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Welcome to the NHL DFS Man Advantage for Wednesday night January 20th! Tonight we have an odd 5 game slate tonight with only one early game and four late games.
We may only have one early game on this night but it is the marquee game on the slate as Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the rest of the Edmonton Oilers head to Toronto to take on Auston Matthews and the Leafs.
This game is the only game with a 6.5 O/U (at the time of writing) and it should be the focus of your lineups. I am not going to write up guys like McDavid and Matthews because we already know they are the guys you have to play, especially in cash. I will instead, give you options to fill in around those plays, or if you are MME and playing large field GPP’s, ways to be contrarian.
With the four remaining games on the slate, I am most interested in loading up on the Golden Knights, as usual, in their home matchup with the Coyotes. Arizona is a young team that is just not good enough to hang with Vegas on most nights and Wednesday might not be their not again. Also, after how many goals were scored Monday night between San Jose and St. Louis I am expecting a similar scoreline again.
NHL DFS Goalies:
Top Overall Goalie:
Cam Talbot ($7,800/$7,900)
Robin Lehner ($8,500/$8,600) is probably the real overall play for the night, but he will most likely be the chalk goalie on the night and as a GPP player I never like playing the chalk goalie. Talbot offers similar upside and will save you $700 as well. In Monday’s loss to the Ducks, Talbot made 26 saves on 27 shots and is facing the same Ducks team tonight. Talbot gets to face a Ducks team that has only scored 4 goals in their first three games, so the offense does not scare me. If Talbot doesn’t start I am still interested in Kappo Kahkonen ($7,600/$7,900) but I would probably switch to Carey Price ($8,000/$8,200) as my top goalie for GPP’s.
Other Options: Frederick Andersen ($8,100/$8,000)
Top Value Goalie:
John Gibson ($7,300/7,400)
Copy, Paste from Monday. Gibson is still one of the best goalies in the world and he showed that Monday night against the Wild in a 34 save shutout victory. I will be rolling Gibson out once again on Wednesday as my favorite goalie based on price. If Ryan Miller ($7,100/$7.400) starts then I am moving off the Anaheim goalie situation altogether and will actually be getting some Wild pieces into my lineups.
Other Options: Braden Holtby ($7,600/$7,300), Jordan Binnington (FD ONLY – $7,400)
NHL DFS- Forwards
Top Overall Center
Tomas Hertl ($6,200/$6,000)
No, technically Hertl is not the top overall center on this slate, but to me he slots in third tonight behind the duo of McDavid and Matthews. Early on, Hertl has been the Sharks best player picking up 3 goals and 3 assists in just three games while averaging over 21 minutes of ice time (which is a lot for a forward). Hertl centers the Sharks second line with Evander Kane ($6,600/$7,400) and rookie winger John Leonard ($3,500/$3,300). Both of these players have performed well for the Sharks as well combining for a goal and five assists in their three games paired up with Hertl.
Other Options: Draisaitl (EDM), Couture (SJ), Horvat (VAN), Suzuki (MTL), Tavares (TOR), O’Reilly (STL), Karlsson (VGK), Pettersson (VAN)
Top Value Center
Alex Kerfoot ($2,600/$4,400)
As I mentioned in the open, the Leafs and Oilers game carries the highest projected goal total and is a game we want exposure to. While the majority of people will flock to the big names we want to look for ways to be contrarian in some lineups. Kerfoot is one way to do it. Kerfoot projects at under 2% ownership while both McDavid and Matthews are projecting over 35%. Since picking up zero fantasy points in his first game, Kerfoot has managed to pick a goal and an assist and at least 4.5 fantasy points over both sites. Kerfoot centers the Leafs 3rd line with Ilya Mikheyev ($3,200/$3,500) and Zach Hyman ($4,200/$4,800).
Other Options: Stephenson (VGK), Schenn (STL), Kotkaniemi (MTL), Schmaltz (ARI), Rask (MIN), Gaudette (VAN), Thomas (STL)
Top Overall Wing
Max Pacioretty ($7,500/$8,300)
Another team we want to have exposure to is the Vegas Golden Knight and why not take their best player. On lineups where you want to fade the top stars in the Leafs/Oilers game the Knights is where you will want to spend your salary. Pacioretty has a goal in each of his teams first 3 games and is averaging 20 fantasy points per game on both sites. Patches plays wing on the Knights first line with Mark Stone ($6,700/$7,400) and Chandler Stephenson ($4,300/$3,800), which is my favorite line stack on tonight’s slate as well as the teams top power-play unit.
Other Options: Fiala (MIN), Nugent-Hopkins (EDM), Hoffman (STL), Marner (TOR), Miller (VAN), Gallagher (MTL), Nylander (TOR), Schwartz (STL), Rakell (ANH), Keller (ARI).
Top Value Wing
Jordan Kyrou ($2,800/$3,200)
In what is also a game I think will have plenty of goals, Kyrou is a really nice value piece and is having a hot start to the reason. St. Louis’ young winger has 2 goals and an assist as well as 6 shots on goal in his first 3 games this season. Kyrou was recently bumped up to the second line with Brayden Schenn ($4,100/$5,300) and Jayden Schwartz ($4,700/$5,700) making them one of my favorite mid tier stacks tonight.
Other Options: Comtois (ANH), R Smith (VGK), Tuch (VGK), Toffoli (MTL), Deslauriers (ANH), Pearson (VAN), Labanc (SJ), Yamamoto (EDM)
NHL DFS Defensemen Rankings:
Top Overall Defensemen
- Shea Theordore (VGK)
- Brent Burns (SJ)
- Alex Pietrangelo (VGK) — Are seeing a Vegas trend?
- Colton Parayko (STL)
- Alec Martinez (VGK) — Oh look, more Vegas
- Shea Weber (MTL)
- Quinn Hughes (VAN)
- Jeff Petry (MTL)
- Matt Dumba (MIN)
- Jakob Chychrun (ARI)
Top Value Defensemen
- Alexander Romanov (MTL) — play him, people still haven’t started playing him yet
- Jake Muzzin (TOR)
- Kevin Shattenkirk (ANH)
- Darnell Nurse (EDM)
- Joel Edmundson (MTL)
- Justin Holl (TOR)
- Zach Whitecloud (VGK)
- Slater Koekkoek (EDM)
- Mario Ferraro (SJ)
- Travis Hamonic (VAN)
NHL DFS Line Stacks
Top Overall Stack
As I mentioned numerous times in this article the top lines from both the Leafs and Oilers are the top overall plays, but when playing GPP’s you will want to be different and come off the chalk where you can, and I have a line that will go completely overlooked tonight but has a nice ceiling for their salary:
Montreal Canadiens Line 2
Josh Anderson($5,300/$4,600)/Nick Suzuki($5,400/$5,900)/Jonathan Drouin($4,600/$4,700)
Top Value Stack
Minnesota Wild Line 1
Kirill Kaprizov($5,400/$4,800)/Victor Rask($3,000/$3,200)/Zach Parise($4,400/$5,700)
I also am interested in the Wild’s second line tonight for value, especially if Gibson is out and Miller starts.
Thanks for reading this article on the NHL DFS Man Advantage for Wednesday, January 20th, 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.
