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It’s Friday! You know what that means…another Friday Night Forecheck! We have five games on the slate tonight, with a few interesting matchups. Let’s find the best NHL DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Good luck!
Goalies
Jacob Markstrom – Calgary Flames: The Flames host Arizona tonight in what should be a dominant game for them. The Coyotes have been scoring a little more of late, but they also bleed goals. With the way Markstrom has been playing, he should be in line for a nice night against a poor Coyotes team.
Pavel Francouz – Colorado Avalanche: The Avalanche host the Flyers tonight in what should be an ‘easy’ win. The Flyers have struggled to string wins together, and have been especially bad on the road over their last five road games. During that stretch, they have only scored 2.6 goals per game.
High Risk GPP Goalie Pick – Igor Shesterkin – New York Rangers: Our friend Igor has burned us recently, as he was shaky over the last few starts. Tonight, he faces a Pittsburgh team that looks like they are getting primed for the playoffs. For that reason, this is a high risk, high upside play. This game looks like it will be a grind it out affair that will be tightly contested. The shot volume should be good for DFS, and on home ice, Igor should be a little more steady.
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).
Calgary Flames Power Play – Elias Lindholm/Johnny Gaudreau/Matthew Tkachuk/Tyler Toffoli/Rasmus Andersson: The Flames’ power play is in a fantastic spot tonight against one of the worst penalty killing teams in the league. This setup is essentially the top line, and Toffoli on the top line is very, very interesting. Either way you slice it, this unit should be in for a big night.
Colorado Avalanche Power Play – Nathan MacKinnon/Nazem Kadri/Valeri Nichushkin/Mikko Rantanen/Cale Makar: Playing the power play unit in this spot is how we can get access to both top lines in very good spots. The Flyers come into Colorado tonight, on the second half of a traveling back to back. Bad Flyers team, plus they may be tired, means a big opportunity for this well-oiled Colorado machine.
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).
Winnipeg Jets 2 – Pierre-Luc Dubois/Kyle Connor/Evgeny Svechnikov/Josh Morrissey: This line is set up for a nice night tonight against the Blue Jackets. They should see the majority of the second line in a top six matching scheme. The game overall should be pretty high scoring, as we have Merzlikins vs. Comrie tonight. For those into the sports betting, o6.5 for this game seems like a good bet, and is -125 on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Calgary Flames 3 – Calle Jarnkrok/Andrew Mangiapane/Blake Coleman/Noah Hanifin: This third line for the Flames is also in a very, very good spot, and is a great way to get low owned exposure to a massive implied total. They also all skate on the second power play unit. Of course, being a depth line, there is a bunch of risk here. With their value, though, they don’t need much to pay off and then some.
Washington Capitals 1 – Evgeny Kuznetsov/Alex Ovechkin/Marcus Johansson/John Carlson: The Caps head to Buffalo tonight to face the Sabres and Dustin Tokarski. While Tokarski has decent numbers over his last five, he is not what we would consider a top tier goalie. Washington should be able to put together some scoring tonight.
Buffalo Sabres 1 – Tage Thompson/Alex Tuch/Jeff Skinner/Rasmus Dahlin: The Sabres’ top line is in play simply for the goalie matchup. Samsonov for the Caps is not a scary goalie, and this top line has been surprisingly decent this year.
Columbus Blue Jackets 1 – Jack Roslovic/Gustav Nyquist/Patrik Laine/Zach Werenski: We can also consider the top line for the Blue Jackets tonight, especially since this game looks like it will be higher scoring.
NHL DFS Honorable Mentions: PIT1, NYRPP, PHIPP
Value Options – DraftKings
Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on DraftKings. Be sure to stack!
Center: Calle Jarnkork ($2800) – Calgary Flames
Wing: Marcus Johansson ($2900) – Washington Capitals
Defense: Brian Dumoulin ($2700) – Pittsburgh Penguins
Value Options – FanDuel
Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on FanDuel. Be sure to stack!
Center: Cole Sillinger ($4200) – Columbus Blue Jackets
Wing: Marcus Johansson ($4100) – Washington Capitals
Defense: Brian Dumoulin ($4100) – Pittsburgh Penguins
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: Nathan MacKinnon – Colorado Avalanche
Wing: Kyle Connor – Winnipeg Jets
Defense: Rasmus Andersson – Calgary Flames
Goalie: Jacob Markstrom – Calgary Flames
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.
