NHL Building Blocks – January 8
Solid four-gamer tonight with a couple of heavyweight matchups. Let’s dive in!
The premise of each article in this series is to feature starting spots (building blocks) for your lines. These are plays that are cash-viable as well as GPP-worthy and can be considered in all contest formats.
Starting Lineup – January 8
The Goalie: Tristan Jarry ($7900 DK / $7900 FD)
Nice spot tonight for the Penguins and for Jarry. Philly is not a good offensive team (25th in goals per game and dead last in power play), and until winning last time out had lost six of their past seven games. The Pens have become a stout defensive team in spite of their offensive upside, holding opponents to 2.74 goals per game. Jarry (11-12-2 / 2.60 / .912) has had a very solid season so far, and I like him to continue that tonight.
The Center: Nathan Mackinnon ($9700 DK / $10400 FD)
Continues to just be exceptional, ranking second in the league in scoring with 65 points (including nine points in his past five games) and shooting a ton (180 shots – four and a half per game).
The Wing: Jason Robertson ($6700 DK/ $8200 FD)
Really nice price and upside for him in this one; finally seems to have gotten back on track offensively with seven points in his past five games and up to over a point per game for the season.
The Defenseman: Brock Faber ($4100 DK / $5000 FD)
Continues to see all of the ice time he can handle, skating on the top line in all three situations; 19 points in nearly 25 minutes of ice time. Really solid floor with some decent upside.
The Value: Jonathan Drouin ($3700 DK / $5200 FD)
Always a nice value piece as he sees time on L2 and centers PP1 with the big boys, and in this matchup, he’s definitely worth a look. 21 points in 38 games seeing mostly second-line work in his first season in Colorado. Stack or one-off.
The Stack: DAL1 (Robertson/Hintz/Pavelski)
The Wild have lost their #1 goalie for the foreseeable future, and they are also without their best offensive player, so Dallas has a good path to success here. The Stars have a top five offense and should be able to have some degree of success against the Wild, who are below average in goals allowed and have a 72.9% penalty kill. These three are together on L1/PP1 and should have ample opportunities to produce.
The Builder: DAL/PIT ML parlay
Oct 22, 2022; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Dallas Stars center Joe Pavelski (16) celebrates with teammates after scoring his third goal of the game against the Montreal Canadiens during the third period at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-USA TODAY Sports
