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Welcome to the NHL DFS Man Advantage for Monday night January 18th! Tonight we have a good-sized 8 game slate to kick off the second week of the NHL season.
When we have slates with this many games I like to pinpoint a few that I want to focus on, typically the games with the highest projected goal totals. Tonight we have three games with 6.5 over/under, with two of those games being from the Scotia NHL North Division (the All Canada Division). Both the Winnipeg @ Toronto and Vancouver @ Calgary go in carrying the high O/U and I will have a good amount of exposure to both games. I mentioned there were three games with the 6.5 O/U and that last game is Buffalo @ Philadelphia.
I expect Carter Hart to be relatively chalky in net, which means I will want to run back any Flyers stacks with a few Sabres. Philadelphia has been inexpensive to start the season, and while their prices have begun to creep up they are still underpriced.
NHL DFS Goalies:
Top Overall Goalie:
Juuse Saros (DK $7,900/FD $7,400)
Saros has had a great start to the season and it should continue tonight against the Hurricanes. Carolina had what should have been an easy start to the season in Detroit, but they came away 1-1 and the offense didn’t look as potent as we would have hoped. Saros stopped 71 of 74 shots faced in his first two starts in Columbus and Carolina only scored 5 goals on 74 shots of their own in the two games in Detroit. If Saros doesn’t get the nod tonight, I am fine swapping over to Pekka Rinne (DK $7,700/FD $7,400). If Saros doesn’t start, I would move my #1 overall goalie play to Cam Talbot ($8,000/$7,700). Talbot has a similar matchup with the Ducks that Saros has with the Canes. Los Angeles isn’t as high-powered of an offense as the Ducks are in my opinion and they managed 67 shots on goal in two games against Minnesota this weekend. Talbot stopped 61 of of 67 shots and earned the win in both games and I think the Wild get the win again tonight.
Other Options: Carter Hart (Phi), Robin Lehner (VGK), Jacob Markstrom (CGY) – These three should be the “chalk” among the goalies tonight along with Frederick Andersen (TOR) but I am fading him in favor of the Jets offense.
Top Value Goalie:
John Gibson ($7,400/$7,200)
Now I just mentioned that I think the Wild win tonight, but that is not a lock or something I would bet on. Anaheim has one of the best goalies in the world between the pipes in Gibson and he could easily shut down this Wild offense tonight. After a dud in the first game of the season, Gibson bounced back with an outstanding performance in an OT loss to the Knights on Saturday. Gibby stopped 31 of 33 shots from the potent Vegas offense on the road Saturday night and should have a similar or better night on Monday.
Other Options: Jake Allen (MTL), Braden Holtby (VAN), Linus Ullmark (BUF) – MME or LF GPP’s only
NHL DFS Forwards:
I will not give you the generic everyone is playing these guys in this section. If guys like McDavid, Matthews, Ovechkin, MacKinnon are on the slate we are playing them. I will find other forwards who may go overlooked and point them out here.
Top Center:
Mark Scheifele ($6,300/$7,500)
Scheifele is more of a DK play at his price there, but is still a solid GPP play to be different then the people who will flock to McDavid/Draisaitl. In the Jets only game this season, Scheifele picked up a goal and 6 shots on goal in 26+ minutes of ice time. Scheifele is one of the most underrated players in the NHL and often goes overlooked in DFS. I love stacking him tonight with the first power-play unit. Toronto is averaging over 4 power-plays allowed p/game in their first 3 games this season. Neal Pionk ($4,700/$4,900) is where I would start with a power-play stack for the Jets, and then work in one of the other forwards on that unit depending on your available salary.
