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!
First, here are some of our recent big wins!
Yesterday’s Results
Will be back tomorrow!
Goalies
Devan Dubnyk (MIN) (8.6k): Right now, Dub is our highest projected goalie on the slate. He has some great history against the Habs too. He’s been shaky of late, allowing 3 goals in each of his last 3 games and 4 of his last 5, but the matchup is good tonight.
Pekka Rinne (NSH) (8.1k): Before you shun me for this, hear me out. Rinne has been brutal lately, but the Preds are getting Forsberg back tonight and their top line is going to be back to normal. TOR is on fire and no one will own Rinne tonight. I believe his volume will be crazy, like 35+ shots against tonight. Nashville is rolling right now, and TOR has a rookie goalie that they should take advantage of. Rinne is a great tournament option tonight!
Jordan Binnington (STL) (7k): VALUE ALERT! Now, I don’t know much about him, but he’s been very good in the AHL this year. The Flyers are not the best team lately as they are 0-4-2 in their last 6 games. In the last 10 games, they are scoring just over 2 goals per game which is the lowest on this slate. Likely won’t make my cash build, but he’s an excellent tournament play tonight.
Martin Jones (SJ) (8.2k): Jones is not the best of goalies, but this matchup with the Kings is wonderful. No one will likely play him tonight and he has a solid chance at the win. The Sharks offense is rolling and Jones should be able to get the win tonight.
Centers
Sean Monahan (CGY) (7.9k): The Flames are the hottest lines in the NHL on this slate tonight and they have a good matchup with rookie Delia. People may get cute and use Delia in cash because of how good he’s been lately, but the Flames are one of the best teams in hockey right now. His FD points are up 8 points from his L10 to his L5, averaging 23.1 FD points.
Ryan O’Reilly (STL) (6.5k): Likely going to be my main center tonight as centers are brutal for me. The Blues are warming up and Auto Parts is right there in the middle of it. His fanduel points are way up over his last 5 and he has 18 shots in that 5 game span
Charlie Coyle (MIN) (5.6k): Another value play here as I don’t like spending up on centers tonight. Coyle has averaged 17 FD points in his last 5 games and is rolling with MIN2 lately.
Jonathan Toews (CHI) (6.7k): With Rittich starting for CGY, I’m a little off of the Hawks, but Toews is playing well. He’s the highest scoring Center on this slate over the last 5 games and he’s getting a ton of assists (6 in his last 5 games).
Others to consider: John Tavares, Auston Matthews
Wings
Johnny Gaudreau (CGY) (8.8k): Very expensive, I’m not sure I’ll make it there in all my lineups, but he definitely needs to be in lineups tonight. He’s on fire and this matchup is a good one. He has 42 shots in his last 10 games with 9 goals and 12 assists. One of the hottest player on this slate right now
Zach Parise (MIN) (7.3k): MIN2 is rolling, and Parise is in the middle of it. His last 4 games he has over 21 fanduel points with 3 goals, 5 assists, and 23 shots. Price has struggled against the Wild in his career and Parise is on fire.
Craig Smith (NSH) (5.5k): Smith is playing very well right now. In his last 5 games, he has 4 goals, 2 assists and 15 SOGBS in his last 5. The 15 SOGBS is a tad low for me, but against TOR and Hutch, Smith can find the back of the net again.
David Perron (STL) (5k): Perron, paired with ROR is one way I am going to start my lineups tonight. STL2 has 6 goals in their last 10 games and have not allowed any goals. His low shots worry me, but he’s assisting on goals and PHI has been struggling lately.
Evander Kane (SJ) (6.6k): I’m not sure when the Sharks will move him back to the top 6, because that’s where he should be. Regardless, Kane has been picking up his game lately. He still sees a ton of ice time and is on a great PP line too.
Joe Pavelski (SJ) (7.9k): Pavelski may have gotten the DK curse tonight, but I still like him tonight. The matchup with the Kings is a solid one and he has 19 SOGBS with an average of 28 fd points in his last 5 games.
Jaden Schwartz (STL) (5.4k): Originally not in my player pool, but after looking at the number of shots he takes, it’s only a matter of time before he scores. The matchup is good and he has 23 SOG in his last 5 games while picking up an assist in each of his last two games.
Others to consider: Patrick Kane, Viktor Arvidsson, Mitchell Marner, Matthew Tkachuk, Vladimir Tarasenko, Andreas Johnsson (Value).
Defense
Brent Burns (SJ) (7.6k): My top D-Man tonight is Burns. With 2 defensemen from SJ out again tonight, Burns will likely see close to 30 min of ice time again tonight. Just look at his recent game logs. SJ offense is rolling, he has 3 goals, 9 assists, and 36 SOGBS in his last 5 games. Roll him out with confidence.
Mark Giordano (CGY) (6.3k): Still too cheap for Gio lately. Him, along with the rest of CGY are on fire. He has 50 SOGBS over his last 10 games and 22 in his last 5 alone. I am going to try my best to use Burns and Gio in a lineup tonight. The Flames will try and exploit the rookie for Chicago, plus they could be sluggish on the back end of a b2b.
Mattias Ekholm (NSH) (4.5k): Love this value here with Ekholm. Still too cheap for what he’s been doing lately. He is averaging 18.5 FD points over his last 5 games and has 20 SOGBS in that span. The floor he gives you is great for just 4.5k.
Jared Spurgeon (MIN) (5.1k): We cannot deny how hot Spurgeon has been. He’s been picking it up on the offensive end lately too. Regardless, the blocks are always there for him which lets him have a decent floor. I prefer Ekholm over him for $600 less, but I doubt anyone will own Spurgeon tonight.
Ryan Ellis (NSH) (4.9k): I prefer the lower priced D-Men from NSH tonight as they bring solid floors with upside tonight. Ellis has 23 SOGBS in his last 5 games to go along with 1 goal and 2 assists.
Colton Parayko (STL) (4.2k): One of my favorite values here tonight. STL has a great matchup tonight and Parayko has picked up his game of late. He has 28 SOGBS in his last 5 games with a goal. His shots have been trending up and STL should be able to score. No one will own him tonight.
Others to consider: Erik Karlsson, Morgan Rielly