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Welcome to the NHL DFS Man Advantage for the 2021-22 season.
If you are new to my articles, NHL, or WinDaily Sports then I will tell you that my articles are not going to give you the chalk plays or the obvious plays. I try to dig in and find ways for you to build lineups for GPP contests. I will always point out those top plays to help you build cash but that is not the point of this article.
Happy Monday!
First, I want to say thank you to all the readers out there who read my articles for both NASCAR and NHL since this is my 200th article for WinDaily Sports. I have written hundreds of articles before coming here but this is the best group of both content providers and subscribers that I have been around!
Now onto the reason, you’re all here, the six-game NHL slate. This is a rare larger Monday slate with the last few weeks only having 2-3 games each. This entire week is a little upside down with the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. on Thursday. Tuesday’s slate will be more like the Monday slates we’ve seen, so let’s dig in for this slate and keep our hot streak rolling!
This is a loaded back-end slate with only one game starting before 8 pm EST. Columbus is in Buffalo, who is coming off a heartbreaking loss with .4 seconds left against the Rangers on Sunday night. We should see Dustin Tokarski in net for the Sabres since Dell started Sunday. Tokarski had been the better goalie for Buffalo, but over the club’s last ten games he has been horrible. Columbus is going to be a spot where we can start our builds, but with both Colorado and Carolina playing later in the night we will have plenty of options when building on Monday.
Multiple Lineup Building
This is a slate where I will recommend building multiple lineups and going into the three entry max contests on DraftKings. There are plenty of different ways to build on this slate focusing on three core teams to build around like we did last Tuesday. We have five of the top 10 power-play units in the league on this slate and three of the worst penalty kills in the league as well.
Colorado is the top team for me on this slate at home against Ottawa. The Senators allow the second-most shots on goal per game, are 4th worst in goals against and have the 5th worst penalty kill in the league. Colorado is a top 10 power-play and also has the best shooting % in the league. This matchup shapes up to be a huge night for Colorado and that is where will start our builds. I will get more into the Avs later as well as my other two teams to build around, but let’s get into goalies!
NHL DFS: Goaltenders
Goaltending is tough tonight honestly. Some of the top plays have matchups that are not great for them fantasy-wise. Either because their salary doesn’t warrant their potential workload, or because they just won’t see enough shots to make value. But we have to play one, so here is where I am at.
Frederick Andersen ( @ San Jose)
Andersen is priced similarly on both sites ($8.0K/$8.4K) and could make value depending on his defense on Monday. Los Angeles peppered Andersen on Saturday with 43 shots allowing him to have a monster night even though he allowed four goals. Unfortunately, San Jose does not shoot the puck a lot as LA does. The Sharks rank towards the bottom of the league averaging just over 28 shots per game. On the positive, San Jose also has one of the worst shooting %s in the league at under 10%. Andersen is not in an outstanding spot, but for his price and matchup, we could do much worse on this slate.
Tristan Jarry @ Connor Hellebuyck
This is an odd occurrence, but I have an interest in both goaltenders from this game tonight. Both teams shoot the puck, a lot. Pittsburgh leads the league with 35.5 SOG per game and Winnipeg isn’t far behind with 32.06. Neither team is that prolific at putting the puck in the net this season with shooting %s under 10% for both, Pittsburgh being much worse at 8.28%. Jarry is coming off back-to-back shutouts so he could be due for a “letdown” but Winnipeg has only been averaging 3 goals per game in their last five and has only scored 3 goals in their last two games combined. Pittsburgh is starting to heat up with two straight wins and scoring eight goals in those two games. Jarry ($7.6/$7.5) would be my preference on both sites because of the potential win bonus and price, but Hellebuyck ($7.8/$8.1) is a great play as well if you have the salary.
Robin Lehner ( @ St. Louis)
I know a lot of people will probably end up wanting to play St. Louis, and I may even have some exposure myself, but Lehner does make sense from a fantasy aspect. St. Louis has been putrid over their last ten games, which is one reason I am on Lehner tonight. The Blues had a hot start to their season, but since the start of November they have lost seven of ten games, are scoring just 2.7 goals per game, and averaging 35.5 shots on goal. Lehner has also been seeing a lot of shots, only two games in his last ten has the Vegas netminder seen less than 33.
