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Welcome to the NHL DFS Man Advantage for a Monday night and we have a big 9 game slate to break down!
This is the final Monday of the regular season, which was actually supposed to be last Monday, but thanks to COVID we get an extra week of hockey. Tonight we have a mixed bag of teams just playing out the stretch and teams fighting for playoff positions and spots. We also have two confirmed first-round playoff matchups on the slate, both in the Central Division. Tampa Bay and Florida and Carolina and Nashville will meet in the playoffs and on the ice tonight. Make sure to pay attention to any news regarding those games because we may get some lineup changes since none of these teams are playing for anything theoretically and may try to get some different players in their lineups.
NHL DFS: Goaltenders
Cash Game Goalie:
To be perfectly honest there is no one goalie I like in cash tonight. There are a couple of decent plays in Mike Smith ($7,500/$8,100) on the road in Montreal and if Alex Nedeljkovic ($7,800/$8,500) in Nashville tonight for the Hurricanes. Both goalies do seem a little overpriced on FanDuel but are in two of the better spots on the slate. Robin Lehner ($7,700/$8,400) at home to the Avalanche could also be a safe play IF Nathan MacKinnon is out again. For cash games tonight it seems like a wait-and-see approach for any late news about who may or may not start in net and be sitting out for teams.
GPP Goalie:
Ilya Sorokin ($7,300/$8,000)
This is a very important game for both the Islanders and Bruins to determine playoff seeding, and because of this, I assume both teams will be treating it as such. Sorokin has been great in net for the Isles this season as a rookie. In his last five starts, Sorkin has averaged 27.4 saves and is averaging 2.2 goals allowed.
Boston is a high-powered offense as we all know and they have been averaging 3.7 goals per game in their 10 games which is why Sorokin is a GPP play. Even though Boston scores a lot of goals, they also take a ton of shots and are allowing over 30 saves per game. You also need to look at who Boston has played in their last ten games. Eight of those ten were against the bottom of their division (4 games vs Buffalo, and 2 each vs NJ and NYR) and only two against a playoff team, the division-winning Penguins. If Semyon Varlamov starts he is just as good of a play as Sorokin.
Other Options: Juuse Saros ($7,400/$7,600), MacKenzie Blackwood ($7,000/$6,800), Thatcher Demko ($6,900/$6,700), Cal Petersen ($7,200/$7,100)
NHL DFS: Slate Overview
When it comes to picking the lines I want to stack and any one-off plays, I want to look at who is still playing for something. This doesn’t mean fade both of the Central Division games I mentioned in the open, or teams already of the playoffs. We know that teams like Boston, Colorado, Vegas, New York, and Montreal all have something to play for and will be playing like such.
If MacKinnon is back, then you can make a case for any of the top lines from Colorado, Boston, or Winnipeg for top-line stacks of the night. I know haven’t mentioned the Jets at all yet but they are in a good spot tonight against Vancouver and their top line is one of my favorite stacks on this slate.
If you want to be different, Edmonton’s top line will be that. Of course, the 100 point man Connor McDavid ($9,200/$9,400) will be one of the top one-offs but stacking him with his linemates will be different. Both Jesse Puljujarvi ($5,000/$4,500) and Dominik Kahun ($2,700/$3,500) will be overlooked in favor of the PP defenseman from Edmonton or Leon Draisaitl ($8,300/$8,600).
Finding Value in New Jersey (who knew?!)
Philadelphia is not a very good team defensively, I know this isn’t really news to any of you, which makes me love the Devils stacks tonight. Line 2 for New Jersey is where I want to start as they have one of the safer floors on the slate in my opinion. All three of these players are low priced on both sites and only Nico Hischier ($5,100/$4,900) is over $5K on either site. Pavel Zacha ($4,400/$4,600) is my favorite play of the three players on this line. In his last ten games, Zacha has 9 points, including three goals in his last three games. Zacha has also been great against Philly this season with four goals and three assists in seven games, the Devils winger is also averaging over two shots on goal per game against the Flyers. Jesper Bratt ($4,100/$4,200) has four points in his six games against Philadelphia this season. All three play on the Devils’ first PP unit along with Jack Hughes ($4,900/$4,700) and Will Butcher ($3,700/$3,500) on defense.
Other Top Value Stacks:
- Florida 3 vs Tampa
- NY Islanders 2 vs Boston
- Dallas 2 vs Chicago — Love this line – 2 min priced plays on DK
- Chicago 2 vs Dallas — This game is a good game stack tonight
- Colorado 3 vs Vegas
- Los Angeles 2 vs St. Louis — Gabe Vilardi cheap on PP1
One last thing, IF Colorado starts Johansson (as being projected at 6 am this morning when I wrote this) then STACK UP Vegas. With Patches out of the lineup all three of their top lines are cheap and will be great plays tonight.
NHL DFS: Defensemen Rankings
** Remember to always try and pair your defenseman up with forwards. One-off dmen are not usually the best option**
Top Defensemen
- Cale Makar (COL)
- Darnell Nurse (EDM)
- Roman Josi (NSH)
- Dougie Hamilton (CAR)
- MacKenzie Weegar (FLA)
- Tyson Barrie (EDM)
- Justin Faulk (STL) – StL2 is my top Blues stack tonight
- Alex Edler (VAN)
- Sean Walker (LA)
- Jeff Petry (MTL)
Top Value Defensemen:
- Gustav Forsling (FLA)
- Justin Braun (PHI)
- Jamie Oleksiak (DAL)
- Ryan Murray (NJ) – Cheaper option to using Butcher w/more upside
- Radko Gudas (FLA)
- Riley Stillman (CHI)
- Ethan Bear (EDM) – Plays PP2 with Kahun and Puljujarvi for a contrarian EDM stack
- Nick Leddy (NYI)
- Jack Rathbone (VAN)
Thanks for reading this article on the NHL DFS Man Advantage for today. Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports and make sure to check out WinDailySports.com for more money-making content.
