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 3 weeks (8-11 games) unless noticed otherwise!
Goalies
Thomas Greiss/Robin Lehner: At the time of writing this, I’m not sure who is going to start for the Islanders, but they are playing the Senators and are both on the cheaper side. I prefer Greiss, but Lehner is still in play if he starts. The Senators have still been shooting a ton, but not scoring. Greiss had a bad game against Calgary and Washington, but those two offenses are much better than OTT. Lehner was pulled last game against Philly and I think the Islanders give Greiss that start. With that being said, both are firmly in play in ALL FORMATS.
Darcy Kuemper: Kuemper has been AMAZING lately and one of my favorite plays on this slate. The Ducks have been struggling like crazy lately. They are only shooting 29 SOG per game and are scoring 1.7 goals/game in their last 10. Goalies have fared very well against the Ducks lately and Kuemper is rolling right now. ALL FORMATS
Ben Bishop: He looked great coming back last start and now gets a team that he has dominated in his career. He has a 10-2-0 record with a .931% and 1.91 GAA against the Rangers in his career. I do like some pieces of the Rangers offense, but the Stars play pretty good defense in front of Bishop. The upside for saves is there for Bishop tonight, making him a great tournament option. LEAN GPP
Jaroslav Halak: Look, Halak has been very good lately, but he can tend to blow up in good spots. With that being said, I think this game is much better for actual hockey than DFS, but Halak has been great in February. He’s 4-0-0 with a .97 GAA and .966%. Carolina shoots a ton and also scores, but Boston is playing very good defense. He has high upside here tonight but keeps him for TOURNAMENTS only.
Devan Dubnyk: I hate trusting Dub, but he’s been playing very good over his last 5 games. He hasnt allowed more than 2 goals in his last 5, and 4 of those have been on the road. Neither offense in this game is blowing up right now and they just faced each other the other night and totaled 4 goals between the two teams. Both goalies in that game scored over 20 fanduel points and I can see the same thing happening tonight. This also puts Pekka Rinne in play for me too. Both of which are GPP ONLY options for me. If you are MME’ing or playing a bunch of lineups, get some exposure to both of them.
Matt Murray: I’m going back and forth with this play, but I ended up leaning on him. Murray has elite GPP upside in this matchup but is risky. He’s been shaky of late, but he does have upside. Florida has one of the best PK% in the league right now and they shoot a ton. Murray can blow up, or be amazing, there isn’t much in the middle. Last time against Florida at home he saved 36 shots and allowed just one goal. GPP ONLY
Centers
Sidney Crosby: The man is ROLLING lately and this matchup with Florida is great. He has 6 assists and 4 goals in his last 5 games and has at least 27 fd points in his last 3 games.
Tyler Seguin: I really like Dallas here tonight against the Rangers. Their PP has been very good of late too and Seguin is good for 3-4 SOG per game with upside to score.
Max Domi: The Kings top line is allowing goals and I think MTL2 will see them a good amount in this game. Domi has been showing a solid floor of late with 22 SOG in his last 5 games. He has upside in any game. He’s more GPP, but MTL2 is playing very good lately.
Vincent Trocheck: I don’t mind Barkov for Florida either, but I like the savings with Trocheck. He’s been shooting but just hasn’t found the back of the net. Against the Pens, this game could be a good one. Even though I like Murray for tournaments, it doesn’t mean I don’t like Florida. Trocheck centers a decent second line and is on the second PP unit too.
Steven Stamkos: He’s been cold lately, but this matchup with the Jets is too good. The Jets have been allowing goals and a ton of shots. They also have a pretty bad PK%. I think Stammer gets in the point column on the Power Play tonight.
Others to consider: Evgeni Malkin, Nate MacKinnon, Mika Zibanejad, Dylan Larkin, Aleksander Barkov
Wings
Nikita Kucherov: He’s leading the league for MVP this season and is one of, if not the best in the NHL right now. He’s expensive, but the Jets have been allowing a ton. Kuch plays really good at home and will look to keep rolling.
