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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 everyone! After a long weekend full of NFL, turkey, and shopping let’s get back some of that money you laid out.
Tonight we have an appetizing four-game slate featuring a matchup of two of the league’s worst (Seattle @ Buffalo) and two of the league’s hottest teams (Pittsburgh @ Calgary). It’s an all Canada affair when Vancouver (2nd night of a back-to-back) travels to Montreal. And last, Arizona goes from the desert’s of the Southwest to the frozen lands of Winnipeg
NHL DFS: Goaltenders
Tristan Jarry ( @ Calgary)
Right now there is no goalie hotter in the NHL than Tristan Jarry. Dating back to November 18th (5 starts), Jarry has allowed just two goals while earning himself three shutouts. Jarry is facing an average of 28.6 SOG per game and making an average of 28.2 saves per game during this stretch as well. During his five-game unbeaten streak, Jarry went into Toronto and shut them out and won at Winnipeg allowing just one goal. In his last game, Jarry shut out the rival New York Islanders. I am finally confident that Jarry is a top-end goalie in this league. Hopefully, he doesn’t decide tonight is the night to resort back to a pumpkin.
Seattle @ Buffalo
I like both goaltenders in this game, well only if Dustin Tokarski starts for Buffalo. At the same time, both offenses are in play. Tokarski has had a couple of solid starts back-to-back for the Sabres and should have another against Seattle who averages just 2.76 goals per game on the season. As for Philipp Grubauer, he could also have a great night for the Kraken in Buffalo. Before the 3-0 loss to Tampa on Friday, Grubauer has two great starts in a row. Grubauer won both games and stopped 35 and 37 shots in those starts. On a small slate, it is hard to be different and while I think both goalies in this game could be popular, it might just be the right way to go and find ways to be different with your skaters since the options will be more vast there.
Other Options: Jacob Markstrom ( vs Pitt), Jake Allen ( vs Van)
NHL DFS: Slate Overview
Teams to build around:
Ready to take flight:
Winnipeg has, on paper, the easiest matchup on this slate with Arizona coming into town. While they have been better of late, Winnipeg has one of the best top 6 in the league. We will need to wait and see what their lines look like after morning skate, but going off of the projected lines from Dailyfaceoff.com, I love both of their top two lines tonight. Kyle Connor projects as the top player on this slate and comes into tonight with 6 goals in his last 10 and is averaging nearly 5 shots on goal per game (4.9) during this stretch. Hopefully, he stays on the top line with Pierre-Luc Dubois who himself has seven points in the team’s last ten games while averaging 3.4 SOG per game. Evgeny Svechnikov is min price on DK and near min on FD and has three assists and 16 SOG in his last ten. His numbers aren’t as great as the other two, but he is someone whose salary makes it easier to fit other top players in your builds while getting time on a team’s top line. Line one is my preferred choice from the Jets, you can always run a line two stack, or go with a defenseman. Winnipeg has three min-priced (DK) dmen in Stanley/Dillon/Demelo who all block shots and occasionally get on the scoreboard, but Josh Morrissey might be my favorite play on the point for Winnipeg. He is way too cheap on DK($3.6K) and plays over 21 minutes per game. Morrissey also sees time on the Jets’ second PP unit with Dubois.
A new regime for Les Habitants!
Montreal cleaned out their top management on Sunday and will enter a new era starting Monday night. Even though this doesn’t directly affect the players we tend to see teams come out strong in their first game after a mid-season shakeup in the organization. Players know that the new regime could be looking to make some trades and move players so they want to show their worth and at home against a team coming off a loss last night is a spot to do it. Montreal put up 6 on Pittsburgh on Saturday, and could easily do the same on Monday night.
There is no place better to start on this team than with their top line of Tyler Toffoli, Christian Dvorak, and Josh Anderson. All three have been on fire in the Canadiens last five games totaling seven goals and eight assists combined. They are also a fairly inexpensive line on both sites. Toffoli has the highest salary of all three ($4.7/$5.3) and both Anderson and Dvorak come in under $4.5K on both FD and DK. Both Artturi Lehkonen and Cole Caufield have been playing well on the Habs’ third line, with Lehkonen being the better of the two. Lehkonen has three goals in his last five and is averaging over three shots on goal per game.
As for the defense, both Ben Chiarot and Sami Niku see time on the second PP unit with Dvorak, Anderson, and Caufield so they are in play. Niku is another min-priced dman on this slate who is in play and Chiarot himself is not expensive either. Jeff Petry plays on the top PP unit, but his production has not matched his salary lately but he can have a breakout game at any time, so if you are feeling lucky and want to take the risk, Petry is a good play.
Where else to look?
Some of the other options on this small slate that we can go tonight include in the late game, Pittsburgh at Calgary. I do think both goalies are in good spots, but I also think neither get a shutout.
If Bryan Rust is still out for Pittsburgh, then Evan Rodrigues presents some great value playing on the top line with Crosby and Guentzel as well as playing on the top PP unit with them and Jeff Carter and Kris Letang. Speaking of Carter, line two is also a solid play with him centering Kasperi Kapanen and Jason Zucker. Both Brian Dumoulin and John Marino are good value dmen.
Looking at Calgary, their top line is the obvious pay-up spot in this game, but you cannot sleep on the second line and goal-scoring extraordinaire Andrew Mangiapane. His salary is starting to creep up into the territory where we can’t play him anymore, but he is still viable for tonight. As are Mangiapane’s linemates, Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman. On defense, Noah Hanifin is a good mid-priced option, and both Erik Gudbranson and Chris Tanev make for good value plays.
If you aren’t playing Grubauer, then Buffalo’s top line is a good stack that might actually be low-owned tonight. Tage Thompson has been on fire as a goal-per-game player in his last five, but don’t sleep on both Dylan Cozens and Kyle Okposo from the Sabres third line either. Rasmus Dahlin is the pay-up dman from Buffalo, but I like both Mark Pysyk and Robert Hagg as cheap options from this team.
*** Make sure to check into Discord later in the day on Monday for any line changes and updates for this slate! ***
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.