Other Options: (in order of preference): McDavid (EDM), Matthews (TOR), Tavares (TOR), Draisaitl (EDM), Hayes (PHI), Eichel (BUF), Aho (CAR), O’Reilly (STL), Pettersson (VAN)
Top Value Center:
Phillip Danault ($3,900/$4,600)
Danuault centers the Canadiens top line, which has been on fire to start the season. This line torched the Oilers on Saturday and I am going right back to them tonight. Danault is a GPP only play because he is point dependent. He doesn’t offer much in the fringe stats and if he doesn’t score or pick up assists he will not score a ton of fantasy points. Danault did have two assists on Saturday night, and with how hot both Tomas Tatar ($5,900/$6,200) and Brendan Gallagher ($5,500/$7,200) have been to start the season I am taking a chance the hot streak continues tonight.
Other Options: Frost (PHI), Sissons (NSH), E. Staal (BUF), Henrique (ANH), Kerfoot (TOR), Rask (MIN), Eriksson Ek (MIN), Kotkaniemi (MTL), Bozak (STL)
Top Winger:
Matthew Tkachuk ($6,900/$6,100)
While I like Tkachuk’s price on both sites, I LOVE him on FanDuel today. Tkachuk has been the best player early on for the Flames this season and I expect it to continue tonight. In two games this season the Flames winger has two goals and assist, as well 10 shots on goal, and is averaging over 21 fantasy points P/game on both sites. Tkachuk will be part of a Flames power-play stack for me tonight.
Other Options: Fiala (MIN), Nugent-Hopkins (EDM), Pacioretty (VGK), Stone (VGK), Connor (WPG), E. Kane (SJ), Forsberg (NSH), Ehlers (WPG), Meier (SJ), Marner (TOR), Miller (VAN) – 1st game of the season for him after COVID list, Gaudreau (CGY)
Top Value Winger:
Zach Sanford ($3,200/$4,700)
Just like Tkachuk, Sanford is better being played on one site over the other, in this case, it’s DraftKings. Sanford has been moved up to the top line for the Blues in a matchup with a poor (that’s me being polite) defensive team in the Sharks tonight. Sandford has incredible upside for his price and will be part of a line 1 stack for me tonight with David Perron and Ryan O’Reilly.
Other Options: Lindblom (PHI), R. Smith (VGK), Tuch (VGK), Mangiapane (CGY), Schenn (STL), Pearson (VAN), Hoglander (VAN), Hyman (TOR)
NHL DFS Defensemen Rankings:
I will ALWAYS try and pair up my defensemen as part of some type of stack. Generally, I only try to play defensemen who see power-play minutes. Most night dmen do not offer enough upside to play them alone, and if you think they will have a good fantasy night that means the forwards they play with will be scoring and you will want to have them in your lineups as well.
Top Defensemen Rankings:
- Shea Theodore (VGK)
- Roman Josi (NSH)
- Alex Pietrangelo (VGK)
- Jake Muzzin (TOR)
- Jakob Chychrun (ARI)
- Colton Parayko (STL)
- Matt Dumba (MIN)
- Dougie Hamilton (CAR)
- Rasmus Andersson (CGY)
- Quinn Hughes (VAN)
Top Value Defensemen Rankings:
- Joel Edmundson (MTL)
- Zach Whitecloud (VGK)
- Jonas Brodin (MIN)
- Travis Hamonic (VAN)
- Justin Holl (TOR)
- Jake McCabe (BUF)
- Mattias Ekholm (NSH)
- Mario Ferraro (SJ)
- Ethan Bear (EDM)
- Brett Kulak (MTL)
NHL DFS Line Stacks:
Top Overall Line Stack (Not mentioned above)
Vegas Golden Knights L1
Max Pacioretty($7,500/$7,800)/Chandler Stephenson($4,000/$3,300)Mark Stone($7,000/$7,700)
Top Value Line Stack:
St. Louis Blues Line 3
Tyler Bozak($2,700/3,700)/Robert Thomas($3,200/$4,300)/Mike Hoffman($4,200/$5,700)
Thanks for reading this article on the NHL DFS Man Advantage for Monday January 18th 2021. 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.
