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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.
It’s officially here, the opening of the 2021-22 season in the NHL! We start the season off with a small two-game slate. In the early game, we have the 2x Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning raising their banner against an injury-plagued Pittsburgh Penguins. The late-game focuses on the last two expansion teams as Vegas hosts newcomers to the league, the Seattle Kraken.
Five Seattle players (McCann, Johansson, Oleksiak, Jarnkrok, and Donskoi) entered into the league’s COVID protocol on Monday making them unavailable for Tuesday’s game. This certainly changes things both in real life and in fantasy. Vegas was already a huge favorite but this gives them a big bump. If you are playing cash games then Vegas will be where to pay up.
As for the early game, Tampa is the obvious favorite here. Pittsburgh will be without both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on Tuesday which puts them in a hole. While the Penguins do have some depth, they don’t have enough to potentially compete with this Lightning team. I expect Andrei Vasilevskiy ($8K, $8.7K) to be the go-to play in net, especially on DraftKings. If you are playing one lineup or single entry I won’t talk you off playing Vasilevskiy, but he won’t be my top goalie for GPP’s.
NHL DFS: Goaltenders
Usually, in this section, I will give you my favorite cash game goalie and a GPP play. With only two games and with two obvious plays in net (Vasilevskiy and Robin Lehner [$8.2K/$8.4K]) instead, I will discuss the merit of playing the other two goalies in GPP’s.
Tristan Jarry ($7.4K/$7.9K)
Jarry is facing a fully healthy Lightning team and he will most likely be the lowest owned goalie on this slate. I don’t love Jarry but I will be playing up to 10 lineups on this slate and will probably have 20-30% exposure to Jarry. Tampa Bay was tied for 9th in the NHL in shots for and that is one of the top stats we look for when picking goalies in DFS. We want goalies who will get work and have the opportunity to make saves, and Jarry will most likely see the most shots on Tuesday.
Philipp Grubauer ($7K/$7.3K)
Grubauer is the cheapest goalie on both sites so he will get ownership on that basis alone I believe. Vegas, like Tampa, shoots a lot so Grubauer will see a lot of rubber coming his way. Grubauer only faced 31 shots in the preseason, but he stopped 29 of those shots. I won’t fall back on the stats for Grubauer from last season because they were with one of the top defensive teams in the league, Colorado, but this season he is with an expansion team who will have their bumps along the way.
NHL DFS: Slate Overview
On a Small Slate Like This, You Need to Dig Deep!
With the Tampa Bay top power-play unit being the top play on this slate, we will need to find ways to be different if you want to takedown a GPP.
NHL DFS is very similar to MLB DFS where you need to stack in GPP’s. Also similar to MLB, people are deathly afraid to stack players at the bottom of the lineup (3rd and 4th lines in NHL). This is where you can sometimes find the advantage you need on small slates. Looking at this slate, there is one third line that has me intrigued.
This line will be the forgotten line in the chalk Vegas lineups. Unfortunately, Janmark is also in the NHL’s COVID protocol so we will have to see who plays on this line in his spot.
Both Patrick and Dadonov are looking for a new start this season and I think Vegas is the perfect place for them both. This line is also super cheap on both sites ($10.9K combined) which is what we need if you want to stack the Tampa first power-play unit. What makes both Patrick and Dadonov intriguing is the fact they are expected to skate on the top power-play unit for the Golden Knights. You can run three forwards and add in Mark Stone or Mac Pacioretty or you can go with a defenseman in Shea Theodore if you have the salary for these guys that is.
What to do With Seattle
Seattle is an interesting team on Tuesday night. I assume they will be the lowest own team on the slate and we get some exceptional value with them. With all the players going into the NHL COVID protocol, there should be some players seeing minutes we didn’t expect, one of those is Morgan Geekie ($2.8K/$3.0K). With Jared McCann likely out now, Geekie COULD see first-line minutes and power-play time with the top unit. Seattle let Geekie play in three preseason games and averaged over 12 minutes per game. We will have to wait until morning skate on Tuesday to see where he lines up. Make sure to check in discord throughout the day for updates on Seattle’s lines.
I also like both the Penguins top two lines if you want game stack the TB/Pit game. Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen are inexpensive players that give you exposure to the Penguins top power-play unit.
NHL DFS: Defensemen
With this being just a two-game slate, I will show you who the power-play defensemen are for the four teams since we will want to focus on getting them into our lineups first.
Tampa Bay: PP1: Victor Hedman ($6.3/$6.7K), PP2: Mikhail Sergachev ($3.4K/$4.8K) – Sergachev is a great value pivot for DK
Pittsburgh: PP1: Kris Letang ($5.8K), PP2: Marcus Pettersson ($2.7K/$3.5K), John Marino ($4.3K/Not on FanDuel)
Vegas: PP1: Shea Theodore ($5.7K/$6.2K), PP2: Alec Martinez ($5.5K/$4.6K), Alex Pietrangelo ($6K/$6.4K) – Martinez is one of the best FPTS/$ plays on this slate for FD.
Seattle: PP1: Mark Giordano ($5.6K/$4.6K) – Again, like with Martinez, Gio is one of the best FPTS/$ plays on this slate. PP2: Vince Dunn ($4.9K/$4.5K)
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 for all things Fantasy Sports and make sure to check out WinDailySports.com for more money-making content.
