NHL

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

1. Shea Theordore (VGK)
2. Brent Burns (SJ)
3. Alex Pietrangelo (VGK) — Are seeing a Vegas trend?
4. Colton Parayko (STL)
5. Alec Martinez (VGK) — Oh look, more Vegas
6. Shea Weber (MTL)
7. Quinn Hughes (VAN)
8. Jeff Petry (MTL)
9. Matt Dumba (MIN)
10. Jakob Chychrun (ARI)

Top Value Defensemen

1. Alexander Romanov (MTL) — play him, people still haven’t started playing him yet
2. Jake Muzzin (TOR)
3. Kevin Shattenkirk (ANH)
4. Darnell Nurse (EDM)
5. Joel Edmundson (MTL)
6. Justin Holl (TOR)
7. Zach Whitecloud (VGK)
8. Slater Koekkoek (EDM)
9. Mario Ferraro (SJ)
10. 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.

Welcome to the NHL DFS Man Advantage for Monday night January 18th! Tonight we have a good-sized 8 game slate to kick off the second week of the NHL season.

When we have slates with this many games I like to pinpoint a few that I want to focus on, typically the games with the highest projected goal totals. Tonight we have three games with 6.5 over/under, with two of those games being from the Scotia NHL North Division (the All Canada Division). Both the Winnipeg @ Toronto and Vancouver @ Calgary go in carrying the high O/U and I will have a good amount of exposure to both games. I mentioned there were three games with the 6.5 O/U and that last game is Buffalo @ Philadelphia.

I expect Carter Hart to be relatively chalky in net, which means I will want to run back any Flyers stacks with a few Sabres. Philadelphia has been inexpensive to start the season, and while their prices have begun to creep up they are still underpriced.

NHL DFS Goalies:

Top Overall Goalie:

Juuse Saros (DK $7,900/FD $7,400)

Saros has had a great start to the season and it should continue tonight against the Hurricanes. Carolina had what should have been an easy start to the season in Detroit, but they came away 1-1 and the offense didn’t look as potent as we would have hoped. Saros stopped 71 of 74 shots faced in his first two starts in Columbus and Carolina only scored 5 goals on 74 shots of their own in the two games in Detroit. If Saros doesn’t get the nod tonight, I am fine swapping over to Pekka Rinne (DK $7,700/FD $7,400). If Saros doesn’t start, I would move my #1 overall goalie play to Cam Talbot ($8,000/$7,700). Talbot has a similar matchup with the Ducks that Saros has with the Canes. Los Angeles isn’t as high-powered of an offense as the Ducks are in my opinion and they managed 67 shots on goal in two games against Minnesota this weekend. Talbot stopped 61 of of 67 shots and earned the win in both games and I think the Wild get the win again tonight.

Other Options: Carter Hart (Phi), Robin Lehner (VGK), Jacob Markstrom (CGY) – These three should be the “chalk” among the goalies tonight along with Frederick Andersen (TOR) but I am fading him in favor of the Jets offense.

Top Value Goalie:

John Gibson ($7,400/$7,200)

Now I just mentioned that I think the Wild win tonight, but that is not a lock or something I would bet on. Anaheim has one of the best goalies in the world between the pipes in Gibson and he could easily shut down this Wild offense tonight. After a dud in the first game of the season, Gibson bounced back with an outstanding performance in an OT loss to the Knights on Saturday. Gibby stopped 31 of 33 shots from the potent Vegas offense on the road Saturday night and should have a similar or better night on Monday.

Other Options: Jake Allen (MTL), Braden Holtby (VAN), Linus Ullmark (BUF) – MME or LF GPP’s only

NHL DFS Forwards:

I will not give you the generic everyone is playing these guys in this section. If guys like McDavid, Matthews, Ovechkin, MacKinnon are on the slate we are playing them. I will find other forwards who may go overlooked and point them out here.

Top Center:

Mark Scheifele ($6,300/$7,500)

Scheifele is more of a DK play at his price there, but is still a solid GPP play to be different then the people who will flock to McDavid/Draisaitl. In the Jets only game this season, Scheifele picked up a goal and 6 shots on goal in 26+ minutes of ice time. Scheifele is one of the most underrated players in the NHL and often goes overlooked in DFS. I love stacking him tonight with the first power-play unit. Toronto is averaging over 4 power-plays allowed p/game in their first 3 games this season. Neal Pionk ($4,700/$4,900) is where I would start with a power-play stack for the Jets, and then work in one of the other forwards on that unit depending on your available salary.

