Daily Fantasy Hockey: DFS DraftKings Values – October 19

Today is another fairly short slate with just four games on the docket. That includes two afternoon games and two evening games. The biggest favourite of all is Winnipeg (-145, via Covers Experts) but the other three teams are between -120 and -135. That means there really isn’t a clear-cut target team for a goalie today. Covers Experts also has three of the four games with an over/under of 5.0, the exception being CGY/WPG 5.5.

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The only teams playing a back-to-back are St. Louis and San Jose, though they should both be going with a fresh starting goalie in Brian Elliott and Alex Stalock. I will say that on a day like today, I always cut back volume. If DFSers normally go with 10-percent of a bankroll in play on a given day, cutting back to 5-8-percent isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As always, check Left Wing Lock for starting goalies, and look at Daily Faceoff for lineup changes. One to watch for is Paul Stastny (C-STL). The second line center was injured last night and left the game. He probably won’t play tonight, but because they played on back-to-back nights, their lineup won’t be known until pre-game warmups (and they’re the last game to start today).

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.

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

• I am not a fan of any of the goaltenders today. With Niklas Backstrom in net for Minnesota, I’ll lean Jonathan Quick, but that’s giving me heartburn already.
• The hope is that the Carter line for Los Angeles can avoid the top line for Minnesota of Mikael Granlund and company (and by extension, Ryan Suter). If that does happen, they could be in for a good night.
• Picking St. Louis players tonight might be a bit of a dart toss, if only because of their start time (not late substitutions).
• Devante Smith-Pelly was seen practicing on the top line in Anaheim yesterday, not Matt Beleskey.

Guaranteed Prize Pools/Tournaments

• There isn’t a single stack that I’m overly fond of, just a lot of “meh” propositions.
• The problem with stacking the Rangers’ second line today of Nash/Hayes/Kreider is that they’re all wingers. It’s really an all-or-nothing proposition with that line because of what that does to the rest of a DFS roster on DK. Most of all, it takes away the ability to use maybe the best GPP option in net.
• I’ll be avoiding St. Louis just because there’s no telling what the roster will look like in time.

Slim’s Pickins ($3000 or less)

Joe Colborne (C-CGY, $3000) – Colborne was seen skating on the top line for Calgary during the morning skate with Monahan and Hudler.

Ryan Malone (W-NYR, $2500) – Malone has been removed from the top power play unit, but is still on the second power play unit in front of the net.

Mirco Mueller (D-SJS, $2600) – Only three Sharks defensemen are averaging over two minutes of power play time a game, one of them being Mueller. He’s still used as a third pairing defenseman, and that means easier 5-on-5 matchups.

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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