Joel Bartilotta 
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Saturday Slapshot. I’ll be focusing on tonight’s massive 10-game main slate of NHL DFS on DraftKings and FanDuel. We’re now close to a full month into the season. This is getting to be my favorite part of the year as we now how have plenty of data to tell us who is good and who is bad. Which teams to target and which teams to avoid.
Let’s dig in and see if we can make some money.
NHL DFS Goaltending
Carter Hart ($7.3K DK/$8.4k FD) vs. Ottawa Senators – I’m going to continue to ride Carter Hart on DK until they raise his price and he cools off. There is a massive price discrepancy tonight with Hart as he’s $1.1k cheaper on DK than FD. That’s something we should look to take full advantage of. It also helps that Hart’s play this year has been simply amazing.
He’s now played 7 games this season and has really only had 1 questionable start against the Hurricanes. Even in that game he still ended up with nearly 12 DK points. On the year, Hart is 5-0-2 with a 2.10 GAA and a .943 save %. The Senators are a solid offense, but Hart’s play has just been too good to ignore. This play is reserved entirely for GPP’s tonight, and only on DK.
Logan Thompson ($8.3k DK/$8.6k FD) vs. Montreal Canadiens – The Vegas Knights are one of the heaviest favorites on the board tonight at -200. Should Thompson get the nod in goal tonight, he’ll easily make for a solid play against a weak Canadiens offense. The Canadiens are scoring just 2.67 goals per game over the last couple of weeks. Just not good.
With Thompson, we’re getting someone that is playing really well. Although he gave up 4 goals in his last game against the Senators, he still amassed over 40 saves and over 24 DK points. The offense he’ll face tonight won’t be nearly as strong. Considering his price and matchup, if you’re playing cash games tonight Thompson should be your guy.
NHL DFS Stacks
San Jose 1 (Hertl, Meier, Labanc) + Karlsson vs. Anaheim
Targeting offensive weapons vs. the Ducks is normally a profitable strategy. Over the last 2 weeks, the Ducks have been a mess. They’re giving up close to 5 goals per game and nearly 37 shots on goal per game. We’ll attack them tonight with San Jose’s top line. With doing that, we’ll want to try our hardest to squeeze in Erik Karlsson who is playing some out of this world hockey right now. He’s been essentially playing as another winger. Over his last 5 games, Karlsson has 7 goals and 5 assists. For a defenseman, that’s insane. He’s $7.8k on DK tonight so he’s extremely expensive, but he hasn’t had less than 27 DK points since October 25.
I’ll look to pair him with Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl here. Meier has also been playing some great hockey, with 4 goals in his last 5 and an iCorsi of 53. He’s also been averaging close to 7 shots on goal per game over those 5. Hertl will be important here as he’s just $4.4k on DK and will help us save some money. This top unit for San Jose has immense upside tonight in this matchup.
The second line of Nieto, Couture, and Barabanov is also very much in play and at a fraction of the cost of the first line.
Vegas 1 (Eichel, Stephenson, Stone) + Pietrangelo vs. Montreal
Vegas has a chance tonight to put up a monster number. They get a sweet matchup vs. a poor defensive team in the Canadiens. Over the last 2 weeks, Montreal is giving up close to 19 high-danger chances per game. To put that into perspective, the average of all the teams playing tonight is just 12.5. They’ve been extremely lucky to have not given up more than the 3.5 goals per game that they’ve been giving up during that stretch.
I’m going to target this mess of a team with Vegas’ top line. My main targets from this line are going to be Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. Both guys have been showing a healthy amount of offensive prowess. Over his last 5 games, Eichel 2 goals and 4 assists while Stone has 3 goals and 2 assists. There’s no reason to think that against a bad Canadiens team they won’t be able to light the lamp like they’ve been doing.
Vegas 2 is also in play and much cheaper. Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith should help in the scoring tonight.
Vancouver 2 (Pettersson, Mikheyev, Kuzmenko) + Hughes vs. Nashville
After starting out the season pretty poorly, the Canucks are heating up and get a matchup against a Nashville team that hasn’t been all that great of late. The 3 guys on this second unit for Vancouver have been putting up some impressive numbers of late. Over his last 5 games, Elias Pettersson has 9 points thanks to 7 assists. He’s had points in 4 of his last 5 games and that should continue tonight.
Andrei Kuzmenko has also been playing very well with goals in 3 of his last 4 games and a hat trick in his last game. Kuz is only $4.1k tonight on DK and is a solid value play. Overall, this second line for the Canucks is extremely affordable and the spot where we’ll look to save money.
Other Stacks: Toronto 1 and 2, Boston 1 and 2, Philly 1, Seattle 1 and 2 (both cheap), Pittsburgh 1
NHL DFS Top Value Defenseman
- Nathan Beaulieu – $2.5k on DK
- Erik Cernak – $3.8k on Dk
- Ryan McDonagh – $3k on DK
Summary
Tonight should be a fun slate of NHL DFS. With 20 teams in action, there are going to be plenty of places for offense. I plan on going heavy with the Sharks because the Ducks are just an awful defensive team.
Make sure to use our Projection model when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
Make sure you follow me on Twitter at @rangerzfan79 and be sure to sign up for an ALL ACCESS GOLD ACCOUNT here at Win Daily Sports. Gain access to our Projection Models and jump into our Discord where we will have our experts talking plays across every sport and slate!
