NHL DFS Blue Line Power Plays (Feb. 16)

DFS NHL Blue Line Power Plays February 16th 2021 Slate Summary

We have a modest six-game DFS NHL slate for Tuesday. After a robust American President’s Day holiday, where we had nine games, not including a late postponement, this slate feels flat.

Making this slate even harder, all six games are fairly evenly matched. The FanDuel Sportsbook currently gives the Stars (-166) and Rangers (-142) the biggest ML advantages vs the Predators (+140) and Devils (+120), respectively.

But, if you bet hockey often, you know those aren’t terribly high odds to win.

In fact, if you want to take on some betting risk, but potentially make some decent money, the riskier high-yield bet in hockey is that ANY game ends with a two goal difference. Most of the +/- 1.5 spreads are around -/+200.

This will make Tuesday’s DFS NHL slate a bit difficult to play, because stacking lineups may not lead to the best outcome. However, this is probably one of the least chalky slates of the season.

The most appealing Fantasy Hockey options on Tuesday are the Capitals, Penguins, Avalanche, and Golden Knights. But, they’re all playing each other!

NHL Schedule for February 16, 2021

I’m still going to snag players from each of those four teams, but instead of stacking them, this is an odd slate where I prefer to get the top player options from each of those games and use the cheaper top options from the other games for value.

This isn’t ideal for Cash Game nights, making those plays riskier for Tuesday. But, this is an ideal environment for sneaky GPP wins.

Top DFS NHL Goalies

We don’t have a confirmed starter in goal for the Golden Knights, hosting the Avalanche, yet. But, with Robin Lehner being Day-to-Day recently, I think it’s very possible Marc-Andre Fleury (FD $8.9K / $7.7K DK) in between the pipes for the Knights.

I loved Fleury for his last start, ending in a shutout against the Avs on Sunday. That played out well and I had a nice payday. But, it’s difficult to complete back-to-back shutouts, especially against a team as good offensively as the Avs.

But, considering all goalie options for this slate, Fleury is still one of the best plays of the night, especially with the high likelihood he’ll have over 30 saves. He’s a bit too expensive for FanDuel, but a very smart-priced option for DraftKings.

Anton Khudobin (FD $8.1K / $8.4K DK) and Igor Shesterkin (FD $7.3K / $8.2K DK) each have the best odds of all goalies in this slate to win. Khudobin is a safe play with a mid-tier pricing, while Shesterkin is a steal in FanDuel.

Assuming he gets the start, Pekka Rinne (FD $6.8K / $7K DK) is quietly having a solid season. While Khudobin has been credited with solid play so far this year, Rinne has a slightly better GAA average.

Pekka has a solid .907 save percentage, and is averaging over 25 saves in his seven complete starts. There’s risk here, the Preds aren’t scoring at a high volume and the Stars are favored to win, but Rinne’s value for both FanDuel and DraftKings with a win is huge in this slate!

Top DFS NHL Centers, Wingers, and Defenders

If you’ve read my column lately, you know I like to lock in the goalie spot first, which the option to go back and flip to the best value play once I have the rest of my roster locked up.

From there, I like to nail down my favorite defense plays, typically with a focus on value. I’ve noticed both DraftKings and especially FanDuel have some pretty great, and consistent, value plays at this position.

You can then leverage your value plays at goalie and defense, to plug in your top skaters.

For FanDuel, Adam Fox (FD $4.5K) is piling up enough blocked shots and/or shots on goal to allow you to get ten-plus points on a sub-$5K salary. Fox is on the ice over 25 minutes per game, for the Rangers, and is a big part of each of their games.

Devon Toews (FD $4.7K / $5.3K DK) is more of a mid-tier play in both FanDuel and DraftKings, although pretty close to Fox’s value in FD, and Toews is a Fox-like contributor to the Avs offensive and defensive game.

Roman Josi and John Carlson are arguably the best play plays of this slate, but I don’t think either is worth their value in both FD and DK.

If you need some more D-men options, consider Alex Martinez ($4.3K) for FD only, Justin Schultz (FD $4.2K / $4K DK) for both, and Dante Fabbro (FD $4.1 / $3.9K DK) for FanDuel and DraftKings as well.

With those goalie and defenseman options, you’re now ready to load up on some of the top offensive plays of this slate.

Anze Kopitar (FD $7.2K / $6.1K DK) is playing just a tad below the Nathan MacKinnon‘s and Joe Pavelski‘s of the fantasy hockey world right now, but is only in the mid-tier priced range for both FanDuel and DraftKings. Against a soft Wild defense, Kopitar is a sneaky great play at center Tuesday.

While the Penguins are playing well against the Caps and are on home ice Tuesday, I still like a two-man stack of red-hot Nicklas Backstrom (FD $6.5K / $6.7K DK) and Alex Ovechkin (FD $8.4K / $8.7K DK).

Ovi had an assist against the Penguins on Sunday, and has three goals and three assists in his last three games. Alex is averaging around the 20 points-per-game range for both FD and DK, and is consistently one of the best fantasy hockey plays each time on the ice this season.

Backstrom has been unusually more active with scoring this season, and the assists to Ovi is further padding his fantasy hockey points each game.

For the Penguins, you could pay up for Crosby or Malkin, but neither has been a great fantasy hockey play for some odd reason in 2021. Instead, focus your picks on Bryan Rust (FD $6.3K / $6.6K DK) and Jake Guentzel (FD $7.1K / $6.1K DK) as your top plays and Zach Aston-Reese (FD $3.3K / $3.5K DK) for value.

Here are some other DFS NHL plays by tier at Center:

Top – Jack Eichel, Nathan MacKinnon

Mid-Tier – Joel Eriksson Ek, Jean-Gabriel Pageau (value play for DK)

Value – Paval Zacha

Here are some other DFS NHL plays by tier at Winger:

Top – Filip Forsberg

Mid-Tier – Victor Olofsson, Alex Iafallo, Adrian Kempe (value play for DK), Kirill Kaprizov

Value – Joonas Donskoi, Joonas Donskoi, Brandon Saad, Kasperi Kapanen

Blue Line Power Plays Summary for February 16th 2021

This is a bizarre six-game Tuesday night with mostly all even-matched games. But, that should lower the chalk plays, spread out ownership, and open the door for solid GPP plays.

Again, this isn’t the best slate for cash games, but typically the best GPP lineups also do well with cash games in these situations.

We have a handful of good goalie plays between Fleury, Khudobin, Shesterkin, and Rinne.

It’s not worth paying up for Josi and Carlson in this slate, at least not likely, so focus on the several value plays offered for both DraftKings and FanDuel at the defense position.

From there, load up on some two-man stacks between the Capitals and Penguins. There are also some top plays like MacKinnon and Pacioretty from the Avs and Knights match-up.

That said, I also love some one-off plays like Anze Kopitar at center or utility.

What a bizarre slate, but have fun with it and focus mostly on GPP plays tonight!

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