed only after the six teams that have injured goalies passed on the bonus round, which they did, and because Steve is still rather new to the pool.  The move won't have any effect on the mini-games and Dell, being a backup in San Jose at the time of the move, likely won't affect the overall standings too greatly.  If Pickard is to find his way back to the NHL in a large capacity this season, he will be available in the next Waiver Draft to anyone who needs to swap a goalie.

As much as this pool is about winning some money at the end of the year, it also is about having a little bit of fun throughout the NHL season and if these pools aren't fun for everyone, everyone isn't going to come back. 

Week Nine Waiver Draft (Dec 3)

Well, this week's Waiver Draft has been a bit of a chore, but that definitely comes with the territory of doing this part of the hockey pool.  You really hope that it is all going to change this year, but it really doesn't.  As of 9:41am MT this morning, the compulsory part of the Waiver Draft has been completed and with the publishing of this post, I would say that the free-for-all, that is the bonus round, can now begin.  A text message/e-mail will have been sent out to say just that.

But first, let's go over what has been done here on Saturday afternoon/evening and Sunday morning and then off we go!

It all kicked off in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, with Wilton, up in Edmonton, picking up the former Oilers player, Andrew Cogliano and dropping Paul Byron in the process.  Byron said goodbye to this team with a celebratory hat trick against the Red Wings on Saturday night, which isn't a bad departing present.

Stuart, forever the risk-taker, has opted to take the still-not-quite-healthy-yet Ryan Kesler out of Anaheim, who underwent hip surgery back in June and is scheduled to come back sometime in December here.  Word is that he has been skating and there is a chance that he could be back as soon as Tuesday.  Coming out of Stuart's lineup is Jason Spezza of the Stars, who has been the subject of many trade rumours, due to a slow start.

Both Benson and the duo of Kristy & Don opted to pass on their 2nd round picks, which should come as no surprise, both teams have been fairly solid through the first nine weeks, with no glaring holes that needed filling with their second move.

After cycling through a number of defensemen that were already taken, mostly in the original draft at the beginning of the season, Jeremy finally settled on picking up Chicago's Gustav Forsling, who has found a regular spot on their blueline, thanks in part to his entry-level contract not being such a burden on their cap-strapped ways.  Jeremy was hoping to drop Trevor Daley in the bonus round this weekend, but Daley returned to action too soon for his liking or the Waiver Draft went too slow... one of the two.

There's another gambler in our midst, as Brian has been keeping a close eye on Zach Parise in Minnesota, seeing that he has started to skate, as he tries to come back from a significant back surgery.  The initial belief is that Parise isn't going to be ready until the New Year, which is still four weeks away, but Brian seems to think that he is ahead of schedule and could make an impact for the Wild and his pool team.  Out the door in the process was Long Island's Brock Nelson, who has also been somewhat underwhelming on a decent Islanders team.

Finally, we all awoke to Dale B.'s pick to round out the 2nd round of the Waiver Draft and he dropped Arizona Coyotes rookie Dylan Strome, who has just returned to the lineup this week for the Coyotes, scoring his first NHL goal last night, but that wasn't enough for the reigning champ, as he opted to take one of the top forwards available in Los Angeles' Trevor Lewis.

So, with all of this being said, the website will get its reset for the players dropped in the 2nd round, they are now available to be selected and we'll begin the free-for-all right away.  If you're reading this already, feel free to send me a message with your drop and new pick.

Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 3)

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Nathan Beaulieu left Saturday night's game against the Penguins with an undisclosed injury and didn't return.  There was no immediate update to his condition after the game and there still hasn't been much of an update on Sunday morning, as of yet.  The Sabres are in Colorado on Tuesday, so they might take their time with this one.

Doesn't matter too much, as Scott B. has dropped him for the coming week, as he was his second drop in this week's Waiver Draft.  Scott made the upgrade to Vegas' Colin Miller instead, hoping for a few more points to help him out of the pool basement.