Other Options: Darcy Kuemper ( vs Ott), John Gibson (@ NSH)
NHL DFS: Slate Overview
Teams to build around:
Colorado Avalanche ( vs Ottawa)
I already mentioned a lot of reasons to love the Avs in the open, so I will keep this short. Play the Avalanche. There you go, you’re welcome
No, but seriously this matchup shapes up to be a huge fantasy night for a lot of players on this team. Both Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog are in play tonight, but they are going to set you back a huge amount of salary and they have been outproduced by the cheap second line over the Av’s last five games. The line of Nazem Kadri, Valerie Nichushkin, and Andre Burakovsky. Not only have they outproduced the first line, but all three cost less than both Rantanen and Landeskog combined. In their last five games, this line has eight of the Avs’ 24 goals with Burakovsky leading the way with five. Burakovsky and Kadri both play on the top power-play with Landeskog and Rantanen as well as Cale Makar. I will be rostering different members of this PP unit in almost all of my lineups, but I will switch out Makar for different defensemen depending on my salary needs.
Makar is the best option, but he is expensive. Devon Toews plays the most minutes and sees time on PP2 and the Pk, Erik Johnson is a shot-blocking machine and is also getting plenty of rubber on net as well giving him the peripheral points, and Samuel Girard is also on PP2 with Toews and has been good offensively of late.
Carolina Hurricanes ( @ San Jose)
I mentioned Seth Jarvis in discord on Saturday and he did not disappoint so I am mentioning him here again. Jarvis is seeing his price creep up slowly, but he is still super cheap for his output and the fact he skates on the top line. I love this play tonight paired with the high-priced Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov. You will have to decide whether you want Car1 or Col1 because there is no way to fit both, but you can fit them in with Col2 easily. You will just need to find a value stack to go with them and we have plenty of those. Jarvis has three goals in his last five, and Aho and Svech have benefited by scoring a combined three goals and seven assists in that stretch. If you wanted to add a defenseman to this stack, I would substitute Svechnikov out for either Tony DeAngelo or Jaccob Slavin. DeAngelo plays on the top PP with Aho while Slavin is on the second unit with Jarvis. Slavin sees over 5 minutes more ice time than DeAngelo and projects for almost the same point total at a much lower price on both sites. Brady Skjei is another defenseman who sees more time than DeAngelo and is cheaper than both he and Slavin you can consider.
Columbus Blue Jackets ( @ Buffalo)
Columbus is the third team I want to build around on Monday night and will probably be the lowest owned of the bunch. I don’t see the Blue Jackets being overly popular with teams like the Canes, Avs, Penguins, and Blues on the slate even though they are in Buffalo. Columbus’ top line is a great place to start any build, but if you are trying to fit this team in with the Canes and Avs then you will need to look at their second line. Cole Sillinger has cooled off of late, but he is still centering line 2 and the top power-play unit. Jakub Voracek is a nice piece to pair with Sillinger for a two-man stack and is way too cheap, especially on DK, for his point-per-game production over the team’s last five games. Lastly, Yegor Chinakov is near min price on both sites and is a good cheap play to make higher-priced stacks work.
I will still have exposure to the top line of Oliver Bjorkstrand, Gustav Nyquist, and Boone Jenner. Bjorkstrand is the only player on that line over $6K on either site so they are an affordable line as well. On defense, Zach Werenski is the top play, but he is expensive. If you need to save some salary, then both Jake Bean and Vladislav Gavrikov are the way to go from Columbus. Both of them block shots, get shots on goal, and have added assists over the club’s last five games. Neither sees PP time, but they are both averaging over 20 minutes of ice time so that is not an issue for me.
Value Stacks:
Even though I like Lehner tonight, St. Louis 3 pops out as a cheap stack that could be fruitful. I like using Brandon Saad with Ivan Barbashev as a two-man or add in a cheap dman like Marco Scandella for a full three-man. If you have the salary, then a PP1 stack of David Perron and Vladimir Tarasenko with Saad projects higher, but that is nearly double the salary of the 3rd line stack.
Pittsburgh’s second PP unit is another good cheap stack tonight. I know we try to stay on PP1’s but if you need the salary relief, Kasperi Kapanen skates on line 2 with Jeff Carter and is on the second unit. Both Danton Heinen and Evan Rodrigues are cheap pieces for a three-man stack. Both Jason Zucker and dman John Marino fit for this stack as well.
Any combination of Troy Terry/Adam Henrique/Ryan Getzlaf paired up with Cam Fowler make for a low-priced (relatively speaking) Anaheim 1 stack against Nashville tonight. This team is still hot and Nashville is not a team that should shut them down.
Vegas 1, Winnipeg 2, and Nashville 1 are mid-priced stacks that you can look at if you are going with multiple lineups and only use one of Carolina or Colorado in those builds.
Thanks for reading this article on the NHL DFS Man Advantage for today. 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! W cover all things Fantasy Sports and make sure to check out WinDailySports.com for more money-making content.
