NHL DFS

We have arrived at the two week mark! There are just two full weeks left in the regular season for NHL. Tonight’s slate is just a two-gamer, so tonight’s Forecheck is going to look a little different. Instead of our traditional article, this will be a game by game breakdown. Let’s find the best NHL DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Good luck!

Slate Notes

Two games makes a tough NHL DFS slate, no doubt about it. You will have to nail it to have success, and there are a couple of approaches. The first approach is an onslaught stack lineup. This approach is where you pick your favorite team and play as many players as possible from the lineup. Be sure to get some exposure to depth players to make your lineup unique.

The second approach is a mini game stack approach, where you pick the highest scoring game and stack it, and fill in with your favorites from the second game. Your goalie will also come from the second game, correlating with those favorites.

As much as possible, you want to still avoid stacking against your goalie in your lineup. Negative correlation is never good, no matter the size of the slate.

If you are uncomfortable playing the two game slate, you can attack the showdown slate using our NHL DFS Showdown Strategy Guide for guidance.

Remember, volatility is a big part of these very small slates, so be sure to play a little lighter than normal, and we do NOT recommend playing cash games tonight. Of course, you could fade such a small and volatile slate, but where’s the fun in that?!

Game 1: New York Islanders @ Montreal Canadiens

Implied Vegas Totals: NYI 3.1 / MON 2.6

Tale of the Tape: The Islanders come into this matchup 2-3 over their last five games, while Montreal is a measly 1-4. Tonight will be an emotional matchup for both sides of this game. On the Islanders’ side, a legend of their franchise, Mike Bossy, passed away today. On the Canadiens’ side of things, Carey Price returns to the crease for the first time in almost two years away from the game. More on that later.

The Islanders are the better team here, and on paper, they should come out of this one with a win. However, they have not been very good on the road, and they are a long shot for a wild card berth in the playoffs. This game is almost meaningless, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in playing it for NHL DFS purposes.

Montreal could surprise us here and ride an emotional wave to a win. We will definitely want some Habs in our lineups tonight.

Goalie Matchup: Semyon Varlamov (probable) vs. Carey Price (CONFIRMED!!)

There is a lot of importance to the goalie matchup here. Carey Price returns to the Montreal crease tonight after taking time away from the game. This is a massive development, and as a fan of the game, it is SO NICE to see him battle his way back. He was dealing with a ton, and to make a return to the game on home ice is a huge deal! The Montreal crowd will definitely welcome him back with wide open arms tonight, and this should be an emotional game for him.

From a DFS standpoint, it is hard to say how Carey will look tonight. He is worth a shot in a couple of lineups thanks to his raw talent, but who knows how much rust will be there. This is a great time for the Habs to ease him back into normal game play, with their season officially not moving into the postseason.

Varlamov should get the start for the Isles, as they are on a back to back, and Sorokin went last night. Varly has had a rough go of it recently, sporting a whopping 4.58 GAA over his last five games.

Lines to Target

NYI1 – Brock Nelson/Anders Lee/Anthony Beauvillier/Noah Dobson: The Isles’ top line is definitely in play here. The Canadiens don’t do too much in the way of hard matching, so they will have their chances.

MON1 – Nick Suzuki/Cole Caufield/Josh Anderson/Jeff Petry: The same thing goes for this line, as there is not a lot of matching that is done. The top line will see their chances as well, and have a slight advantage tonight.

Others to Consider: MON3, NYI2 are both in play in this game as well, but the top lines should be the ones to shine tonight.

Value

Jake Evans (C)

JG Pageau (W)

Chris Wideman (D)

Rem Pitlick (W)

Alexander Romanov (D)

Game 2: Winnipeg Jets @ Florida Panthers

Implied Vegas Totals: WPG 2.5 / FLA 4.2

Tale of the Tape: This game has a lot more as far as meaning tonight. The Jets essentially have to win out to make the playoffs, as they are in a very tight race in the West. The Jets are also missing a couple of key players on offense, which hurts them, but they will still be playing aggressively. On the other side, the Panthers are vying for the President’s Trophy (most points in the league) and the top spot in the East for the playoffs. They have already clinched a playoff spot.

Look for this game to be a little higher paced than the other game. Winnipeg had a game cancelled the other night and come into this well rested. With their playoff hopes on the line for the next two weeks, they will be playing to win. This game is almost going to have a playoff feel, and frankly, it could go either way. The Jets come in playing .500 hockey, while the Panthers have not lost in their last five games, and have been scoring like crazy. If you can find the value, this is the game to stack.

