The NHL DFS slate for 12/1 offers a large slate of 11 games. Early peeks hint at optimal builds including heavy doses of Minnesota Wild players getting the Edmonton Oilers on the tail of their B2B games. The LA Kings draw an opponent daily fantasy players love to pick on, the Arizona Coyotes (who surprisingly are not even in the bottom 10 in terms of goals against allowed).
We have lots of great options for correlating in tournaments, value plays for cash games, and overall ceiling plays that can break a slate. Let’s analyze some of the best plays offered by optimizers for today’s slate on either Draftkings or Fanduel. And, our VIPs can head into our hockey forums to discuss sensible, strategic pivots if these plays look vulnerable.
For more detailed analysis, our Domination Station Optimizer is loaded with both player and ownership projections. And, our NHL Cheatsheets deliver tournament-winning leverage plays from our other NHL coaches in addition to this quick-hitting slate starter.
Nov 21, 2022; Dallas, Texas, USA; Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar (8) defends against Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson (21) during the second period at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Defense – Cale Makar (COL)
Sometimes optimizers just lock on a guy and it makes sense. Tonight is one of those nights. Cale Makar is a source of glue for the Colorado Avalanche. He anchors the power play, sets up the offense, and takes part in the offensive production for what is still a fair price at $7800 on Fanduel. He has posted only 3 poor games in his last 12 while amassing 6 goals and 11 assists. His back-to-back bad games should be a blip on the radar. Hopefully, we see a big bounceback tonight as he draws a Buffalo Sabres team allowing a league-worst 4.11 goals per game over the last three weeks.
Center – Joel Eriksson-ek (MIN)
Sharp daily fantasy hockey players don’t typically target 3rd line players for all formats. They tend to save them for tournaments due to the typical low ice time and increased volatility. However, MIN3 gets time, and many of them also serve on the power play units. Joel Eriksson-ek is a key piece to MIN3 and the PP1. He logs upwards of 20 minutes per night, and he has been productive of late in hitting 3x his salary (19, 22, and 32 fpts respectively) in 3 of his last 6 games. Optimizers like these Wild players taking on a potentially tired Edmonton team wrapping up 6 games in two weeks…5 of which have been on the road.
Wing – Viktor Arvidsson (LAK)
The LA Kings face the Arizona Coyotes tonight, and this matchup will sneak up on no one. However, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, ARI isn’t exactly giving up tons of goals. This could be a great spot, but it could also be a spot the industry over-targets and we can consequently fade. Arvidsson is producing, and should likely be your focal point if you love the matchup, though. It’s not hard to pay off a $5000 salary with a goal or assist on the night. And, Viktor has scored in 2 of his last 3 games.
I would do two things tonight: 1) I’d look up Viktor’s anytime goal player prop on your favorite site. 2) I’d consider the contrarian play of rostering Arizona forwards Clayton Keller or Lawson Crouse with him in a ping-pong correlation stack. Keller is the overwhelming points leader on the Coyotes with 21 points in 20 games. And, Crouse has 10 goals, also leading the team in that category. Both pair well, and give you very low ownership for tournaments. Keller, however, is consistent enough he can be considered a sensible play in any format (cash or tournament).
Wing – Artturi Lehkonen (COL)
Many people will automatically gravitate to Nathan MacKinnon on a slate like this missing Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid. These big three centers usually start any build (in fact, the NHL DFS sharks last night used both Matthews and McDavid in their cash lineups). But, MacKinnon is expensive, especially if you are already using Cale Makar.
Turn instead to Artturi Lehkonen’s production and exposure with Makar to MacKinnon on the COL1 and PP1. MacKinnon needs goals to pay off his huge salary, and he has only netted 3 goals in his last 14 games. Lehkonen is not only a 33% discount, he has put up 14+ fpts in 9 of his last 11 games, providing 2.5x value or more in this stretch. Paired with Makar, you have potential for 55+ fpts at a price tag of only $13000-ish against your cap. MacKinnon is $10,300 alone! Did I mention BUF is giving up 4.11 goals per game over their last 3 weeks?
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NHL DFS Stacks for Tonight
Optimizers love Minnesota and the LA Kings tonight, so we should at least mention MIN3 and LAK2/PP1 here. Usually optimizers know what’s up. However, on bigger slates I like to focus more on decent offenses facing weak defenses. We have a few options here for the tourney players…
COL PP1 is obvious…or should be. They are facing Buffalo’s weaker defense (as mentioned many times today) and currently have the league’s best power play, scoring 32.4% of the time this year. You can use Nathan MacKinnon, obviously, but you can also fade him for a more price-conscious construction similar to Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen, and value centerman J.T. Compher. Fading MacKinnon allows salary for a higher priced goalie or another big defenseman on another power play elsewhere on the slate. Differentiating yourself is not as important on a big slate in NHL DFS, but it also doesn’t hurt.
If we like picking on poor defenses with higher scoring offenses, we can’t let the Dallas Stars slip through the cracks tonight (and many will). DAL3 is interesting with a defenseman like Miro Heiskanen overlapping all forward lines. Names like Ty Dellandrea and Wyatt Johnston have been turning it up lately. And, veterans like Jamie Benn are playing well as a result, too. With Dellandrea and Johnston sitting under $5000 in salary, this stack is very friendly to your salary cap for its potential tonight.
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