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!
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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! Remember to always check for confirmation of goalies and lines! Let’s dive into this big Wednesday Slate!
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Yesterday’s Results
Here I will post the results from yesterday’s article!
Now, lets dive into tonight’s nice slate!
Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury (VGK) (9.2k): Expensive for a goalie, but we cannot ignore is production. Fleury and the Knights are on another level right now and he’s stopping almost everything! He has 3 straight 30+ point Fanduel games. After a rough stretch, he has been able to turn it around. The Ducks are scoring just 2.6 goals/game and the Knights are allowing just 2.2 goals/game in the last 10.
Sergei Bobrovsky (CBJ) (8.6k): I think Bob will be high owned tonight and for good reason. His last 10 games have been amazing, allowing just 2 GA/Game while saving almost 93% of the shots. The matchup with CAR is a great one as they shoot a ton and don’t score a lot. One of my favorite goalies tonight.
Matt Murray (PIT) (8.8k): I love all three of these goalies tonight and will likely use all of them in lineups. Murray has been playing out of his mind lately and the Pens defense has been great allowing less than 2 goals per game in their last 10. He has not allowed more than 2 goals in his last 5 starts.
Phoenix Copley (WSH) (8.2k): GPP special tonight! I doubt anyone is going to really use him. Even with Benn out for Dallas, they still are a good offense and have some value in their lineup. That being said, I love Copley in tournaments as his last 5 games have been amazing. He has not scored under 20 fanduel points in those 5 games and has allowed 3 or fewer goals in all of them. Dallas also isn’t scoring all that much over their last 10 games either, losing Benn will hurt them too.
MacKenzie Blackwood (NJ) (7.5k): His regression happened the last start after he was highly owned which we all saw coming. Tonight, I love this spot for him. Since getting to the NHL, he has a .951% save percentage while allowing just 1.8 goals/game. Arizona has been awful lately and not scoring. The Devils are hurting without Hall, but the Coyotes are scoring just 2.3 goals/game in their last 10 games.
Centers
Nate MacKinnon (COL) (8.7k): My top center on this slate tonight. The Rangers have been horrible lately and are just leaking goals. Nate can break any slate and I will have plenty of shares of him.
Tyler Seguin (DAL) (7.8k): DAL1 was starting to heat up and take a hit with Benn out, and WSH is on the 2nd game of a b2b. Seguin has 16 SOG in his last two games and is starting to warm up.
Dylan Larkin (DET) (6.6k): He bit me last time out, but Rinne has been very leaky lately. Larkin has shown that he will shoot at will with 48 SOG in his last 10 games and 24 in his last 5 alone!
Sidney Crosby (PIT) (9.1k): I love Crosby tonight, but I prefer using Nate in most spots. I will have a few shares of Sid the Kid though. He’s simply on fire averaging 37.2 fanduel points in his last 5 games. If I’m not using Nate, Crosby will be one of my centers tonight.
Paul Stastny (VGK) (6k): He’s the Knights center I prefer tonight. His SOG have been a little spotty but he has 3 goals, 3 assists, and 14 SOGBS in his last 5 games.
Sebastian Aho (CAR) (6.2k): This is a DS special right now. He popped on the DS last night and had a great game, and he’s popping right now too. After running 100 lineups straight up, Aho was in every single one of them. Something like that is very hard to ignore and this put him on my radar. CBJ is playing well lately though, so tournament only play for me.
Others to consider: Nico Hischier
Wings
Viktor Arvidsson (NSH) (6.7k): Too cheap tonight for this matchup. Arvi has been heating up lately too. He’s shooting DET is allowing a ton of SOG and a ton of goals lately and Arvi has 3 goals, 1 assist, and 9 SOG in his last 2 games.
Cam Atkinson (CBJ) (7.5k): One thing I do worry about with CAR is McElhinney is likely going to start for them and he’s been a bit better in nets. But Atkinson has been very consistent lately. He’s averaging 23.2 FD points per game in his last 5 games with 25 SOGBS and 5 goals.
Brandon Pirri (VGK) (4.5k): Very cheap and great value for what he is doing lately. The Knights are playing great hockey right now and Pirri has 7 SOG with 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 2 games.
Alexander Radulov (DAL) (6.6k): The two I really like from DAL is him and Seguin. They have high floors and will need to pick up the slack with Benn out tonight. He’s averaging 3 more FD ppg in his last 6 and has 22 SOGBS with 3 goals and 4 assists.
Chris Kreider (NYR) (6.3k): Aside from last game, Kreider has been on fire. COL has been allowing 3.4 goals/game lately and this game can be a shootout. He’s also averaging 31.4 FD points per game in his last 5 games.
Patric Hornqvist (PIT) (5.3k): Way to cheap for what he brings to the table. PIT offense is rolling right now and gets that PP1 time. I love him paired with Letang tonight. The Jets are allowing over 3 goals per game and PIT is scoring near 4 goals per game.
Gabriel Landeskog/Mikko Rantanen (COL) (6.7k/7.8k): Someone has to pick back up soon and I cannot pick which it will be and this matchup is great for them to all go off tonight. GPP’s stack them up, in cash I prefer Landeskog for the 1.1k savings.
Others to consider: Artemi Panarin, Alex Tuch, Teuvo Teravainen (GPP), Craig Smith, Andreas Athanasiou, Ondrej Kase, Alex Ovechkin, Phil Kessel
Defense
Kris Letang (PIT) (6.9k): Normally my top center is not this high priced. PIT has been on fire of late and Helle can be leaky. Letang has been a monster lately averaging 24.1 FD points in his L10 and 30.2 in his last 5 games. Top D-Man on this slate for sure.
Roman Josi (NSH) (6.3): Josi, along with the rest of NSH is in a wonderful spot tonight. Yes, Josi has been cooling off scoring, but still has 24 SOGBS and this matchup with DET is good too.
Seth Jones/Zach Werenski (CBJ) (6k/5.4k): The Blue Jackets have a great matchup tonight with CAR. He’s shown upside lately and has 14 SOGBS and 3 assists in his last 3 games. Werenski is the cheaper option here and actually has been the hotter player of late. 5 straight games with more than 10 fanduel points and that includes 4 goals and 2 assists and 18 SOGBS in his last 5 games. I prefer Werenski here tonight.
Tyson Barrie (COL) (5.5k): The Avs are in a great spot against the Rangers who are averaging close to 4 goals per game against. Barrie gives you all types of access to COL top lines.
Miro Heiskanen (DAL) (4.6k): I’m not a huge fan of him, but his SOG are steady around 3/4 per game and they will need him to shoot close to 9 like he did last game. He has 25 SOG in his last 5 games and WSH is playing on a b2b.
Mattias Ekholm (NSH) (4.3k): Love this value here with Ekholm. It gives you cheap exposure to Nashville and he actually has the most SOGBS from D-Men on this slate tonight.
Others to consider: John Klingberg, John Carlson, Nate Schmidt