Goalie Matchup: Connor Hellebuyck (Likely) vs. Sergei Bobrovsky (Confirmed)

The goalies in this game have been…well…not great. Both Bob and Helly are sporting a GAA over 3 in their last five games, with Bob being all the way up at 3.71. It will be hard to trust the goalies in this game, and with firepower on either side, this one could get wild. These are your riskier goalies, and Bob probably gets the slight advantage here, but it is hard to trust.

Lines to Target

FLA1 – Aleksander Barkov/Anthony Duclair/Carter Verhaeghe/Ben Chiarot: This top line is almost always in play for the Cats. Tonight is no different, and they will likely be heavily owned.

FLA2 – Sam Bennett/Claude Giroux/Jonathan Huberdeau: On paper, this line has a slightly better matchup than the top line, but they are both in play. Consider a power play look here to blend your exposure.

WPG1 – Pierre-Luc Dubois/Blake Wheeler/Kyle Connor/Josh Morrissey: With the depleted lineup, this is THE line for the Jets. They are going to have tons of ice time and they will be relied upon heavily to carry the offense.

Others to Consider: FLA3, WPG3

Value

Radko Gudas (D)

Brandon Montour (D)

Nate Schmidt (D)

Neal Pionk (D)

Morgan Barron (W)

Anton Lundell (C)

Carter Verhaeghe (W)

Player Props

This is a newly added section to the Friday Night Forecheck, where we will highlight some NHL player props that we like for the upcoming NHL slate.

Aleksander Barkov (FLA): anytime goal scorer

Kyle Connor (WPG): anytime goal scorer

Josh Morrissey (WPG): over 0.5 points

Cole Caufield (MON): over 0.5 points

Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Jon and the NHL team will be there answering questions right up until lock! Be sure to be on the look out for future articles at https://windailysports.com/daily-fantasy-hockey/

All line combinations are courtesy of www.dailyfaceoff.com, and any advanced rates referenced in the above article are pulled from www.naturalstattrick.com.

The NHL season continues to roll, as we have entered the last month of the season. Tonight gives us a juicy five game slate, with some very interesting spots for leverage. Let’s find the best NHL DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Good luck!

Goalies

Darcy Kuemper – Colorado Avalanche: The Avalanche head to Winnipeg tonight for a game against the Jets. This is a good spot for Kuemper, who has been a bit inconsistent this year, but has been playing well recently. On the road means a little bit of risk, and we can expect him to give up a couple of goals tonight. However, the shot upside should be there to counter the goals he lets in.

Ilya Sorokin – New York Islanders: The Islanders look to get Sorokin back in net tonight, and that’s a big boost for them. They head to Carolina tonight to take on the Hurricanes, who are notorious for throwing low danger shots at the net from everywhere. Those shots end up being saves, which can help pad a save total for any goalie against them. Carolina has also been struggling a bit lately, playing .500 hockey over their last five games. This game seems like it is going to be tight and low scoring, so if you aren’t comfortable with Sorokin, you can play the other side with Frederik Andersen.

High Risk GPP Goalie Pick – Linus Ullmark – Boston Bruins: The Bruins head to Tampa tonight to take on the Lightning in a game that they can definitely win. Tampa has a whole has been struggling recently, much like Carolina, and this looks like a nice upside spot for Ullmark.

Note: The above plays are geared for GPP. For cash, ownership dictates that we should be playing Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida Panthers).

Lines to Build Around

These NHL DFS lines are considered top plays for the night and can be considered the focal point of your builds. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).

Florida Panthers 1 – Aleksander Barkov/Carter Verhaeghe/Anthony Duclair/Mackenzie Weegar: The Panthers have the best matchup on the board tonight, boasting a massive 4.9 implied total, against the Sabres and Dustin Tokarski. The top line matchup is the best one, and people may shy away from playing Duclair or Verhaeghe. If you choose to go power play look here with Barkov/Huberdeau and then someone like Giroux or Weegar, that is hard to argue.

Colorado Avalanche 1 – Nathan MacKinnon/Mikko Rantanen/Valeri Nichushkin/Cale Makar: We have seen Hellebuyck for the Jets be very inconsistent this season, and this looks like a perfect time to take advantage. This top line should see a bulk of the chances tonight and is in a prime spot.

High Risk Lines

These are NHL DFS plays that carry significantly more risk, but could pay off at low ownership. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).

