Daily Fantasy Hockey: DFS DraftKings Values – October 17

There are six games tonight, none of them featuring a team that played last night. That means there isn’t a team that DFSers can blindly target for/against tonight, which requires a little more thought. Usually, targeting against Buffalo isn’t a bad idea. The Sabres, however, are facing the lowest-scoring team in the NHL in the Florida Panthers. The stoppable force meets the movable object, as it were.

The three biggest favorites tonight, in order, are Columbus, Vancouver, and Anaheim. The Canucks are on the road, which would probably leave Columbus and Anaheim as two teams to target for goaltenders. The only game with an over/under less than 5.5 is (not surprisingly) the Florida-Buffalo matchup.

Enter the DraftKings $7K Sniper for just $2!

Players will be in order of perceived value, by position, and there should be enough to mix-and-match for each type of game available on Draft Kings. Some positions might only have a few plays, some might have several. It all depends on the day, the matchups, and the price.

Don’t forget to join the $75K guaranteed Light The Lamp!

Remember: players are in order of value, not necessarily in cost. Just because Sidney Crosby is $8000 one day doesn’t mean he’s a better value than Andrew Shaw at $4000.

Cash Games (50/50, Head-to-Head)

• I think the Jets have a good chance to make a good dent in the scoreboard tonight, but I would want to avoid the Shea Weber/Roman Josi matchup. I would expect them to be deployed against the Scheifele/Wheeler/Byfuglien line, which should free up Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little, and Michael Frolik.
• There aren’t many goaltenders I like tonight past Sergei Bobrovsky. The Jackets are heavy favorites, and the Flames are playing their third road game in four nights.
• Vancouver should be able to clean up on Edmonton tonight, but I’m not going in heavy on them. That means avoiding their goaltending, and avoiding high-priced defensemen.
• I’m not gung-ho on the Anaheim players tonight, and I’m probably going to avoid the top line. Minnesota should be fresh after a long layoff, and Anaheim’s first game home after a four-game trip for their home opener makes me nervous.

Guaranteed Prize Pools/Tournaments

• While sample sizes are still too small to make concrete determinations, Toronto is allowing the third-most unblocked shot attempts in the NHL per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 (via War On Ice). Their penalty kill is also in the bottom-10 for most unblocked shot attempts allowed while short-handed. That should bode well for Detroit tonight.
• I never pass up a chance to bet on Ondrej Pavelec blowing up, making Nashville a decent target.
• The vanilla stack would be the Vancouver top line against Edmonton. Sometimes, the vanilla play is the correct one.

Slim’s Pickins (bargain plays)

Mark Letestu (C-CBJ, $2900) – Letestu should be on a line that avoids the Giordano/Brodie matchup against Calgary. That’s a good thing.

Tim Erixon (D-CBJ, $2500) – Erixon has long been thought of as a decent NHL prospect, and he’s playing on the top power play unit for Columbus now.

Linden Vey (W-VAN, $2500) – Vey is buried on Vancouver’s depth chart at even strength, but like Erixon, he, too, plays on the top power play unit for his team.

Good luck!

Michael Clifford

Michael Clifford was born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and is a graduate of the Unviersity of New Brunswick. He writes about fantasy hockey and baseball for XNSports and FantasyTrade411.com. He can be reached on Twitter @SlimCliffy for any fantasy hockey questions. Follow @SlimCliffy !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

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