The Columbus Blue Jackets announced, just prior to their game against the Washington Capitals, that they would be without defenseman Markus Nutivaara, due to an upper-body ailment.  They say that he's currently day-to-day, but that was really about it.  No cause of the injury and no timetable either.

Cam's luck just continues to be piss poor, as both of his Waiver Draft picks have now been injured, shortly thereafter being picked by him.  This is almost curse-like, if you ask me.  Both Jake DeBrusk and Nutivaara are eligible to be dropped by Cam in the bonus round, once it formally begins today.

New Jersey Devils young forward Pavel Zacha has been underachieving a little bit this season, with only 2 goals and 6 points in 21 games, and that had forced the hand of the coaching staff to send him up to the press box for last night's game against the Arizona Coyotes.  The healthy scratch didn't help their offense any, as they still dropped a 5-0 decision to the dogs, so you'd figure that Zacha would be back in the lineup for their next game.

Being back in for the next game doesn't really matter much to Dale C., as he has already parted ways with Zacha, swapping him out in the 2nd round of the Waiver Draft for Erik Haula in Vegas.  Without any scoring consistency from the kid, Dale had to make the move to help his team stay in the money conversation.

It's the same story in San Jose, but this time, with a little bit more of a veteran player in Mikkel Boedker.  His production has also been very underwhelming, for the second straight year in San Jose, having only 3 goals and 7 points in 24 games this season.  Boedker was made into a healthy scratch as well on Saturday night, as they visited the Lightning in Tampa Bay, but the Sharks were not able to find their bite there either, losing 5-2.

Lo and behold, this was another Waiver Draft drop this week and he was also replaced by a Vegas Golden Knights player.  How bizarre!  Stacey C. dropped the Dane for Reilly Smith in the 1st round, so his status moving forward is pretty well moot.

Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bozak was held out of the final game of their Western Canada road swing in Vancouver, due to being under the weather for the last couple of days. He was unable to skate in Vancouver and then didn't dress for the game, but is only considered day-to-day right now and should be considered probable for their return home to face the Calgary Flames again on Wednesday.

This was just unfortunate timing for Derek B., who enters Sunday's limited action tied for 23rd in weekly scoring in Week Nine with 13 points, only 2 points ahead of the current Basement Dweller leader, Wes, and doesn't have any games to defend himself with today.  Wes, on the other hand, has two games.

Hamstring Sidelines Hanzal

The Dallas Stars updated the status of forward Martin Hanzal, saying that he is now week-to-week with a hamstring injury.  The team has likely put him on the Injured Reserve now, since they have called up Curtis McKenzie from the AHL and this is expected to be a decent period of time out of the lineup for the veteran centre.

Hanzal's season has been marred by injury in these first nine weeks, as he has missed small periods of time here and there with numerous lower-body injuries, limiting him to only 19 games thus far and 1 goal and 3 points in production.  Heading into Saturday's action, he was ranked 592nd in pool scoring, well below where he should be as a pool player.

Neil has already made his first two picks and drops in the Waiver Draft and he will be able to drop Hanzal, if he so chooses, when the bonus round of the Waiver Draft begins.  Neil's team could really use a boost and dropping Hanzal for a healthy forward with more production is a pretty good start to the second segment, in theory.  We'll see what he decides.

2018 All-Star Game Voting is Open

The All-Star Game 3-on-3 tournament is a mini-game this year and I have documented how that looks in seasons past, like last year, which you can see right here.  The NHL has opened the voting proceedings, which we can all take part of and now there is a reason for you to do so!  You can vote for your top players to be captains of the divisional teams, if you so choose and then keep your fingers crossed that you get a player, two or three on rosters, when the coaching staffs fill out their picks.

Out of the last two All-Star Game tournaments, only one player wasn't taken in the pool and that was for obvious reasons... defenseman John Scott.  Of course, he went on to be the tournament's MVP, with the Pacific Division winning it all in an unlikely fashion.  With all that being said, I fully expect the pool to fill out the All-Star Game rosters, as we're still a month away to the next Waiver Draft and I don't think there are any potential All-Stars left on the list.

