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The NHL season continues to roll, as we have entered the last month of the season. Tonight gives us a juicy five game slate, with some very interesting spots for leverage. Let’s find the best NHL DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Good luck!
Goalies
Darcy Kuemper – Colorado Avalanche: The Avalanche head to Winnipeg tonight for a game against the Jets. This is a good spot for Kuemper, who has been a bit inconsistent this year, but has been playing well recently. On the road means a little bit of risk, and we can expect him to give up a couple of goals tonight. However, the shot upside should be there to counter the goals he lets in.
Ilya Sorokin – New York Islanders: The Islanders look to get Sorokin back in net tonight, and that’s a big boost for them. They head to Carolina tonight to take on the Hurricanes, who are notorious for throwing low danger shots at the net from everywhere. Those shots end up being saves, which can help pad a save total for any goalie against them. Carolina has also been struggling a bit lately, playing .500 hockey over their last five games. This game seems like it is going to be tight and low scoring, so if you aren’t comfortable with Sorokin, you can play the other side with Frederik Andersen.
High Risk GPP Goalie Pick – Linus Ullmark – Boston Bruins: The Bruins head to Tampa tonight to take on the Lightning in a game that they can definitely win. Tampa has a whole has been struggling recently, much like Carolina, and this looks like a nice upside spot for Ullmark.
Note: The above plays are geared for GPP. For cash, ownership dictates that we should be playing Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida Panthers).
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).
Florida Panthers 1 – Aleksander Barkov/Carter Verhaeghe/Anthony Duclair/Mackenzie Weegar: The Panthers have the best matchup on the board tonight, boasting a massive 4.9 implied total, against the Sabres and Dustin Tokarski. The top line matchup is the best one, and people may shy away from playing Duclair or Verhaeghe. If you choose to go power play look here with Barkov/Huberdeau and then someone like Giroux or Weegar, that is hard to argue.
Colorado Avalanche 1 – Nathan MacKinnon/Mikko Rantanen/Valeri Nichushkin/Cale Makar: We have seen Hellebuyck for the Jets be very inconsistent this season, and this looks like a perfect time to take advantage. This top line should see a bulk of the chances tonight and is in a prime spot.
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).
Boston Bruins 1 – Patrice Bergeron/Brad Marchand/Jake Debrusk/Charlie McAvoy: As mentioned above, the Bruins head to Tampa tonight to face a struggling Lightning team and goaltender. Vasilevskiy’s GAA over his last five games is a whopping 3.77, and the Lightning are giving up 3.4 goals per game over their last five home games. This is a formula for success for this line tonight, and the top line should be the focus. However, if Pastrnak should return to the lineup, it would put the second line of Haula/Hall/Pastrnak in play as well. The top line should see the Point line for a majority of the night, in a plus matchup.
Buffalo Sabres 1 – Tage Thompson/Alex Tuch/Jeff Skinner/Rasmus Dahlin: The Sabres are on the road, on a back to back, and heavy underdogs. This creates a heavy leverage spot for the deeper GPP players. Sergei Bobrovsky looks to get the start tonight in net for the Panthers, and his GAA over his last five starts is a massive 4.64.
Carolina Hurricanes 3 – Jordan Staal/Nino Niederreiter/Jesper Fast: This third line should match the top line for the Isles tonight. As much as this line isn’t exactly a scoring line, they should have some chances against the Isles tonight. Because they are a third line, they are high risk due to ice time.
St. Louis Blues 2 – Robert Thomas/Vladimir Tarasenko/Pavel Buchnevich: The Blues host the Wild tonight in a decent matchup for a line that has been hot recently. Talbot for the Wild has been average, so this line should continue to roll.
NHL DFS Honorable Mentions: TBL1, CAR1, WPG1, WPG2, MIN1
Value Options – DraftKings
Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on DraftKings. Be sure to stack!
Center: Erik Haula ($3400) – Boston Bruins
Wing: Nino Niederreiter ($2600) – Carolina Hurricanes
Defense: Mattias Samuelsson ($2500) – Buffalo Sabres
Value Options – FanDuel
Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on FanDuel. Be sure to stack!
Center: Seth Jarvis ($4100) – Carolina Hurricanes
Wing: Ondrej Palat ($4300) – Tampa Bay Lightning
Defense: Mattias Samuelsson ($4000) – Buffalo Sabres
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: Aleksander Barkov – Florida Panthers
Wing: Mikko Rantanen – Colorado Avalanche
Defense: Victor Hedman – Tampa Bay Lightning
Goalie: Sergei Bobrovsky – Florida Panthers
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.
Brad Marchand (BOS): anytime goal scorer
Nathan MacKinnon (COL): anytime goal scorer
Robert Thomas (STL): anytime goal scorer
Mikko Rantanen (COL): over 1.5 points
Vladimir Tarasenko (STL): over 0.5 points
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.
