The date of the Midseason Guide will be out January 15. This Guide comes with your Ultimate Fantasy Pack or Gold/Platinum subscriptions. It does not come with the Keeper League Fantasy Pack nor the Silver subs. You can pre-order it here.

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With two goals last night, 21-year-old rearguard Adam Boqvist now has eight points in his last seven contests. He finally seems to be healthy, and fully settled in with his new team. The Blue Jackets are employing a three-forward/two-D power-play system so now Boqvist is seeing plenty of PP minutes alongside Zach Werenski. The problem with him so far in his young career has been staying healthy. It seemed as though every time he got rolling, an injury would strike. Tremendous upside – needs play 75 games. I wouldn't bet on that happening until it actually does.

Justin Danforth is a name to watch. He's not getting the ice time or PP time to warrant picking up right now, but he's taking advantage of what minutes he does get. As a 5-9 player who is overcoming tremendous odds, you just know that he's knocking on the door of the Dobber Darling fraternity. I hope somebody lets him in!

Here is what I said about him in the Fantasy Guide:

Danforth is a 28-year-old, small (5-9), skilled winger that was never drafted. He was the ECHL rookie of the year in 2018 after dominating that league. After not getting much of a chance in North America (size bias), he crossed the pond and ruled the Finnish league. But it wasn't until he joined the KHL and had 55 points in 58 games that he finally garnered some NHL attention. He won a spot with Team Canada at the Worlds (one goal in nine games) and a contract with Columbus. A boom-or-bust prospect, likely a bust (unfortunately), but for sure worth keeping tucked away in your back pocket if you see his name appear on the scoresheet.

I projected six points in 18 games and a 10% sleeper for 45 points. Right now he's playing with fellow newcomers Gregory Hofmann and Cole Sillinger. With his assist Sunday, he has three points in seven games – and that's about a point every 23 minutes he's out there at even strength.

I'm really liking what I see early on from prospect Daniil Tarasov. The prospect goaltender has now lost both of his starts for Columbus, but both starts were of the Quality variety – his team just didn't help out. He's only 22 and the net belongs to Elvis Merzlikins for the next five years. So he'll likely be in the minors for the next two seasons, and then back up Elvis in 2024-25. If he continues to do well, he'll start splitting starts or the Blue Jackets will make a move to make room for him. One thing to note is that Merzlikins has missed time with injury on four different occasions over the last two seasons. And whenever he gets hurt in future years, Tarasov will come up and be the starter – they won't turn to their veteran backup (whoever that may be at the time). So we'll see Tarasov here and there over the next two years, we won't necessarily need to wait the full two-plus years until he's a full timer. I'm a big fan though, and will double down on what we say about him in the Fantasy Prospects Report: he'll be a star.

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Corey Perry, one of three Lightning players to have a three-point game Sunday, now has eight points in his last eight games. He's still playing from the third line. And Ross Colton, on the fourth line, also had three points and he has seven in his last nine. So the depth guys are chipping in huge for Tampa. Colton also has 20 Hits in his last eight games so in multi-cat leagues he is a nice option.

Carter Hart got the hook after giving up five goals on 15 shots. After a reasonable start, he has been flailing of late, losing four in a row with two of those of the RBS variety. The Flyers' goaltending problems continue, and it seems like that's an annual thing to say. Hart is still only 23, but I wonder if they would have done better to groom him in the NHL all this time instead of rushing him. Maybe give him five or six games per season the last three years, but no more. How would he do today if that were the case?

Keith Yandle's assist snaps an 18-game pointless drought. Unfortunately he was also a minus-4. He is the most sheltered player on the team in terms of facing the weakest Quality of Competition and getting the highest Offensive Zone Start %. But he's on pace for 22 points and minus-50 rating.

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Chicago is scrambling to generate some offense and they moved Brandon Hagel up to a line with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Hagel scored and now has 11 points in 21 games. That doesn't sound like much, but it's actually fourth on the team. His eight goals are behind only Alex DeBrincat (14).

With two assists Sunday, Seth Jones actually leads Chicago in scoring (22 points in 24 games).

Dominik Kubalik has just one point in his last 10 games and just eight points on the season (27-point pace). His ice time is down to 12 minutes pe game now. He's a volume shooter, possibly the most prolific shooter on the team. But his shots per game are way down – and that's his bread and butter. As a rookie, seeing little ice time never held him back and he found a way to get the shots off anyway. This season things just feel different with this guy. Certainly puck luck plays a big role – just 3.6% 5on5 S%. But he needs to shoot like his normal self and right now that's not happening.

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Speaking of not generating offense – the Islanders were Chicago's opponent. Their top scorer is on pace for 53 points. Third on their team is on pace for 36 points. Just…ugly. Especially in fantasy leagues. Dobber Darling Anthony Beauvillier is pointless in his last 11 games. He had seven points in eight games before that! And we all know how he did in the playoffs and to end 2020-21. In fact, prior to the 11-game pointless drought, Beauvillier had 47 points in his last 55 regular season and playoff games.

Coach Barry Trotz has just this season and next left on his contract and with the way the season is going I wonder if his effectiveness has waned. If this team were to get a new coach, Matt Barzal would be an 80-point player, Beauvillier would be 70 and they would have three 45-plus defensemen.

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Drew Doughty continues his push to make Team Canada (if the NHL goes to the Olympics, that is). Another three points for him Sunday makes it 11 in just seven games.

Prospect defenseman Sean Durzi played his way onto the Los Angeles roster and pretty much sent Kale Clague to Montreal himself. Rather than send Durzi to the minors, where he could go without clearing waivers, the Kings placed Clague on waivers. And lost him to the Habs. Durzi had four points in his first three NHL games, though is pointless in his last two. His ice time has been slipping, down to just over 15 minutes in the game against the Oilers. Read more on Durzi here.

With two goals on Sunday Adrian Kempe now has 13 points in his last 15 games. He has replaced Viktor Arvidsson on the top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown – and the line comminated the Oilers on Sunday so you know that line will stay intact for a while. Arvidsson played with Phillip Danault and Alex Iafallo and that one was arguably the best line all night. So it's looking like the Kings have found a solid one-two punch.

Speaking of Kempe, here he gets taken out from behind and bloodied. Some meathead that the Oilers sent out there just to stir things up. Honestly, why do they even dress this player – Connor…Mc something? Anyway, stop dressing these pugilists, it gives the game a black eye.

Arvidsson has seven points during a five-game points streak. He's also wired 21 shots on goal in that span. I think the issue for him this season was the lack of chemistry with Kopitar. As soon he was off that line – boom, the pucks started going in for him.

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Our Frozen Tools section now has a DFS Draft Kings lineup optimizer. We're still fiddling around with it, and have other DFS tools on the horizon (close!). But check out what we have so far here.

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This is well done:

Jim Benning: The Tribute pic.twitter.com/Gkfgjp4SOw

— Mr Booth (@MrBooth07) December 6, 2021

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See you next Monday.