Okay... I think I deviated a bit on this post!  Go vote for your players to be captains... start a social media campaign for your guys... do something!  It'll be fun.  Click here to get to the voting webpage.

Week Nine Waiver Draft (Dec 2)

What a horrible last couple of days for the Waiver Draft. We had a pretty decent day on Thursday, but Friday went all to hell and between both of those days, I wasn't feeling too up to doing the recap post either.

Nevertheless, we're back at it here on Saturday morning and we'll figure out where we left off... which was Eric's pick on Thursday morning and we'll go from there!

Eric kicked it all off with the 27th overall pick and he took a flyer on Sharks forward Joonas Donskoi, who was on the shelf with a slight injury, but he was listed as day-to-day.  If the injury was to get worse, Eric would also get a shot to move him out in the bonus round, but it still sounds fairly minor, at the moment.

With the next pick, Steve looked to improve his blueline, dropping the underachieving Julius Honka in Dallas and buying into the Vegas Golden Knights, taking Deryk Engelland to replace the Finn.  If you missed it in the player notes this morning, Engelland was hurt this week, also day-to-day with an upper-body injury, suffered after the pick, so he's eligible for the bonus round drops, if necessary.

Stacey C. has now made a couple of moves, removing the full proxy tag from his team, which is good news for him.  His second move was dropping Frans Nielsen in Detroit and replacing him with Lars Eller in Washington, keeping that European flavour on his team, but shifting the talent from an offensively stifled team to a high-powered offense on the eastern seaboard.

Troy's team was in dire need of a shake-up in this Waiver Draft and he opted to go to the blueline with his second move of the draft, dropping Montreal defender Jeff Petry and picking up Adam Pelech from the surging Islanders.  The Islanders are 2nd in the NHL in goals for, so that's a good team to jump on at the moment, as it seems like a good number of players are picking up scrap points here and there.

Neil was unfortunate to see Eddie Lack head down to the minors from the Flames a couple of weeks ago and there isn't any reason, at the moment, that they needed to call him back up, so Neil picked up a new backup goalie in Darcy Kuemper on Thursday, trying to make good use of the Kings' back-to-back games with a pretty potent roster these days.

Since penalty minutes isn't a mini-game this year, there really was no use for Radko Gudas on Wes' pool team moving forward, especially now that he has a significant lead in the category regardless.  Wes looked for a bit more offensive potential and picked up Michael Del Zotto from the Canucks to get it.  Del Zotto is playing big minutes for Vancouver and could be a very good addition.

Ryan couldn't find any possible improvements in his second round move, so he passed.  He does have bonus round options, if needed, but that is unlikely.

Mike went back to the blueline as well with his 2nd round pick, looking to improve his offense with Joel Edmundson of the Blues, who has quietly been putting up points in a St. Louis offense that can find some extra gears from time to time.  Carolina's Jaccob Slavin has been pool worthy over the last couple of seasons, but hasn't gotten off to a great start this season, hence the drop.

As we motored through the first 34 picks before Stacey M., Andrew Ladd's name was bounced around quite a bit, thought to be one of the more recognizable names out there, but there was just no takers, until Stacey came calling.  She had an injury to take care of right away in Montreal's Artturi Lehkonen and this is the second move in this post that saw a Canadiens player dropped for an Islanders player.  Interesting.

Brenda & Seward were another team that decided to pass, as their roster has been relatively healthy after the first couple weeks of the year and they could see better numbers from what they have already, compared to what was out there.

There was a lot of disappointment in Cam's voice, when he had to drop Zdeno Chara for his lack of offense this season, as the aged defender isn't the same offensive guy he used to be this season.  In the corresponding move, he picked up another player he had never heard of in Columbus' Markus Nutivaara, a regular guy on the Jackets roster.

