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! Small slate that looks very solid for tournaments tonight! Play light!
Goalies
Jacob Markstrom (8.3k): Likely your chalk goalie on this small slate against the Senators. I love Markstrom here tonight too. He’s been really good in his last 10 starts with a .930% and 2.3 GA/G in that span. Now he gets to face the Senators at home tonight. He’s averaging over 20 Fanduel points in that span too. ALL FORMATS
Andrei Vasilevskiy (9.5k): The Capitals played last night and have to turn around and face the best team in the NHL. Although he’s expensive, he is still the best goalie in hockey right now. In his last 10 games, he’s averaging 26.3 fanduel points with a 2.20 GA/G and .933%. This slate is more for GPPs and he’s expensive, so I’ll keep him in GPPS tonight.
Connor Hellebuyck (7.8k): The ultimate GPP play. Helle can allow 4+ goals, or be dominant. He’s coming off two good wins against Calgary and Boston and now faces a little easier task in the Ducks. In his career, he’s 4-0-1 with a .919% and 2.3 GAA against them. The Jets offense is rolling right now and he should be able to get the win.
Centers
Jack Eichel (8.2k): Call me crazy, but I LOVE Buffalo tonight. Sparks got lit up against Ottawa last time out and Buffalo is at least better than them. He’s cooled off a bit of late, but this is the perfect matchup to get back into the point column. He has 21 SOG in his last 5 games.
Auston Matthews (8.5k): Matthews has been playing amazing of late and against some tough opponents. Buffalo doesn’t scare me at all and he has 27 SOG in his last 5 games. His linemates don’t do much to help him, but they are cheap. I do like pairing him on the PP1 though. Also, line 2 on the road.
Elias Pettersson (6.7k): Love Pettersson against the Senators here tonight. He has been heating up over his last 3 games with points in each of them. Ottawa is allowing 3.5 goals/game in the last 10 games and Pettersson is a great young kid.
Ryan Getzlaf (6.1k): If you want to get a little squirrely tonight, I like Getz. His last 5 games he has 2 goals, 5 assists, and 7 shots. He’s a guy that is going to get assists though and not shoot a ton. I don’t mind using the Ducks PP here tonight in tournaments.
Bo Horvat (5.7k): If not using Pettersson, go with Horvat. You will want VAN exposure tonight. Horvat is hit or miss with his SOG, but when he shoots, he has a decent chance to score.
Adam Henrique (4.7k): I love this value play here tonight. The Jets PK% is not that great (76.9%) and Henrique gets top PP time for the Ducks. I actually really like the Ducks PP tonight. Henrique will get to play alongside Corey Perry here and he has upside. I would only use in ANH stacks though.
Nazem Kadri (5.4k): I like him on the PP and he’s in a good spot against the Sabres here tonight. Low floor of late, but he has a high ceiling.
Evan Rodrigues (4.1k): Cheap and gets you BUF exposure. He has an insanely high 17 SOG in his last 4 games and found the back of the net one time. Sparks has been allowing goals and no one will be on him.
Wingers
Brock Boeser (7.2k): Likely to be chalky with VAN tonight. I love pairing him with Edler and Pettersson in tournaments. He has not scored fewer than 10 fanduel points in 6 straight games.
Blake Wheeler (8.5k): WPG1 is right up there with TOR1 in production in the last 10 games with 9 goals. Wheeler is the most consistent of the Jets top line and has been playing great of late.
Mitch Marner (8.3k): Love Marner here tonight against Buffalo. TOR1 has been playing great of late. This is a great matchup with Buffalo as well.
Jeff Skinner (6.5k)/Sam Reinhart (5.2k): I will only be using these two together in BUF1 stacks with Eichel. Neither are playing that great of late, but Toronto has been bleeding goals of late.
William Nylander (4.9k): Love Nylander to bounce back here tonight. Line 2 on the road and it makes me love this TOR2 tonight. Before his 0, he was rolling with 3 straight games with assists. You can pair him with Andreas Johnsson in stacks with Matthews, but I would only use Johnsson in stacks. Nylander can be used as a one-off.
Rickard Rakell (6.1k)/Jakob Silverberg (5.7k): I love these two paired together especially on the powerplay. The Jets PK% is only 77% and the Ducks PP% is sitting at 25% in the last 10 games. They are rolling. You can stack ANH PP1 and use these two with Fowler and Henrique to get a little different.
Brady Tkachuk (5.1k)/Max Veronneau (3k): ONLY if you are playing MME or multiple GPP lineups. I love Markstrom tonight, so likely won’t have these two in my 3 lineups. These two have upside, but its OTT and they are not good. These two have promise but don’t expect too much. This is a “screw it” play to save money and get top dogs all around.
Brett Connolly (3.8k): Washington 3 is actually really hot right now (4 goals in L3 games). Last time against TB he had an assist and has shown upside lately. He has virtually no floor, but he’s a strict GPP play tonight.
Defensemen
Alex Edler (4.9k): I’m just using him tonight. He’s so consistent and has upside. I love pairing him with anyone on the VAN team or using as a one-off. He has a floor of 8 and a ceiling in the upper 20s.
Morgan Rielly (6.7k): My second favorite goalie tonight. He and Edler bring an amazing floor and two great matchups. In his last 5 games, Rielly has 17 SOG with 2 goals and an assist. He has 49 SOGBS in his last 10 games which is a great floor.
Victor Hedman (6.4k): Don’t always love him, but he’s been heating up of late. He got an assist last game against Washington. Of late, he’s been getting you over 11.2 fanduel points which is not horrible on a small slate. TB should be able to score a couple on Holtby again here tonight too.
Jacob Trouba (5.2k): Trouba has been consistent and is on a hot Jets team right now. He has 23 SOGBS in his last 5 games (2nd for D-Men) and has scoring upside. He also gets PP time where I love the Jets tonight.
Ryan McDonagh (4.7k): If you don’t have money for Hedman, McDonagh is a good alternative. He has been blocking a ton of shots and has upside too. He has 13 blocks in his last 5 games with 4 assists.
Brandon Montour (4.4k): I like using Montour in your BUF stacks tonight. He’s shown that he can get assists and blocks too. When shooting, he has upside to score too. He gets 2nd PP unit time as well.
Others to consider: Cam Fowler, Cody Ceci, Rasmus Dahlin, Troy Stecher
STACKS
Here are my favorite stacks for tonight’s slate, in order of preference.
TOR2 (Johnsson, Matthews, Nylander)
TOR1 (Marner, Tavares, Hyman) ALSO LOVE TOR PP TONIGHT!
WPG PP1 (Connor, Scheifele, Wheeler, Laine, Trouba. The ducks are averaging 3.9 penalties per game in their last 10 games with a PK% of just 71.8%!)
BUF1 (Skinner, Eichel, Reinhart, add in Montour on D. These guys are the contrarian stack tonight. I love the spot for them with TOR averaging 4 goals allowed in L10).
VAN2 (Leivo, Pettersson, Boeser, with Edler!) Ottawa stinks. Add in Horvat to correlate with them on the top PP line!
ANH PP (Prefer PP1 of Rakell, Fowler, Silfverberg, Henrique, Terry)
