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!
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!
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All Stats are over the Last 10 games unless noticed otherwise!
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy: Top priced goalie on FD tonight and rightfully so. It’s going to be hard to pay 9.5k for him there, but what he has done lately is nothing to look over. Columbus is a higher powered offense who can put a ton of shots on goal. The Lightning have allowed the 3rd fewest goals since Jan 17 (approx 10 games) and Vasil has a .935%, 6-2-2 record and 1.97 GAA in his last 10 starts. He’s playing amazing right now and TB offense is starting to heat up.
Tuukka Rask: I do NOT trust him in cash tonight, but I love the spot in tournaments. He will see San Jose shoot a ton of pucks at him making his ceiling very high. This game features two offenses scoring goals lately. I think Rask has immense upside in this matchup where I think he’ll get the win as the Bruins are playing MUCH better defense lately. They have allowed the 4th fewest goals in the NHL in the last month.
Marc-Andre Fleury: I’m not sure what has happened to Fleury lately, but positive regression is set up for him. Colorado will start to turn it around at some point, but right now they are rather cold. They rank 28th in goals scored in the last month and have the lowest PP% in that span. If Fleury can finally not allow 3+ goals, he should be good for 20+ points tonight.
Semyon Varlamov: Large-Field GPP type play here. Vegas is shooting a bunch, but not scoring that much. Colorado has actually been playing better defense in the last month than most expect. They have allowed the 6th fewest goals in that span. Varly could see a ton of shots here tonight.
Centers
Steven Stamkos: He’s playing out of his mind right now and this is an amazing matchup. Try and get as many Lightning in your lineups as you can. CBJ has been very leaky and TB is heating back up again. Stammer has at least 18 points in each of his last 4 games.
Patrice Bergeron: Boston 1 is one of the hottest lines in hockey right now and this is a great game. Jones is still leaky and normally allows 2+ goals per start. If Boston is going to win this game, they need their top line to continue their hot offense and amazing defense. (They have allowed ZERO goals as a line in the last 10 games)
Nate MacKinnon: Folks, he won’t be this low priced for long. Yes, he’s been cold as hell but he’s still one of the best players in the league. Fleury has been struggling lately and COL has their 2nd straight home game. It wouldn’t surprise me to see COL1 finally go off here.
Brayden Point: He’s heating up too. He has 9 points in his last 5 games (2 goals and 7 assists). He’s the perfect center for Kuch and Gourde. A lot of his damage actually comes on the power play and TB has the 3rd best PP% in the league in the last month.
Matt Duchene: Even though CHI is playing amazing offense, their defense is iffy. Duchene has been playing very well too. He has 5 goals, 2 assists, and 16 SOG in his last 5 games and this game could shoot out.
Dylan Strome: After disappointing me the other night, I’m going back to him here. Nilsson has been bad for OTT since getting the starting job, (watch now he’ll get a SO b/c I don’t like him tonight) but Strome still has shown a floor of 8 recently. He’s still cheap and lets you get TB guys in.
David Krejci: 4 assists, 2 goals and 10 shots over his last 5 games. He’s very cheap on fanduel still and like I said, Jones allows 2+ almost every start.
Others to consider: Jonathan Toews, Adrian Kempe
Wings
Nikita Kucherov: Kuch or Kane tonight? It’s hard to pick really, but I’m giving the slight edge to Kuch. Bobrovsky has been bad for the Jackets and their top two lines are bleeding goals. Kuch has three 40 point games in his last 5 and has been playing out of his mind lately.
Patrick Kane: Did you really think I was going to leave off one of my favorite plays almost every slate? NO. Kane is in a good matchup here at home. I’m going to keep riding Chicago until they cool off. He plays minutes of a defenseman every single game and always finds a way in the point column.
Mark Stone: Chicago has been allowing goals and Stone is playing amazing. He has a solid floor o about 4 shots on goal. In his last 6 games, he only has 1 game under 12.8 fanduel points. He has 5 goals and 3 assists in his last 6 games.
Brandon Pirri: Stupid cheap and great value. He’s back on their 2nd line and I actually like that line tonight. What I really love though, is he’s getting top PP line. The Avs have the 3rd most penalties in the NHL of late and that could give VGK some great PP time. The Avs PK% is near the bottom of the league too. He’s a great value to get in Kuch and Kane.
Alex DeBrincat: Still going to ride CHI2 also. Cat is still playing with a great floor lately and his price has actually come down a bit. I really hope this isn’t the game Nilsson trolls me.
Max Pacioretty: He’s listed on the 3rd line right now, but I think this actually may help him. He will see lesser talented lines when out there and likely will still leak onto VGK1 and 2 in overlaps. He gets PP time and a good matchup. Last game, Max went out and shot 9 times on goal. Maybe the demotion has lit a fire under him.
Ryan Dzingel: You can stack him up with Duchene on OTT1 to be low owned in GPPs. He’s playing well and can hit 20+ in matchups. I like this matchup with Chicago too.
Rielly Smith: Since coming back and being healthy, Smith has paid off value more than not. He’s still rather cheap and gives you VGK1 access and VGK PP1. He’s shown a decent floor of late and can hit 20+ on a good day.
Jake DeBrusk: Since Pasta got hurt, DeBrusk has REALLY taken advantage of the opportunity. In 3 games, he has 10 SOG 3 goals and 3 assists averaging 26.2 fanduel points and his only 5.1k there. Keep riding a hot hand.
Ondrej Palat: I like Palat in GPPs stacked with Stammer. He’s been the assist man of late with 5 assists in his last 3 games. Cheap and upside. GPP only though.
Brady Tkachuk: 4.2k proving a floor of around 8 lately? Thank you. He’s been shooting a ton for OTT of late and if these shots start turning into goals, he’s going to have a great last 20 or so games. He has 21 shots in his last 5 games alone.
Others to consider: Brad Marchand, Alex Ovechkin, TJ Oshie, Tyler Johnson (top line with Stamkos and Palat, GPP)
Defensemen
Brent Burns: This is a tougher matchup for Burns but he’s still elite. His price is hard to swallow and with Karlsson coming back it could hurt him a little. He still has shown a floor of about 19 points of late and will shoot a ton.
Erik Gustafsson: Still playing well lately and has a point in each of his last 4 games. He normally gets 3-4 shots per game and can block a few. Nilsson has been leaky for OTT too.
Shea Theodore: Cheap and has been playing well. Getting about 5 SOGBS per game of late. A decent matchup with COL too where he could easily get you 2.5x
Nate Schmidt: I don’t know why people won’t play Schmidt, but he’s been playing very well for Vegas of late. He is shooting more and has 12 blocks in his last 5 games. If he can get in the point column, he will crush value tonight.
Charlie McAvoy: He’s finally healthy and is playing like it. This matchup with the Sharks is decent and this is going to be a very good game. McAvoy is cheaper than Krug and has arguably the same floor. He had a dud against the Ducks, but other than that has been playing very good lately.
Others to Consider: Erik Karlsson, Thomas Chabot, Alec Martinez, Cody Ceci, Victor Hedman
Favorite Stacks
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