Boston Bruins 1 – Patrice Bergeron/Brad Marchand/Jake Debrusk/Charlie McAvoy: As mentioned above, the Bruins head to Tampa tonight to face a struggling Lightning team and goaltender. Vasilevskiy’s GAA over his last five games is a whopping 3.77, and the Lightning are giving up 3.4 goals per game over their last five home games. This is a formula for success for this line tonight, and the top line should be the focus. However, if Pastrnak should return to the lineup, it would put the second line of Haula/Hall/Pastrnak in play as well. The top line should see the Point line for a majority of the night, in a plus matchup.

Buffalo Sabres 1 – Tage Thompson/Alex Tuch/Jeff Skinner/Rasmus Dahlin: The Sabres are on the road, on a back to back, and heavy underdogs. This creates a heavy leverage spot for the deeper GPP players. Sergei Bobrovsky looks to get the start tonight in net for the Panthers, and his GAA over his last five starts is a massive 4.64.

Carolina Hurricanes 3 – Jordan Staal/Nino Niederreiter/Jesper Fast: This third line should match the top line for the Isles tonight. As much as this line isn’t exactly a scoring line, they should have some chances against the Isles tonight. Because they are a third line, they are high risk due to ice time.

St. Louis Blues 2 – Robert Thomas/Vladimir Tarasenko/Pavel Buchnevich: The Blues host the Wild tonight in a decent matchup for a line that has been hot recently. Talbot for the Wild has been average, so this line should continue to roll.

NHL DFS Honorable Mentions: TBL1, CAR1, WPG1, WPG2, MIN1

Value Options – DraftKings

Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on DraftKings. Be sure to stack!

Center: Erik Haula ($3400) – Boston Bruins

Wing: Nino Niederreiter ($2600) – Carolina Hurricanes

Defense: Mattias Samuelsson ($2500) – Buffalo Sabres

Value Options – FanDuel

Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on FanDuel. Be sure to stack!

Center: Seth Jarvis ($4100) – Carolina Hurricanes

Wing: Ondrej Palat ($4300) – Tampa Bay Lightning

Defense: Mattias Samuelsson ($4000) – Buffalo Sabres

Cash Considerations – DraftKings and FanDuel

Consider these NHL DFS plays for your cash lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel. Cash lineups do not need to be stacked, and it is recommended to play no more than two players from a given team.

Center: Aleksander Barkov – Florida Panthers

Wing: Mikko Rantanen – Colorado Avalanche

Defense: Victor Hedman – Tampa Bay Lightning

Goalie: Sergei Bobrovsky – Florida Panthers

Player Props

This is a newly added section to the Friday Night Forecheck, where we will highlight some NHL player props that we like for the upcoming NHL slate.

Brad Marchand (BOS): anytime goal scorer

Nathan MacKinnon (COL): anytime goal scorer

Robert Thomas (STL): anytime goal scorer

Mikko Rantanen (COL): over 1.5 points

Vladimir Tarasenko (STL): over 0.5 points

Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Jon and the NHL team will be there answering questions right up until lock! Be sure to be on the look out for future articles at https://windailysports.com/daily-fantasy-hockey/

All line combinations are courtesy of www.dailyfaceoff.com, and any advanced rates referenced in the above article are pulled from www.naturalstattrick.com.

Happy Friday! We have seven games on the slate tonight, with a few teams on back-to-backs (NYI, CHI, ANH). Let’s find the best NHL DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel. Good luck!

Goalies

Andrei Vasilevskiy – Tampa Bay Lightning: This is the cash goalie pick of the night, as the Lightning host the Blackhawks. The Lightning are heavy favorites, and on the second leg of a back-to-back. These factors add up to what should be a very nice night for Vasilevskiy, even though the upside might be somewhat limited.

Igor Shesterkin – New York Rangers: This pick was a very close call between him and his opponent, Ilya Sorokin. The reason being is that both of them have been playing pretty well lately, with Igor rebounding a bit over the last week. You can flip a coin on this one, but the advantage goes to Igor, as the Isles are also on the second leg of a back-to-back.

High Risk GPP Goalie Pick – Chris Driedger – Seattle Kraken: This play is super interesting tonight, as the Kraken host the Golden Knights tonight. If he goes, Driedger has some good upside, and could be a strong GPP play. However, if his crease-mate Grubauer gets the nod, you can totally pivot to Logan Thompson for the Golden Knights. This game seems like it could go under, as the Kraken are not that good and the Knights are pretty banged up.

