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 10 games unless noticed otherwise!
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy: Look, I know he’s VERY expensive and he’s a massive favorite, but come on, he’s playing the Senators. They are basically an AHL team right now. Vasil can easily get a shutout tonight, but will absolutely need one to pay off the salary. I love him and the Bolts tonight, but I don’t think I’ll be able to pay p there. ALL FORMATS
Tuukka Rask: Solid savings from Vasil is Tuukka Rask. He’s playing like playoff Rask lately and that’s when we use him. The Devils somehow have still been playing okay lately, but Boston has been on another level. Their defense has been outstanding and in the L10, Rask has a .922% with a 2.1 GAA. ALL FORMATS
Jordan Binnington: Oh man the Blues look to have found their guy. Binnington has been amazing too. He’s coming off a shutout against Nashville and has 3 SO in his last 6 games! He gets to face Dallas at home tonight too. Over the last 10 games, Dallas only has scored 22 goals and have allowed a ton. The Blues are still playing great defense in front of Binnington too. ALL FORMATS
Mike Smith: UGH, I know. Here me out. Smith has been freaking amazing of late. This is the late hammer game and he’s rather cheap too. The Wild have been shooting in the last 10, but aren’t scoring all that much. The Flames are playing great defense and are scoring a ton again too. When adding him into the starting goalie pool on the RS, he jumps to the top projected goalie. I like his upside tonight with saves and he’s been heating up over his last 5 games too. He has a .928% with a 2.0 GA/G in the last 5 and most of those games were right at home. GPP
Darcy Kuemper: The Yotes are playing great hockey right now and Kuemper has been right in the middle of that. Over his last 5 starts, he only has under 20 FD points ONE time. He has a .933% and is averaging 25.2 FD points in his last 10 games. His save % is 3rd best on this slate in the last 10 games and he has a 2.20 GA/G. I love him in Tournaments tonight. GPP
Centers
Sidney Crosby: Niemi is projected to start for MTL tonight and that makes me love PIT here. Crosby has been heating up lately too with 6 points in his last 3 games.
Auston Matthews: Buffalo has been pretty bad of late. Matthews is our 2nd highest Center on the slate and has been very consistent for the Leafs lately. He normally wont get you under 15 FD points. He is averaging 21.1 over his last 5 games.
Patrice Bergeron: I think he’s too cheap for the matchup he’s in. The Devils have been allowing 3.6 goals/game in the last 10 games and Boston has been on fire. He’s gone a bit cold to his standards lately, but this is the perfect matchup to bounce back.
Jack Eichel: Holy hell I didn’t notice how consistent he’s been. I don’t think the Sabres win this game, but Anderson has been allowing 2-3 goals almost every game. Eichel has averaged 31 FD points over his last 5 games and still a very high 24.9 FD points in his last 10. In his last 5 games, he has been shooting ALOT and if he keeps it up he will score another 20+. He’s going to be low owned and I LOVE him tonight.
Sebastian Aho: Weekend Aho here we go! Aho has been ripping it up lately and Florida has been giving up goals lately. I usually never play Aho, and likely won’t personally be playing him tonight, but that’s so he actually does good for everyone else. I swear I have the biggest Jinx on him.
David Krejci: He’s been so consistent, it’s hard not to use him. His price is coming up, but he still has scored more than 22 FD points in 3 of his last 6 and this is a good matchup for Boston.
Jordan Staal: He’s cheap and has been producing since coming back for Carolina. He’s a great value to look for tonight against a Panthers team allowing 31.1 sog/g and 3 g/g in the last 10 games.
Others to consider: Evgeni Malkin, Steven Stamoks, John Tavares, Aleksander Barkov (I want to like him a lot more, but something about FLA worries me tonight), Vincent Trocheck
DEEP PUNTS: Luke Kunin, Evan Rodrigues, Brad Richardson (tamper expectations, he’s not scoring 4 goals again)
Wings
Nikita Kucherov: Do I need to explain? I shouldn’t have too. He’s the best Wing on the slate and likely will be chalky even at his high price.
Brad Marchand: Good pivot off Kuch tonight. Love how he and Boston have been playing. Great stack with Bergy if you can afford it.
Brendan Gallagher: This shocked me tht he was our 3rd highest projected W tonight. He gets a good matchup with Casey DeSmith (likely) and has been on fire lately. He’s shooting a lot and has a few goals too. The Habs play amazing at home too.
Mike Hoffman: See what he can do when on the top line? About time he’s back there. He’s mid-range price and even though it’s a tough matchup, I think he has a 14-15 points floor with upside.
Teuvo Teravainen: Holy smokes he’s been playing well in his last 5 games. He has 1 goal and 8 assists in that span! I think CAR2 is a bit sneaky here tonight too.
Jake DeBrusk: Still a good stack with Krejci on BOS2. He’s basically hitting a floor of 16 points every game and at just 6k against the Devils it’s hard to ignore.
Vladimir Tarasenko: Tough matchup, but Dallas has actually been bleeding goals and shots lately. Senko has upside anytime he plays and I like the Blues here tonight, just none of their skaters really have popped off to me yet.
Marcus Johansson: Little revenge narrative here against the Devils. He was playing well before getting traded to Boston and now has the chance to stick it to them.
Jesper Bratt: If not using Rask tonight, Bratt has been great lately. In his last 7 games, he has 4 games over 20 FD points and has been getting in the point column lately. He’s cheap on FD at just 4.1k tonight.
Andreas Johnsson: We need some savings tonight and he’s cheap on both sites. I prefer him over Kapanen tonight for the savings and he’s our 3rd highest value projection tonight.
Others to consider: Alex Galchenyuk, Alexander Radulov, Sam Reinhart, Clayton Keller, Andrew Shaw, Brady Tkachuk
Defensemen
Mark Giordano: Late night hammer D man tonight. He’s our highest projected defender but has been a bit cold lately for his price. He still brings a solid floor to the table and Dubnyk can allow a bunch of goals.
Keith Yandle: Yandle has been the game for FLA of late. He has 24 SOGBS in his last 5 games and averaging 25.7 FD points in that time. This matchup is tougher against the Hurricanes who are playing great defesnse, but he’s heating up.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson: This dude is really heating up lately. His floor isn’t great, but he has over 10 FD Points in his last 4 games. He’s shown that he can shoot and ARI has been playing great lately.
Justin Schultz: Letang is out for a few games for PIT and Schultz is moving to that top line. He’s been very good lately too. Last game against Buffalo he scored 25 FD points and has 3 straight games over 14.4 FD points. He’s decent value too.
Morgan Rielly: I think people may look over TOR tonight because of TB and BOS in good spots. Rielly has been consistent lately. We still want more than 8 points from him, but BUF has allowed 34 goals in their last 10 games.
Mike Green: He’s our 4th highest projected D man tonight and has the best value rating on FD tonight. This matchup is tough against Arizona, but he’s shown a decent floor lately too. He has upside if he’s shooting and usually has a high floor.
Others to Consider: Victor Hedman, Torey Krug, Alex Pietrangelo, Rasmus Dahlin, Shea Weber, Travis Hamonic
Favorite Stacks
TB2 (duh)
BUF1 ( love this as a sneaky stack too)
TOR2
CAR1 and CAR2
BOS1 BOS 2
ARI1 (sneaky)
CGY1 (seems like this team is heating up again)