Mike Brophy is reporting that Sidney Crosby is wearing a regular helmet today at practice. That means he has been cleared for contact. This could be big news and we could see him back on the ice by the end of the month. Awesome for those that own him, sorry to those that do not.
Darren Dreger believes that Cory Schnieder could see more than 30 games this season. Gillis responded to trade talk regarding his goalies by saying that he has no problem rolling with two starters, considering the strain placed on these players by the travel involved in their schedule.
According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Ryan Kesler should be back into the line up by late next week. This is welcome news for Canuck’s fans and fantasy players, as his addition will make all the players around him better. Vancouver right now is sorely lacking a shutdown forward to line up against the top lines of their opponents, as evidenced by Claude Giroux’s big night tonight.
Word in Toronto is that Cody Franson will suit up for his first NHL game with the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday vs. Calgary. James Mirtle via Twitter predicts that it will be Mike Komisarek who sits. Franson has voiced his frustration over not being a part of the top six in Toronto: “Right now I’m not too thrilled with it. You’ve got to just, I don’t know, stick with it. It’s a tough situation.” Perhaps in related news, 2 Toronto scouts were confirmed to be watching the October 12th Columbus vs. Colorado game, featuring two teams who could use young top six defense help.
Neuvirth was held out of Caps practice on Wednesday with a LBI. It sounds like it was more precautionary than anything but Vokoun is ready to roll if need be. His statistics over the course of his career have not been good for his first game out (3-8-0-1/3.39/.884 in his first starts of the season throughout his career) but he always seems to rebound nicely. Don’t read too much into Vokouns bad start.
Patrick Marleau sat out Sharks practice for the third straight day with flu-like symptoms but he was in the building riding the bike. McLellan threw Havlat on the top line with Thornton and Pavelski which tells me two things. 1. Havlat is still not ready to come back and 2. McLellan is expecting Marleau back for the game on Friday.
Niemi is still day to day but he apparently had his best practice yet on Wednesday. Still no word on who is going to be named the starter for the Sharks on Friday.
Alexander Salak was recalled to the Blackhawks. Could this be the opening he needs to get in there and steal the job from Crawford? Is Crawfords injury a little more significant than they are letting on? Right now, I would not touch Crawford with a 10 foot poll.
Troy Bodie has signed a one year, two-way contract with the Ducks. Not much fantasy significance as his best season was 2009-2010 when he score 5 goals, 2 assists with 80 PIM in 44 games but if you are in desperate need of PIMs, he might be someone that you take a flyer on.
Eric Nystrom was traded from Minnesota to Dallas Wednesday for future considerations. Something very odd about this deal. Follow the timeline
Oct 6. Nystrom is waived. Anyone can claim him and they do not have to give up an asset. He goes unclaimed.
Oct 11. Nystrom is placed on re-entry waivers. Anyone can claim him for ½ of his salary ($700k for half) and they would not have to give up anything. He went unclaimed
Oct 12. Dallas trades future considerations for Nystrom.
WHY in the world would Dallas trade for him a day after he could have been had for free at half the price? Two words. Cap Floor. Dallas is responsible for $1.9MM of Sean Avery’s salary. This number counts against the cap, or more importantly for Dallas, it counts against the cap floor. When Avery was waived and reassigned to the AHL, his salary came off the Stars cap number. That put them below the cap floor. Acquiring Nystrom at $700k would not have solved the problem. Acquiring Nystrom at $1.4MM does solve their problem. So Dallas gets a veteran center but more importantly, they get back to the cap floor. Strange how this cap works huh?
Rick DiPietro left practice early on Wednesday after taking a shot from Roloston off the mask. He was evaluated by the medical staff but no news was released. It was only a matter of time before he was injured again. It’s sad to see this much talent go to waste.
Justin Faulk was scratch after going -6 in his first three games with no points and 4 PIM. This kid is still really young. Don’t give up on him. He had an amazing training camp and he will be back sooner rather than later. McBain is back in the lineup. He we -2 last night though so who knows.
Ryan Murphy was sent down to the Kitchener Rangers of the AHL. I like the move a lot. Let’s him get some time in down there and gain confidence.
Derek Stepan was the winner of the Rangers lottery on Wednesday as he got the coveted role of lining up with B.Richards and Gaborik. But Tortorella cautioned that just because he practiced there on Wednesday though does not mean that he is going to be there on Saturday. Not a huge fan of going out and getting a guy because he is on a specific line because lines change so often but if you have him on your team and he clicks, see if you can trade high on this news.
Tim Saunders (Flyers radio play-by-play announcer) commented on NHL Live that Ilya Bryzgalov has made statements along the line that he is facing so few shots as the Philly goaltender that he is not really able to stay warm throughout the game. A little bit different than playing in Phoenix huh Byrz? It seems that a lot of that is due to the overall size of the Philly defense. They are able to block a lot of shots and keep the number of pucks getting through to a minimum.
According to Bob McKenzie, it looks like Winnipeg and Detroit will simply switch places next season in an effort to realign the divisions. This would be horrible for Detroit. Winn is currently in the Southeast division. Geography was never my strong suit in school but I am pretty sure that Detroit is North and on the Western side of the Eastern conference. So Detroit, be careful what you wish for. That would be a pretty epic division though with Detroit, Washington and Tampa Bay. Sort of like the AL East of baseball or the AFC East all of the sudden
Tyler Seguin saw a career high 20+ minutes of TOI last night and he looked pretty good. This kid has a ton of talent and Boston is bringing him along slowly because they can but he is going to be something special. Sorry Toronto fans.
Erik Johnson seems to be taing a step back again this season. Zero points, -2, with 2 hits and 1 blocked shot in 3 games. Small sample size yes, but he had twice as much pp time last night as anyone else. I hope he turns it around.
Varlamov has been a man among boys. Now if only he could stay healthy he would really be worth what Colorado gave up to keep him from Russia
Wild night in Vancouver last night. When are the Canucks going to start giving Luongo some more days off? Like all of them. Schneider is the better goalie up there. Let him show it. I think Luongo is going to miss Ehroff more than anyone else.
Giroux looked all world last night. Every time Phily scored, and it was quite often, if seemed that he was somehow a part of it. He and Jagr have something special going up there. Now if only JvR could come along for the ride.
As Dan pointed out last night, the Sedins are SO good right now. Fantasy gold in points leagues. Quite helpful in roto as well but not nearly as high in the rankings.
Good to see Carolina get its first win last night. Cam Ward is a buy low candidate right now. He has looked very shaky to start the season. Use this to your advantage. A lot of guys do not consider him to be a top tier goalie. Well, he’s not. But he is still a very good #2 guy to have and when he is hot, which he will be, he can be a #1 guy for a while
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