Hello folks and welcome to my NHL Positional Breakdown for Fanduel!
For those of you who are new to the DFS Army, new to NHL DFS, or just like to read different articles, my name is Matt Dell’Agnese and I’m an MLB and NHL coach and writer for the DFS Army. Hit me for a follow on twitter at mdellagnese14. If you are a DFS Army VIP member you will know that I’m fairly active in our NHL rooms and around to help coach for the amazing sport of Hockey. I was brought to the DFS Army in January and I wrote Painting the Black for baseball, analyzing pitching picks for the slates.
If you’ve played MLB, NHL is very similar. The sports are both volatile and players can put up a 0 or low score at any time. Don’t get discouraged if you get cold, just keep with your process and the players will come around. For cash games, you want to correlate players who skate on the same line or same Power play line, in GPPs stack up the full lines.
Thankfully, Chop has asked me to help out with our NHL content articles!
Check out Flynn’s article that describes how we start our process of creating lineups – Beginning NHL Strategy.
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I will be breaking down each position with the players who I like with my reasonings for liking them on the slate! I am a Fanduel player, so these articles will include Fanduel pricing and scoring references! Without further ado, let’s get into this 4-game slate today!
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Goalies
Alex Stalock (7.4k)
Stalock is the cheapest goalie on this slate tonight and he’s actually one of my favorites. The goalie position tonight isn’t the best so we will have to take some risks here. This game is a pick ‘em on most sites and even being on the road he’s one of my favorites. The Blackhawks have been very, very bad over the last 10 days. They come into this game scoring just 1.4 goals per game in that span. Stalock has only has 4 starts this season but has been very good in them against some tough opponents. What I really like here is 3 of his starts have been on the road and he’s 2-1 in road starts. Being just 7.4k on Fanduel, we get solid savings for a goalie in good form against an offense that isn’t that good right now.
John Gibson (8.3k)
Gibson is one of the most consistent goalies in the NHL this season. This matchup is not easy for him, but he is on his home ice. This game is also a pick ‘em on most sites and 8.3k is a decent price for Gibby. It’s hard to use goalies against Nasty Nate and co, but they can have an off game. The one thing I hate about using Gibson is the Ducks are just not scoring and helping him get wins. This season he’s allowed just 2.55 GAA with a .928% save %.
Corey Crawford (7.8k)
Crawford is a GPP only goalie for me tonight. I hate Chicago’s offense, but he’s at home and they are small favorites. This is the Wild’s 4th game in 6 nights, so I see merit to using Crawford in tournaments tonight. He has been good this year with just 2.57 GAA and .916% save percentage. His last two starts at home have been very good, but the offenses he was facing were not the best of late. MIN is shooting about 32 shots per game over their last ten games. GPP ONLY.
Centers
Sebastian Aho (6.5k)
Aho is going to be one of my top Centers tonight. He’s been playing great and if the Devils have Schnieder in the net, CAR will be able to score at will. Over the last 5 games, Aho has a solid floor. He’s scored 2 goals, has 4 assists and 16 SOGBS (shots on goal + blocked shots). CAR2 is my top line tonight, so I will have pieces of Aho.
Leon Draisaitl (6.7k)
If you can’t get up to McJesus, but want to have exposure to EDM1, look no further. I’m not sure when fanduel will move him to the wing if he’s going to play on EDM1 with McDavid, but for now he’s still a center. In his last 5, he’s averaging 20 minutes per game and has a line of 3/3/21 which is fantastic. The pairing of Aho and Draisaitl is an amazing start to your lineups tonight.
Mikko Koivu (5.6k)
Another guy who has been on fire lately. MIN1 has been the better than MIN2 of late even though they don’t have the big names. Koivu over his last 5 has been getting assists and goals. I wouldn’t use him in cash games because he doesn’t shoot much or get blocks, but over his last 5 games, he has 6 points. Along with top line, he gets the second PP line who has some solid players on it too.
Others in consideration: Nate MacKinnon, Connor McDavid (LOVE these two, but they are both expensive for me, I’ll leave them more towards tournaments and get exposure to them with their cheaper linemates), Carl Soderberg (plays on L3, but gets PP time. Averages 16 TOI per game)
Wings
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Michael Ferland/Teuvo Teravainen (5.6k/5.3k)
My CAR2 love is here too. I’m starting with Aho as my top CAR guy tonight, then will mix and match these two. I prefer Ferland as he has a higher chance to score, but Teravainen has been slightly better of late. In cash, I don’t want to use all 3, but I’ll use two of them.
Taylor Hall (7.8k)
When Hall is under 8k, he’s always one of my favorite players. They are on the second end of a b2b, but proj starter for the Canes is not that amazing. Hall brings a solid floor and rarely scores under 10 fanduel points. He’s hit a cold streak lately, but the matchup is great for him tonight.
Zach Parise (6.3k)
Love the floor Parise has brought lately. Normally he hovers over 10 fpts per game and has a good matchup tonight too. Pair him with Koivu to get the correlation there.
Mikko Rantanen/Gabriel Landeskog (7.5k/6.6k)
McDavid’s linemates are in play if you can’t get up to McDavid. They both are projected in the top of our RS tonight and I love their floors. It is a tougher matchup on the road against Gibson though, so more GPP for me. If I had to pick just 1, it would likely be Landeskog because he’s cheaper and has shown a bit better floor of late. COL1 is all in play for tournaments tonight though.
Alex Tuch (5.1k)
Great value here with Tuch. Over his last 10, he’s been very good with a 3/4/42 line and gets a good matchup with Talbot and EDM tonight. He’s found ways to score, shoot, and get assists for the Knights too. VGK is shooting almost 35 shots per game, and for 5.1k he’s got a solid floor.
Others to consider: Patrick Kane, Jason Zucker, Jonathan Marchessault, Rickard Rakell, Blake Coleman (value, been on fire!), Kyle Palmieri
Defense
Matt Dumba (5.1k)
WOW, he’s finally over 5k, about time. He’s been nothing but consistent for MIN lately. He’s on fire in his last 3 and averages 4.5 SOGBS per game this season. CHI could make it easier for him to score tonight too.
Brent Seabrook (4.6k)
Chicago isn’t doing much, but Seabrook has been solid lately. He’s shooting and blocking shots and scored just 2 games ago. At his low price, he’s brought a solid flood of late. On the season he averages almost 5 SOGBS per game, at his price that is plenty.
Hampus Lindholm (4.4k)
Lindholm has been a blocking machine lately and he gets a good matchup with COL who can shoot. He won’t light up the point column’s but he will shoot and block shots. Averaging 25 min on ice per game and just over 4 SOGBS, he’s good value tonight.
Tyson Barrie (5.1k)
No D-man is very expensive tonight and we have some solid value plays. Barrie has been great of late scoring. His floor is shaky for cash games, but he’s been over 10 fpts in each of his last 4 games. I wish he would shoot a bit more, but if he’s getting assists and a goal here and there, he brings good GPP upside.
Others to consider: Damon Severson
That’s it for me tonight! Hope you all enjoyed my first article for hockey! Remember, sign up using my code DFSMATT here!
Good Luck everyone!