The top half of the standings were all apparently sitting on Hampus Lindholm in Anaheim, hoping that his late start to the season would get him to drop into their laps and pick him up as a sneaky pick in the Waiver Draft.  Clayton was the fortunate recipient of this luck, as he fell into his lap and Lindholm has now replaced Cody Ceci in Ottawa, who hasn't been as effective as Clayton would have hoped.

Both Tony and Grant passed on their picks in the 2nd round, as both of their teams remain injury-free these days.

After a lengthy, lengthy wait, Chris opted to jump on the Blue Jackets bandwagon with his 2nd pick in the Waiver Draft, picking up rookie forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, who has been doing just a smidgen better than his teammate Brandon Dubinsky, who was Chris' drop in the move.

Chris' pick was what now brought us to Saturday morning and Derek B. was waiting ever-so-impatiently to make his move.  All of that waiting paid off, I guess, as he was able to drop Troy Stecher from the Canucks and pick up Kris Russell in Edmonton, who has been better in picking up points in the early part of the year.

The last pick that I have on the board right now belongs to Dale C., who hummed and hawed for a little while, debating on making the move to try and improve his forwards.  There was some better numbers from Vegas' Erik Haula than what he was getting from New Jersey's Pavel Zacha, so he made the swap and he'll hope that the Golden Knights can keep the offense going.

So, now we're waiting on Wilton, who has informed me this morning that he is driving to Edmonton, as this post was being written, so it might be a little bit before that pick gets done.  The bonus round will be a free-for-all for all of those injured players still listed on teams and I will inform everyone about when it starts.  Now we wait again!

Goalie Announcements (Dec 2)

An early start to Saturday's schedule has a bit of a rush feel to the goalie announcements post, but here we go!

Lots of games on the schedule today and tonight, but with only two teams still in need of wins for the goalie survival pool, we'll only have to focus on three of these games in this post.

Both Cam and Grant are still in need of wins, since neither of them have had much help of late, especially last night, when there were no games for them to watch.  Today and tonight will be a bit of a different story, but it will also be their last kick at the can for this week as well.

Let's begin!

Jake Allen (Cam) versus Devan Dubnyk (Brenda & Seward)
It isn't the earliest of starts for this one, but it is somewhat considered an afternoon game, but the 4pm MT game between the Blues and the Wild should be a survival game, with Cam getting his number one goalie out on the ice.  Jake Allen gets the call for the Blues when they take on Devan Dubnyk and the Wild, the Blues dropping a 4-1 decision at home last night will be aching for redemption in the standings, while the Wild will provide solid opposition.

Sergei Bobrovsky (Derek B.) versus Braden Holtby (Grant)
Grant's last chance will come from the Capitals playing host to the Blue Jackets, in a game that will feature both number ones.  Braden Holtby gets the nod for Grant and the 12th ranked goalie in the hockey pool will take on the 3rd ranked goalie in the pool, Sergei Bobrovsky, who will be aiming to get Derek back into the money conversation before the week's end.

Ryan Miller (Cam) versus Pekka Rinne (Dale B.)
With the Ducks playing in Columbus last night, they will turn to their backup goalie for the start tonight in Nashville, giving Cam a second chance, if needed, for that valuable win.  Ryan Miller should be getting the start, although it wasn't absolutely confirmed at the time of the post, but it was very fair to assume.  The Predators didn't play on Friday night, so they will roll out the carpet for the Ducks with their number one, Pekka Rinne, making this game very difficult for that win.

It's not impossible for either of these two pool teams to sneak out a win, but it's now or never for them!

Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 2)

One quick note from Friday night's action, as Vegas defenseman Deryk Engelland was held out of Friday's contest against the Jets in Winnipeg, due to an upper-body ailment.  It was quite coincidental, with the return of Luca Sbisa to the lineup from his stint on the Injured Reserve, with his general soreness.  There was no full update on Engelland's condition, other than the fact that he is just day-to-day.  He's a tough customer, one would assume that he'll be back before too long.

Steve made the move to pick up the veteran defender in the Waiver Draft, not that it has been posted on the blog site yet, but it has happened.  Now, if Steve was to catch wind that his new defenseman will miss a significant amount of time, he would be eligible for the drop in the bonus round now too.

