Midseason Guide will be out January 14. Eleven days! 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.

Those who bought the Midseason Guide last year would have had a heads-up about Arvid Soderblom. He was listed in the KHL/Europe section where I list free agents of NHL interest. Chicago snapped him up…and he got the start on Sunday.

*

Cue the Mika Zibanejad music?

In 2019-20 he had 17 points in his first 17 games. Then he finished with 58 in 40.

In 2020-21 he had 11 points in his first 26 games. He finished with 39 in 30.

In 2021-22 he had 21 points in his first 28 games. He finished with…? Well, so far it's at nine points in five games. But I think it's a safe hunch that he'll close out his next 50-odd games with something significantly more than 50-odd points. He scored a hatty on Sunday against Tampa Bay.

*

Adam Fox now has 73 points in his last 72 games.

Mikhail Sergachev started off at a nice clip but has just a single point in his last nine games. He worked well with Victor Hedman (obviously) and with Cal Foote. But tied to Andrej Sustr (as he was on Sunday) or Zach Bogosian isn't working out.

*

NHL COVID protocol is starting to look like a lottery of sorts. Each day I wonder if all the players that I own in my three leagues will escaped that day's dreaded "announcement". I was unable to sneak through the New Years' weekend, as I lost Artemi Panarin last minute. He can take his seat beside Oliver Bjorkstrand, Mike Hoffman, Roman Josi, Tomas Tatar, Josh Norris and Mike Matheson – other members of my teams on the protocol.

Fortunately, if there are no symptoms, the isolation period is now just five days thanks to the NHL's new rules.

There is a good list/tracker of players on COVID here.

*

Sam Bennett was suspended three games for this hit on Saturday:

*

I'd still like to see how he does after Evgeni Malkin returns, but so far it's looking like Evan Rodrigues is the real deal. He was a star in college (alongside linemate Jack Eichel) and transitioned well to pro hockey. His stint with Rochester was solid and brief appearances with Buffalo early on were promising. But he was never able to take advantage during those brief opportunities in Buffalo's top six. And Pittsburgh similarly buried him. He entered this season as a 28-year-old and at that point I finally removed him from my Top 300 Keeper League Skaters template. He was never going to get 40 points. Right?

Apparently not. His first NHL hat trick on Sunday gives him 26 points in 31 games. We're 31 games into the season and he sits second on the Pittsburgh Penguins in scoring. He played with Danton Heinen and Dominik Simon when he scored two of those goals. The big concern is his PP time. Right now he is holding Malkin's spot and there is no way he gets to keep that spot when Malkin returns. PPPts make up about 20% of his points right now, so there will be at least that equivalent dip in his numbers moving forward. Malkin is possibly returning as early as Wednesday.

*

Radim Zohorna, an undrafted 25-year-old prospect, got called up and put into his first NHL game of the season, notching an assist. He played just 8:27. But in nine career NHL games spanning back to last season, he has five points. His Pts/60 right now in his career is 7.1. Not a bad start! But he lacks the speed to get into the top six – and that's where us fantasy owners need him.

Bryan Rust tallied five points for the first time in his career.

The Penguins scored four goals on six shots in the first six minutes of Sunday's game. Then they scored two more in the final two minutes of the frame to finally chase James Riemer from the net. Zachary Sawchenko took over and played very well, stopping 19 of 20 shots.

Who? Zachary Sawchenko. Even I had to look him up. He was undrafted and was an under-the-radar depth signing. This is why they need those depth signings? Sawchenko is just 24, but at 6-1 he is a little small and thus far has been mostly a career ECHLer. His numbers at the AHL level are not overly impressive. At this point I have no interest in him, fantasy-wise.

Jonathan Dahlen has lost his sweet gig on the top line. Or rather…Alexander Barabanov stole it from him while he was on COVID protocol. He played with Noah Gregor and Tomas Hertl, but just doesn't have the same chemistry with those two. Eleven of his 14 points this season have happened while Timo Meier was on the ice with him. Dahlen is pointless in his last five.

Speaking of Barabanov, he now has 10 points in his last 12 games and is firmly entrenched on the Meier line. Meier has 19 points in his last 15 contests.

