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.
All Stats are over the Last 3 weeks (8-11 games) unless noticed otherwise!
Goalies
Ben Bishop (9.3k): Bishop is coming off an injury and facing a dangerous Florida team. He’s expensive but I do like him for GPPs. He’s been simply outstanding of late but with Florida rolling, it is hard to pay in cash in the matchup. He has elite GPP upside though and should see a bunch of shots. LEAN GPP
Phoenix Copley (8k): Likely going to be a little chalky here against the Devils. I do like him in cash games and let’s hope he can actually beat the Devils, unlike some other teams. He’s had a couple of rough starts lately but still was okay in producing fantasy points and getting wins for his team. CASH
Jordan Binnington (8.5k): He’s seen his price drop a bit from poor performances, but he bounced back nicely against the Penguins allowing just 1 goal. Tonight he faces the Oilers who are projected to score less than 2 goals. Aside from a couple of rough games, he still has a 1.7 GAA in his last 10 games with a .937%. ALL FORMATS
Matt Murray (8.6k): Murray is a strict GPP goalie. Carolina is a weird team to gauge. Murray has shown he can be a solid goalie and Carolina shoots a bunch. He’s had two bad starts and I think he bounces back tonight. GPP
Carter Hart (7.8k): Montreal has been middle of the pack in scoring lately and Hart had an amazing game against the Penguins last time out. He’s at home here and the Flyers are still fighting for the playoffs. We have seen the upside Hart can have when he’s on. I like him a lot here tonight. LEAN GPP
Henrik Lundqvist (7.6k): Lund has been struggling lately, but the matchup with DET is a solid one. Last time he faced them he got the loss in OT but saved 43 out of 45 shots. He’s still going for win #450 here and gets a great matchup. He’s at home too which should help him out a bit. GPP
STACKS
Due to time constraints, I’m going to list my favorite stacks here for you all tonight. Remember, you don’t have to use all the players in the stack! Big 10-game slate narrow down with plays from the RS! Keep scrolling down for my defense plays!
PHI1: Oskar Lindblom (W), Sean Couturier (C), Jakub Voracek (W): Love this line against Montreal tonight. These two teams are fighting for a playoff spot too. The Canadians are allowing over 3 goals/game of late and PHI1 has been very consistent of late.
PHI2: James Van Riemsdyk (W), Nolan Patrick (C), Claude Giroux (W): I love this line for Philly as well tonight. All three of these guys are producing right now and are not overly expensive. You can play JVR, Couts, Giroux, and Voracek to get access to the top 2 lines and the top PP unit as well.
CGY1/2: I’m going to keep rolling these top two lines until they cool off a ton. The Blue Jackets are not that scary defensively and Calgary is on fire of late. It looks like Derek Ryan is still on the top line here which makes him great value. CGY1 is Johnny Gaudreau (W), Derek Ryan (C), Elias Lindholm (W). CGY2 is Matthew Tkachuk (W), Mikael Backlund (C), and Michael Frolik (W). The second line is a bit hotter right now and I slightly prefer them tonight.
TOR1/TOR2/TOR PP: Toronto1 is Zach Hyman (W), John Tavares (C), and Mitch Marner (W). These three have been one of the hottest lines in hockey of late with 10 goals in their last 10 games. I love them here tonight against Nashville. Their 2nd line of William Nylander (W), Auston Matthews (C), and Andreas Johnsson (W) are not as hot, but this matchup is too good to pass up. Using either of their PP lines will get access to all the scoring. Check DFO for the Power Play lines!
STL1: The Blues are Tarasenko back and makes STL’s top line one of the best tonight. The trio of Brayden Schenn (W), Ryan O’Reilly (C), and Vladimir Tarasenko (W) has a great matchup with Edmonton tonight. They have a bad PP and are allowing goals. With Senko healthy, and the Blues trying to get healthy and on a roll to end their season and secure a playoff spot, I love them to win this game here tonight.
Alex Ovechkin: I don’t really like the top line besides Ove tonight. His shots are going back up and this is a great matchup too.
WSH2: Jakub Vrana (W), Nicklas Backstrom (C), TJ Oshie (W): These guys have been one of the hottest lines in the NHL of late with 9 goals in their last 10 games. Vrana is the guy I would leave off if you don’t want to full stack it, but they have been playing very well lately and have a good matchup.
NSH1: I don’t know how many people are going to be on NSH1 tonight but they have a good matchup with Toronto who has been bleeding goals of late. Defensive injuries have been hurting Toronto of late which concerns me a little. Nashville’s top line of Filip Forsberg (W), Ryan Johansen (C), and Viktor Arvidsson (W) are starting to heat up too.
Other stacks that I like tonight: BOS1 (Marchand (W), Bergeron (C)), DAL1 (Radulov (W), Seguin (C), Hintz (W), CAR1 (Niederrieter (W), Aho (C), Williams (W)), CAR PP1 (line 1 plus Faulk (D) and Teravainen (W), EDM1 (McDavid, Draisaitl, Kassian (only use in GPPs), NYR1 (Zibanejad (C), Kreider (W), Strome (W)). CONSIDER NSH3 as a flier gpp stack. They are playing better and TOR is allowing goals.
Value:
Centers: David Krejci, Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Nolan Patrick, Lars Eller, Derek Ryan
Wingers: Oskar Lindblom, Jakub Vrana, William Nylander, Zach Hyman, Josh Anderson, Vladislav Namestnikov, Jared McCann, Andreas Johnsson, Roope Hinz, Ryan Donato, Jason Zucker, Michael Frolik,
Defensemen
Due to time constraints, just plays today. Listed in order of my preference.
Roman Josi
Morgan Rielly
Mark Giordano (expensive)
Shea Weber
Shayne Gostisbehere
Damon Severson (sneaky hot, will be low owned)
John Carlson
John Klingberg
Alex Pietrangelo
Colton Parayko
Dmitry Orlov (cheap and has assists in 4 straight games)
Kris Russell (block shot upside)
Vince Dunn (cheap with a rocket shot)