Gabriel Landeskog: I love COL tonight, but I hate his linemates. He’s going to have to do it all for COL2 but he’s on the star-studded COL1 Power Play tonight. Detroit has been bad allowing goals lately and Landeskog only has 2 games in his last 10 with fewer than 10 fanduel points. He has great upside in this matchup too.
Brendan Gallagher: The man is still on fire. He has goals in 3 straight and his SOG have been on the rise. He has at least 20 fanduel points in each of his last 3 games and the Kings are allowing close to 4 goals per game lately. No one is going to own the late game and MTL is in a great spot here.
Matt Hoffman: He’s been back on FLA1 for a little now and hasn’t gotten into the point column in the last 2 games, but I think that can change here. He’s still shooting 3-4 or more SOG per game and I think playing with Barkov and Hub will allow him to be open a bit more to shoot. We saw the hot streak he went on earlier this year and PIT has a middle of the road PK% while FLA has a good PP%.
Alexander Radulov: He’s still under 6k and in a great matchup against the Rangers. They have been allowing a bunch of shots and goals in the last 10 games and DAL1 is in a great spot. Pair with Seguin for tons of upside.
Anthony Mantha: Since being on the top line, Mantha has shown he NEEDS to be there. He and Larkin have great chemistry, and he’s cheap. He’s scored over 10 fanduel points in 8 of his last 10 games and even though COL has been good defensively, Mantha has just been great value of late.
Jason Zucker: He’s still too cheap for what he has been doing lately for the Wild. He added another 15 fanduel point game last time against the Preds and has been playing great over his last 5 games. He has scored 14.4 or more in each of his last 5 and has 19 SOG in those games.
Jimmy Vesey: I actually got to watch him play the other night against TB and he’s impressive. He’s quick and his shot is amazing. This is a tough matchup against with DAL, but after two down games, no one is going to be on him. He’s still cheap and seems to have great chemistry with NYR1.
Lawson Crouse: The Yotes are still rolling and even though they have a tough matchup, I still like most of them. Crouse is cheap and has shown a very high floor for his price. He has 8-16 points in each of his last 5 games and has 4 points in his last 5 games too.
Jared McCann: Maybe a bit chalky, but against his former team and playing with arguably one of the best centers in the league elevates his game. He’s great value and likely will be chalky.
Others to consider: Brad Marchand, Jake DeBrusk, Artemi Panarin, Cam Atkinson, Filip Forsberg, Mikko Rantanen, Alex Galchenyuk, Clayton Keller, Vladislav Namestnikov
Defensemen
John Klingberg: Dallas is in a sneaky good spot here tonight and Klingberg showed he wasn’t too sick the other night. He has upside and I like him in DAL stacks, but I think I’m paying down on D tonight.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson: He’s been amazing for the Yotes lately and still is cheap. Now, this matchup with the Ducks isn’t the best, but he’s had a consistent floor of about 11 points in his last 5 games. I like Arizona tonight against Gibson and they have been rolling lately.
Tyson Barrie: COL is in a good spot against the Red Wings tonight. Barrie has had some good games lately and he has upside. Detroit has allowed 41 goals in their last 10 games and Colorado is heating back up again.
Ryan Pulock: I think he has block shot upside in this game here as OTT is averaging 32 SOG per game in their last 10 games. He’s cheap and has shown 20+ point upside recently.
Tony DeAngelo: Tony has shown a solid floor of late for the Rangers. He’s been getting assists which help his points, but he still has over 10 fanduel points in 4 of his last 6 games. Against Dallas, this is a tougher matchup, but they are still allowing 36 SOG per game in the last 10.
Shea Weber: I like the Habs here tonight against the Kings. The Kings have allowed a bunch of goals lately and no one is really going to own these late games. Weber has elite upside at a mid-range price.
Others to Consider: Keith Yandle, Roman Josi, Torey Krug, Esa Lindell,
Favorite Stacks
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