Goalie Announcements (Dec 1)

With the Washington Capitals dropping a 5-2 decision to the Kings last night, we're still left with two teams looking for a win in the goalie survivor pool and now we're getting into the crunch of the weekend.

The Capitals have one more game this week and that will be what Grant needs to keep going, but we'll cross that bridge tomorrow.

Cam, on the other hand, might get some help this weekend, but it doesn't look good for tonight, it might just have to come down to Saturday for him as well.

John Gibson (Tony) versus Sergei Bobrovsky (Derek B.)
The Ducks will play the first of back-to-back nights tonight in Columbus and they are going to go with their number one against the daunted Blue Jackets.  Actually, it will be a battle of number ones, as it will be John Gibson versus Sergei Bobrovsky, which works out to be a goalie battle between two teams in the hockey pool, Tony's 13th place team, only 5 points behind Derek's 10th place team.  Sadly, not a survival game for Cam.

Darcy Kuemper (N/A) versus Carter Hutton (Benson)
The Blues also open up a back-to-back set of games on Friday night, hosting the Los Angeles Kings, who are on the second half of their current back-to-back situation.  This game will be a battle of backups, which also doesn't bode well for Cam, since Benson is getting the only pool start in this game, taking Cam's start away.  Neil has picked up Kuemper in the Waiver Draft, but unfortunately, he won't get this start, as he won't be active until Monday.

Hawks Place Crawford on IR

A surprise piece of news hit the streams on Friday afternoon, as the Chicago Blackhawks mysteriously placed their number one goalie, Corey Crawford, on the Injured Reserve with an undisclosed injury.  All we can really gather from it is that Crawford will be out at least a week with said injury and if the Blackhawks could possibly give us some more info, that would be fantastic.

Crawford and the Blackhawks lost to the Stars on Thursday night, a game that the 32-year old was able to finish, but something must have been hurting, given the paperwork that ensued today.

In 21 appearances this season, the Blackhawks netminder has 11 wins and 2 shutouts for 26 points, which is good enough for 36th overall in pool scoring, 13th among all goalies.  His injury will make Anton Forsberg the new starter and the team called up J-F Berube to be the part-time back-up for the team going forward.

For Jeremy, this could put a dent into both his hopes for the goalie survival pool and if the injury is indeed more significant than the scheduled week off, it could put a dent in his trophy hopes as well.  I'm sure he's anxiously looking to find out whether or not he'll have to make a player swap in the goaltending position before the end of the week with the bonus round coming up.

Morning Player Notes in the Draft (Dec 1)

The Dallas Stars made Julius Honka into a healthy scratch again on Thursday night against the Blackhawks, as it doesn't appear that he is really finding a fit with the current iteration of their lineup these days. Honka is a celebrated prospect on the back end, thought to be ready to compete at the NHL level, but he has been up and down from the minors a couple times and also a healthy scratch, so one would begin to wonder how much time he has left with the club, before he gets dealt for someone more productive.

Steve isn't waiting around to see how this will all play out, as he has already dropped Honka in the 2nd round of the Waiver Draft this week, so this won't be much of a pool concern for very much longer. Of course, it would have been great for Steve, if Honka had a point or two to say goodbye, but we all can't be that lucky.

Defenseman Adam Larsson was a bit of a surprise scratch on Thursday night, a late scratch at that, before the game against the Maple Leafs.  The official word from the Oilers was that the defender is dealing with an upper-body injury and that he's day-to-day.  Larsson was able to take the pregame skate ahead of the game, but didn't end up dressing for the game, so it remains a tad puzzling, but it doesn't sound like anything major.

For Brenda & Seward, their hot spell has seemed to have cooled back down, as their team has now dropped back down to 18th, as their team vies for the Basement Dweller in Week Nine, only 2 points clear of the current leaders.  The return of Larsson could help, but his scoring rate isn't great, 4 points in 25 games, so it may only help marginally.