Other Options: (in order of preference): McDavid (EDM), Matthews (TOR), Tavares (TOR), Draisaitl (EDM), Hayes (PHI), Eichel (BUF), Aho (CAR), O’Reilly (STL), Pettersson (VAN)

Top Value Center:

Phillip Danault ($3,900/$4,600)

Danuault centers the Canadiens top line, which has been on fire to start the season. This line torched the Oilers on Saturday and I am going right back to them tonight. Danault is a GPP only play because he is point dependent. He doesn’t offer much in the fringe stats and if he doesn’t score or pick up assists he will not score a ton of fantasy points. Danault did have two assists on Saturday night, and with how hot both Tomas Tatar ($5,900/$6,200) and Brendan Gallagher ($5,500/$7,200) have been to start the season I am taking a chance the hot streak continues tonight.

Other Options: Frost (PHI), Sissons (NSH), E. Staal (BUF), Henrique (ANH), Kerfoot (TOR), Rask (MIN), Eriksson Ek (MIN), Kotkaniemi (MTL), Bozak (STL)

Top Winger:

Matthew Tkachuk ($6,900/$6,100)

While I like Tkachuk’s price on both sites, I LOVE him on FanDuel today. Tkachuk has been the best player early on for the Flames this season and I expect it to continue tonight. In two games this season the Flames winger has two goals and assist, as well 10 shots on goal, and is averaging over 21 fantasy points P/game on both sites. Tkachuk will be part of a Flames power-play stack for me tonight.

Other Options: Fiala (MIN), Nugent-Hopkins (EDM), Pacioretty (VGK), Stone (VGK), Connor (WPG), E. Kane (SJ), Forsberg (NSH), Ehlers (WPG), Meier (SJ), Marner (TOR), Miller (VAN) – 1st game of the season for him after COVID list, Gaudreau (CGY)

Top Value Winger:

Zach Sanford ($3,200/$4,700)

Just like Tkachuk, Sanford is better being played on one site over the other, in this case, it’s DraftKings. Sanford has been moved up to the top line for the Blues in a matchup with a poor (that’s me being polite) defensive team in the Sharks tonight. Sandford has incredible upside for his price and will be part of a line 1 stack for me tonight with David Perron and Ryan O’Reilly.

Other Options: Lindblom (PHI), R. Smith (VGK), Tuch (VGK), Mangiapane (CGY), Schenn (STL), Pearson (VAN), Hoglander (VAN), Hyman (TOR)

NHL DFS Defensemen Rankings:

I will ALWAYS try and pair up my defensemen as part of some type of stack. Generally, I only try to play defensemen who see power-play minutes. Most night dmen do not offer enough upside to play them alone, and if you think they will have a good fantasy night that means the forwards they play with will be scoring and you will want to have them in your lineups as well.

Top Defensemen Rankings:

1. Shea Theodore (VGK)
2. Roman Josi (NSH)
3. Alex Pietrangelo (VGK)
4. Jake Muzzin (TOR)
5. Jakob Chychrun (ARI)
6. Colton Parayko (STL)
7. Matt Dumba (MIN)
8. Dougie Hamilton (CAR)
9. Rasmus Andersson (CGY)
10. Quinn Hughes (VAN)

Top Value Defensemen Rankings:

1. Joel Edmundson (MTL)
2. Zach Whitecloud (VGK)
3. Jonas Brodin (MIN)
4. Travis Hamonic (VAN)
5. Justin Holl (TOR)
6. Jake McCabe (BUF)
7. Mattias Ekholm (NSH)
8. Mario Ferraro (SJ)
9. Ethan Bear (EDM)
10. Brett Kulak (MTL)

NHL DFS Line Stacks:

Top Overall Line Stack (Not mentioned above)

Vegas Golden Knights L1

Max Pacioretty($7,500/$7,800)/Chandler Stephenson($4,000/$3,300)Mark Stone($7,000/$7,700)

Top Value Line Stack:

St. Louis Blues Line 3

Tyler Bozak($2,700/3,700)/Robert Thomas($3,200/$4,300)/Mike Hoffman($4,200/$5,700)

Thanks for reading this article on the NHL DFS Man Advantage for Monday January 18th 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.