*

Boston's Oskar Steen is a prospect I'm liking (yeah yeah, he's 5-9 and you know my soft spot). He got into his fourth NHL game Sunday and picked up a beauty of an assist. He has three assists in 40 minutes of total ice time. The 23-year-old is a player to watch. No room for him on the top line, obviously, but he can work his way up over the next three seasons and who knows the makeup of this team at that point? His prospects profile is here. His 20 points in 16 games leads Providence.

*

Something must be up with David Pastrnak. Two points in nine games is very un-Pasta-like. Fancy stats indicate he's been very unlucky at even strength, while on the power play his IPP is way down.

*

It was a battle of two goaltenders having terrible seasons yet manage winning records. Ilya Samsonov is somehow 13-2-3 despite a 0.908 SV%. Mackenzie Blackwood has impressed me even less – he is at 0.897 SV%. But the Devils continue to trot him out. He's won three games in a row despite giving up three or more goals in each of his last six. Look at this whiff he made Sunday late in the game that his team was winning by a goal:

*

I mentioned this last week about Yegor Sharangovich, but he's become the Sharang of last season now that Jack Hughes is back. While Hughes was sidelined, Jesper Bratt played with Andreas Johnsson and Dawson Mercer. With Hughes in the lineup, Bratt and Sharang are his linemates. Sharangovich has points in four straight now, while Hughes has eight points in his last three games. Bratt was held off the scoresheet Sunday but has a team-leading 29 points in 32 games.

Nico Hischier took a long time coming around, but that can happen when a player is sidelined for much of a season. He's rolling now, with points in five straight games.

Dougie Hamilton took a puck to the face. He's apparently okay, but no word on a concussion situation if there is one.

Here is the puck-to-the-face play that caused #NJDevils Dougie Hamilton to go to the hospital for evaluation: pic.twitter.com/WX3eKKke30

— Dobber (@DobberHockey) January 3, 2022

*

Max Comtois returned from COVID protocol and played the second-most minutes of his season thanks to Trevor Zegras and Ryan Getzlaf being on the protocol. He played with Troy Terry and picked up an assist.

Nathan MacKinnon has a 10-game points streak and he has points in 17 of his 18 games this season.

Geez…Nazem Kadri with another point Sunday. It seems the only thing to stop him this year is injury or COVID. He now has 35 points in his last 19 games!

*

Nicolas Roy has quietly put together a four-game points streak and has nine points in his last 12 games. I think he is going to provide what Vegas lost in Alex Tuch, and possibly sooner than we think. This big, 6-4 forward has still only played 117 NHL games in his career and is nowhere near his peak.

Since returning from injury in early December, William Karlsson has just five points in 12 games.

*

In 20 games since Derek King took over as interim coach for Chicago on November 6, just four players have 10 points.

Alex DeBrincat – 17 points

Patrick Kane – 15 points (only two goals?)

Seth Jones – 13 points

Brandon Hagel – 11 points (in 17 games)

This doesn't bode well at all for owners of any Blackhawks players.

*

Andrew Mangiapane has just four points in his last 11 games. His Cy Young bid still sits at 18-3 in 30 games this year.

Johnny Hockey has back-to-back three-point games now in this his bounce-back season. He is now on pace for 98 points if he keeps it up. His SOG/GP average is at a career high 3.3. The key to his bounce-back, in my opinion, is losing those five pounds. Yes, getting 200-pound Sean Monahan off his line and replacing him with 195-pound Elias Lindholm has meant the world to his fantasy owners.

*

The new Goalie Post is finally ready!

I will be going over the new site and testing some things, making sure everything runs smoothly. And if I'm happy with it, we will roll this out live to the masses this week. It includes an awesome app. You'll love it. Follow me on Twitter for details and the official announcement.

*

Can you imagine being in a tie in your fantasy league on the final day, hoping to win it all but things are deadlocked… and then your player freaks out on the sidelines/bench, strips off his jersey and shoulder pads, and then walk away from the team waving goodbye to the crown on the way to the dressing room? That happened in football on Sunday (Google Antonio Brown if you haven't already).

*

See you next Monday.