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DFS Army NHL DFS | Central Division Primer Fantasy Hockey Draftkings and Fanduel

CENTRAL DIVISION NHL DFS PRIMER

If all goes to plan we will get our first full 82-game NHL season in three seasons starting in a few weeks. This summer has seen a ton of movement, more than I can ever remember seeing. This article will recap the Pacific Division and we will figure out what the fantasy impact will be for each team.

May 10, 2021; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane (88) looks to score against the Dallas Stars during the third period at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Arizona Coyotes:

The Yotes had a hard-fought season last year, finishing with a record of 24-26-9 in the shortened season. They had times where they showed some promise, but playing in the changed up divisions last year made it hard for them as they finished 5th, behind the Avs, Golden Knights, Wild, and Blues. With the addition of the Seattle Kraken to the league this year, the Coyotes are moving to the Central Division with the Wild, Jets, Avalanche, Blackhawks, Stars, Blues, and Predators. Moving divisions, and losing a ton of key pieces from last season, I don’t think the Yotes are going to be that competitive in this division this season. Their subtractions outweigh their Additions and with facing tougher opponents, it’s going to be hard, especially when you lose some of your good D-Men. They also lost all of their goaltenders from last seasons team and adding Carter Hutton looks like they will be a good team to target against this year.

Additions:

Shayne Gostisbehere, Loui Eriksson, Andrew Ladd, Anton Stralman, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, Ryan Dzingel, Dmitrij Jaskin, Travis Boyd, Alex Galchenyuk (may not make roster, signed PTO), Carter Hutton, Conor Timmins,

Subtractions:

Alex Goligoski, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Antii Raanta, Darcy Kuemper, Adin Hill, Jordan Oesterle, Derick Brassard, Michael Bunting

Chicago Blackhawks:

Chicago had a disappointing season last year. They didn’t have their top-line center in Jonathan Toews all season, but he is back now and hoping to have a good season in return. They added great Goalie talent in Marc-Andre Fleury which should help them tremendously in net this year and lower their GAA. He will be good to help with Collin Delia and Kevin Lankinen as they continue to grow as NHL goalies. With a bolstered-up defense and goalie, their blue line looks like they could be better this season. Adding Seth Jones helps with defense and also they have a better D man who can score.

Additions:

Marc-Andre Fleury, Seth Jones, Tyler Johnson, Jake McCabe, Jujhar Khaira, Caleb Jones

Subtractions:

Brandon Pirri, Pius Suter, Vinnie Hinostroza, David Kampf, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook


Colorado Avalanche:

One year after taking the top spot in the West division last year, the Avs are back in the Central Division this year. Outside of the teams that made the playoffs last year, the West wasn’t that great. This year will be different for them, but I still believe they will be at the top of this division this year. The inter-division games will be tougher, but they are still a very talented team. They didn’t make too many moves from last year and they extended Makar to 6 more years and signed back Tyson Jost to a 2-year contract. This will be another season where COL is going to be a high-powered offense. They did lose Grubauer in the expansion draft, but got Darcy Kuemper in a trade from Arizona.

Additions:

Darcy Kuemper, Dylan Sikura, Stefan Matteau, Mikhail Maltsev, Artem Anisimov (training camp invite), Kiefer Sherwood, Jordan Gross, Kurtis MacDermid, Roland McKeown, Keaton Middleton, Ryan Murray,

Subtractions:

Carl Soderberg, Matt Calvert, Patrik Nemeth, Devan Dubnyk, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Brandon Saad,

Dallas Stars:

Dallas is a team that always plays hard knocked hockey. They have guys who can score and they typically play good defense. They just missed out on the playoffs last season, falling back just 4 points from Nashville. The thing with them is they played a ton of OT games and had a record of 23-19-14, which was the most OT losses in the league. They finished 8th in GA last year, which shows that their defense is was pretty good, they just couldnt get their offense rolling on a consistent basis. They will be middle of the pack again this season in the central divison. Dallas did add Holtby, who was struggling with VAN last season, but a chance of scenery could be good for him. It’s interesting to see what they will do in net this year, as they have Holtby, Bishop, Khudobin, and young Jake Oettinger that are all available in net this season. Bishop has injury problems all the time and is starting the year on Injured Reserve, so we could see a lot of Holtby this year tandem with Khudobin.

Additions:

Ryan Suter, Braden Holtby, Luke Glendening, Michael Raffl

Subtractions:

Stephen Johns, Sami Vatanen, Andrew Cogliano

 


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Minnesota Wild:

Minnesota is a hard team to face, they play good defense, and they have spurts where they can score in bunches. They ended up finishing with the 3 seed in the West division last year, behind only Vegas and Colorado. They finished with a record of 35-16-5 and played amazing at home last year. Their defense will really need to step up this year though. With Kahkonen and Talbot likely being the pairing in net. Talbot we know is not that great and Kahkonen showed massive upside in terms of DFS last season. They added a nice D-man in Goligoski in the offseason too that will help Dumba back there. I think they will be competitive, but don’t see them contending for a top 2 spot in the division. Luckily they were able to re-sign Kaprizov to a 5 year deal recently. They added a couple D men that could help in the back and don’t have a ton of BIG losses outside of Suter in my opinion.

Additions:

Alex Goligoski, Frederick Gaudreau, Jon Merril, Jordie Benn,

Subtractions:

Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, Marcus Johansson, Nick Bonino, Brad Hunt, Ian Cole,

 

Nashville Predators:

Ended up barely making it in the playoffs last season finishing with a decent record of 31-23-2 in route to the 4th seed in the Central last year. Not too bad considering the top 3 above them are all really good teams. They played better at home though and did end the season on a high note with a record of 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. With Pekka Rinne retiring, they will likely rely on young goaltender Juuse Saros along with David Rittich this year. They added some center depth this year which should help them a bit, but they will need more production from Matt Duchene up there to help Forsberg and Tolvanen. Losing Ryan Ellis is going to be a big blow for their blue line though. Looking at their transactions, they didn’t add too much in terms of big names.

Additions:

Cody Glass, Philippe Myers, David Rittich,

Subtractions:

Pekka Rinne, Ryan Ellis, Erik Gudbranson, Erik Haula, Brad Richardson,

 

St. Louis Blues:

We always hated using the Blues in DFS last season because their scoring came from all over. They would have a lot of low-scoring games too, which is never good when playing DFS. Their goalies weren’t that great last year as they allowed 170 goals and scored just 169. They did add Buchnevich where he should get a good chance to score goals with this Blues team. Hopefully Tarasenko will stay healthy this year, which would be a good boost to their offense. Looks like their 1st line adding Saad will be good for them on the left wing. They still should be good with Binnington in nets, with Husso backing him up.

Additions:

Pavel Buchnevich, Brandon Saad, Logan Brown,

Subtractions:

Carl Gunnarsson, Mike Hoffman, Jaden Schwartz, Zach Sanford, David Backes

 

Winnipeg Jets:

The Jets are a high-powered offense that we loved to use last year in DFS. They have a ton of guys who shoot the puck. They will be without Mark Scheifele for the first game of the regular season as he finishes his suspension that he got last season. Looking at their depth chart, they still need to fill in some defense, but they did add Nate Schmidt this offseason to help there. Their top line of Scheifele (when back), Connor, and Blake Wheeler should provide a ton of DFS gold, and their 2nd line isn’t half bad either of Copp, Ehlers, and Dubois. They do lack some depth after that though which could be problematic.

Additions:

Nate Schmidt, Brenden Dillon, Riley Nash

Subtractions:

Mathieu Perreault, Derek Forbort, Jordie Benn, Laurent Brossoit


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