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The penultimate Friday Night Forecheck of the NHL regular season breaks down a small, four game slate. Within those four games, there are four top-end offenses and a marquee matchup, making for an interesting slate. Let’s find the best NHL DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Good luck!
Goalies
Ilya Samsonov – Washington Capitals: The Capitals are on a Western road swing, and the have a visit tonight to Arizona. Samsonov should have a very good shot at a win, and this is considered the safest play on the goalie board tonight.
Marc-Andre Fleury – Minnesota Wild: The Wild host the Kraken tonight in a game they should be able to win, and fairly easily. MAF should get the start, and is in a very good spot. The Kraken have been scoring, but not on the road, so this becomes a spot that we can definitely use.
High Risk GPP Goalie Pick – Mike Smith – Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers/Avalanche game should be the marquee matchup tonight, and the Oilers may have a slight advantage because the Avs are slightly depleted at the moment. With both Rantanen and Landeskog out of the lineup, the lean is that the Oilers should get the win. Smith has been playing well, and he should see a ton of shots tonight. Hopefully, this is not the night where he regresses, as the upside potential is very nice here. You can also consider Elvis Merzlikins (CBJ) in this spot if you prefer. He is not quite as risky, but the play makes sense. He just has been shaky all year, so it becomes a tough sell.
Lines to Build Around
These NHL DFS lines are considered top plays for the night and can be considered the focal point of your builds. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).
Washington Capitals 1 – Evgeny Kuznetsov/Alex Ovechkin/Tom Wilson/John Carlson: The Caps should dominate tonight, and they should do so with this line. They are in a great spot against the lowly Coyotes tonight. Expect them to be heavily owned, and rightly so.
Edmonton Oilers 1 – Connor McDavid/Evander Kane/Jesse Puljujarvi/Tyson Barrie: There are a couple of ways you can approach the Oilers tonight. First, you can just run this line out as is. They do have the more favorable matchup tonight against the Avs. The risk with that approach is that you may get absolutely nothing from Puljujarvi and/or Kane, and it’s tough to determine who will help on this line. Secondly, you can just pair McDavid and Draisaitl together, but that hamstrings your lineup salary wise. Either way you choose is good though, because Edmonton is in a great spot in what should be a fairly wide open game.
High Risk Lines
These are NHL DFS plays that carry significantly more risk, but could pay off at low ownership. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).
Colorado Avalanche 2 – Nazem Kadri/Andre Burakovsky/J.T. Compher: On the other side of the Edmonton game, we have the Avs, and we know what they are capable of. However, with Rantanen out, the top line takes a hit, so the second line looks like a slightly better play. You can run a similar approach with Avs, like mentioned above, but pairing MacKinnon and Kadri. The correlation is enough on the power play, and the primary offense should run through them.
Minnesota Wild 2 – Frederick Gaudreau/Matt Boldy/Kevin Fiala: If we are looking to play Colorado, Washington, AND Edmonton in some way, we will absolutely NEED some value. Enter Minnesota’s second line. This line should see a lot of the third line for Seattle, and are up against Grubauer in net. They should have plenty of chances to light the lamp tonight, and should give us a good bit of leverage on the field.
Columbus Blue Jackets 1 – Jack Roslovic/Gustav Nyquist/Jakub Voracek/Jake Bean: As much as it might seem like we need to fade this game, it looks like this could be another leverage spot. The field should be focused on the big names tonight, and this line has a real chance at multiple points in this game. The Senators are rolling out Gustavsson in net tonight, and he has some rough looking numbers. On top of that, Ottawa has been giving up 3 goals per game over their last five. There is some risk in this play, but there is also a good bit of upside.
NHL DFS Honorable Mentions: WSH3, MIN1, OTT1
Value Options – DraftKings
Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on DraftKings. Be sure to stack!
Center: Jack Roslovic ($3300) – Columbus Blue Jackets
Wing: J.T. Compher ($2600) – Colorado Avalanche
Defense: Jake Bean ($3000) – Columbus Blue Jackets
Value Options – FanDuel
Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on FanDuel. Be sure to stack!
Center: J.T. Compher ($4600) – Colorado Avalanche
Wing: Jakub Voracek ($4800) – Columbus Blue Jackets
Defense: Jake Bean ($3600) – Columbus Blue Jackets
Cash Considerations – DraftKings and FanDuel
Consider these NHL DFS plays for your cash lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel. Cash lineups do not need to be stacked, and it is recommended to play no more than two players from a given team.
Center: Connor McDavid – Edmonton Oilers
Wing: Alex Ovechkin – Washington Capitals
Defense: Jake Bean – Columbus Blue Jackets
Goalie: Ilya Samsonov – Washington Capitals
Player Props
This is a newly added section to the Friday Night Forecheck, where we will highlight some NHL player props that we like for the upcoming NHL slate.
Jakub Voraceck (CBJ): anytime goal scorer
Matt Boldy (MIN): over 0.5 points
Connor McDavid (EDM): anytime goal scorer AND over 1.5 points
Alexander Ovechkin (WSH): anytime goal scorer
Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Jon and the NHL team will be there answering questions right up until lock! Be sure to be on the look out for future articles at https://windailysports.com/daily-fantasy-hockey/
All line combinations are courtesy of www.dailyfaceoff.com, and any advanced rates referenced in the above article are pulled from www.naturalstattrick.com.
