Joel Bartilotta 
Welcome to the Saturday Slapshot where I’ll be highlighting some of my top plays for tonight’s NHL DFS slate on Fanduel and DraftKings. Tonight we’re back to having our normal-sized 10 game slate.
Goaltending
Juuse Saros ($8.5k DK/$8.2k FD) vs. Arizona Coyotes – After living in the upper $7k range over the last month or so, DK has finally decided to price Saros appropriately. Saros is playing some amazing goaltending right now and is one of the hottest goalies in the NHL. In 2 of his last 3 games, he’s eclipsed the 30 point mark and the game in between he was at 24. While his price is finally up there, he gets a great matchup and has as good of a chance as anyone to get a shutout tonight.
The Coyotes goals per game average over the last month is a bit inflated right now. In there are a few games where they exploded for a ton of goals in wild west type shootouts. Nashville is a much more sound defensively team as they don’t give much in the way of high danger chances. Saros for the win tonight and he should pay off his salary. He’s one of my favorite goalies on the night.
Robin Lehner ($8.4k DK/$8k FD) vs. Chicago Blackhawks – Lehner made his return on Thursday night after about a 2 week hiatus due to an injury. His return was a successful one as he stymied my Rangers. I bring that up because the Rangers are a much more potent team than his matchup for Saturday night, the Chicago Blackhawks.
Over the past month the Blackhawks have really struggled to put the puck in the net. They are one of a handful of teams on tonight’s NHL slate that have scored less than 3 goals per game over the last 30 days. While they are taking a healthy amount of shots per game at close to 30, they have a sub 10 shooting percentage. They’re struggling to score some goals and I’m going to take advantage of that tonight with a well-rested goalie.
There’s honestly not much else to like in way of goalies tonight. Blackwood should be back in net tonight in the same matchup against the Blue Jackets. While he only gave up one goal to them, his previous string of games was downright awful. You could make the case for Stolarz against the Rangers but there’s a good chance they get back Panarin tonight, which only solidifies an already deep team.
Stacks
San Jose 1 (Hertl/Barabanov/Meier) + Burns
There are 2 things going for me here. I love using the Sharks and I love playing offenses against the Flyers. It’s a recipe for success. Let’s start with the Flyers side of things. They give up a ton of shots. Over the last month, they are giving up more than 34 shots per game. On this NHL slate, only Columbus (we’ll get to them next) and Minnesota are giving up more per game. The Flyers are also giving up nearly 13 high danger chances per game. I preach these because they are scoring chances right in front of the nets. Giving up that many per game is asking for trouble.
On the Sharks side of things, this trio is playing amazing hockey right now. Over their last 5 games, they’ve combined for 31 high danger chances and 51 scoring chances. They have also combined for 18 points. Sharks are my favorite team of the night and tbh, it’s not even really close. With Meier’s price being over $8k, my anchors here will be Hertl and Barabanov. If you can afford Meier though, go for it.
New Jersey 1 (Hughes/Tatar/Bratt) + Severson
I expect Hughes to be very popular tonight. His ownership %’s have been trending up and he was about 25% owned in the same matchup on Thursday night. That said, it’s a big slate and ownership normally spreads out a bit more when that happens. Hughes is really coming into his own during this third season. He should easily set career highs in goals and points. Over his past 5 games he’s taken his game to a whole new level. He has 4 goals and 8 helpers in those games. I love the idea of pairing him with Bratt (Tatar too) tonight who also is playing very well of late with 8 points in 5. Columbus has really struggled defensively over the last month as they are giving up more than 4 goals per game. The Devils should have no problem scoring some goals tonight.
Nashville 1 (Forsberg/Duchene/Granlund) + Ekholm
Another poor NHL defensive team and another hot player. Forsberg is one of the hottest in the game right now as he has 5 goals in his last 5 games. Over his last 3 games he has 19.5, 23, and 19.1 DK points. He should have absolutely no issue continuing with that momentum against a Coyotes team that is giving up 4.29 goals per game over the past month.
I’m going to pair him with both Duchene and Ekholm tonight. Ekholm is not a super safe pick because he doesn’t get too many ancillary stats, but he is only $3.4k and gets power play time. Over his last 3 games he has 4 points so there is some upside with him.
Other stacks (Vegas 1 and 2, TB 1, Car 2, Fla 2, Col 1 and 2, Tor 2, Min 1, Was 1)
Top Defenseman
- Alex Pietrangelo
- Mackenzie Weegar
- Zach Whitecloud
- Brady Skjei
- Morgan Reilly
- Roman Josi
- Brayden McNabb
- Mario Ferraro
Summary
Tonight’s NHL DFS slate looks to be a fun one. We have some awful defensive teams going in the way of the Coyotes, Flyers, and Blue Jackets and will be sure to attack them. While they didn’t make my top 3, Vegas should absolutely crush tonight. The Blackhawks are struggling and Vegas should get to them often.
Make sure to use our optimizer when setting lineups.
Good luck and hope to see you in the green!
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