Lines to Build Around

These NHL DFS lines are considered top plays for the night and can be considered the focal point of your builds. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).

Tampa Bay Lightning 1 – Brayden Point/Steven Stamkos/Nikita Kucherov/Victor Hedman: There should be no surprise here, as the Lightning host the Blackhawks tonight and get to face Kevin Lankinen. A lot of times, we would recommend fading the heavy chalk, but it is going to be extremely hard to fade this play tonight. This spot is as juicy as they come, and they should be in for a multi-point night tonight.

Nashville Predators 1 – Ryan Johansen/Matt Duchene/Filip Forsberg/Roman Josi: The Predators head to Buffalo tonight to take on the Sabres in what should be a fun game to watch. Buffalo has actually been playing fairly well, and so have the Preds. This top line has looked very good over the last couple of weeks, and they have a good chance to continue that trend tonight. You can always replace Johansen with Granlund here and get a power play look. Oh, and Roman Josi, look up his game logs. It’s ridiculous.

High Risk Lines

These are NHL DFS plays that carry significantly more risk, but could pay off at low ownership. They will be listed by position in the following order: Center/Winger/Winger/Correlating Defenseman (if applicable).

Nashville Predators 3 – Colton Sissons/Tanner Jeannot/Yakov Trenin: As much as the top line is in play, this third line has been providing some solid depth support for the Predators of late. The preferred approach with this line is to pair Jeannot and Trenin together. They are dirt cheap and provide some decent value, plus access to a nice implied total.

Ottawa Senators 1 – Josh Norris/Brady Tkachuk/Drake Batherson/Erik Brannstrom: This matchup is all about the line matching. Detroit matches the Suter line to the opposing top line, and that is a fantastic matchup for this Ottawa top line tonight. In a small sample, the Suter line is bleeding high danger chances, shots, and goals against, so this line should have its opportunities tonight. Mentioned in honorable mentions, Ottawa 3 has my interest piqued as well, based on the line matching schemes.

Detroit Red Wings 1 – Dylan Larkin/Lucas Raymond/Tyler Bertuzzi/Moritz Seider: That same line matching scheme mentioned above puts the Larkin line in a great spot. They become high risk because Forsberg for Ottawa has been decent (not great) over the last five games. This game could see a lot of scoring tonight.

St. Louis Blues 1 – Ryan O’Reilly/David Perron/Brandon Saad/Nick Leddy: The Blues head into Edmonton, where this line should see a matchup with the Draisaitl line. On the surface, that seems like a tall task, but the Draisaitl line actually gives up a decent amount of chances. Couple that with the fact that Edmonton’s goaltending has not been good, and this becomes a very interesting upside play tonight.

NHL DFS Honorable Mentions: ARI1, ANH2, BUF1, OTT3, EDMPP, NYRPP, NYI1

Value Options – DraftKings

Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on DraftKings. Be sure to stack!

Center: Mikael Granlund ($4200) – Nashville Predators

Wing: Frank Vatrano ($3500) – New York Rangers

Defense: Mattias Samuelsson ($2500) – Buffalo Sabres

Value Options – FanDuel

Consider these NHL DFS plays to help save you some salary in your lineups on FanDuel. Be sure to stack!

Center: Mikael Granlund ($4500) – Nashville Predators

Wing: Brandon Saad ($4500) – St. Louis Blues

Defense: Erik Brannstrom ($3900) – Ottawa Senators

Cash Considerations – DraftKings and FanDuel

Consider these NHL DFS plays for your cash lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel. Cash lineups do not need to be stacked, and it is recommended to play no more than two players from a given team.

Center: Connor McDavid – Edmonton Oilers

Wing: Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay Lightning

Defense: Roman Josi – Nashville Predators

Goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy – Tampa Bay Lightning

Player Props

This is a newly added section to the Friday Night Forecheck, where we will highlight some NHL player props that we like for the upcoming NHL slate.

Brayden Point: over 1.5 points

Ryan Johansen: over 0.5 points

Matt Duchene: anytime goal scorer

Brady Tkachuk: anytime goal scorer

David Perron: anytime goal scorer

Leon Draisaitl: over 1.5 points

Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Jon and the NHL team will be there answering questions right up until lock! Be sure to be on the look out for future articles at https://windailysports.com/daily-fantasy-hockey/

All line combinations are courtesy of www.dailyfaceoff.com, and any advanced rates referenced in the above article are pulled from www.naturalstattrick.com.