There were quite a few teams that played last night who are also playing tonight. Arizona, Buffalo, Carolina, Columbus, and Washington all had a game a day ago, with Washington and Carolina facing each other tonight. In that situation, no team really has a distinct advantage, given all things equal.
The big favorite is of course the Pittsburgh Penguins, and expect high ownership rates from this team across both cash games and GPPs. Also heavily favored are Tampa Bay and Washington. I will say this – Beware of the backup goalies tonight. It appears there are a lot of teams going with their second goalie tonight. This could change the outlook for quite a few teams.
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As always, check Left Wing Lock for goalie confirmations.
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
| Center | Wing | Defense | Goalie |
| Brassard (NYR) – $5400 | Okposo (NYI) – $6800 | Stralman (TBL) – $3400 | Talbot (NYR) – $6200 |
| Crosby (PIT) – $8800 | Hornqvist (PIT) – $7800 | Visnovsky (NYI) – $3700 | Nabokov (TBL) – $6200 |
| Backstrom (WSH) – $5800 | St. Louis (NYR) – $5500 | Martin (PIT) – $3000 | Fleury (PIT) – $9500 |
| Tavares (NYI) – $7400 | Benn (DAL) – $6400 | Streit (PHI) – $4700 | |
| Stamkos (TBL) – $8400 | Simmonds (PHI) – $5400 | Girardi (NYR) – $4600 | |
| Filppula (TBL) – $5000 | Gaborik (LAK) – $3500 | ||
| Sutter (PIT) – $4600 | Callahan (TBL) – $4700 | ||
| Duchene (COL) – $5700 | McGinn (COL) – $3800 | ||
| Strome (NYI) – $3500 |
- As I said, it’s the night of the backup goalies. That makes picking a goaltender in a cash game a precarious decision. There are a lot of teams with good matchups that are starting average-or-worse goalies. I won’t argue with people if they want to play it safe with Fleury.
- Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and Washington will all be heavily-owned. There are some games, though, that should be high-scoring like Colorado-Philadelphia and NY Islanders-Arizona. That means there is value, in likely lesser-owned players, elsewhere.
- This is a night to spend at centre and save on the wings. First line players, who get significant power play time, like St. Louis, Simmonds, and Callahan are all under $6K.
- This is also not a night to spend on defensemen. With all the good matchups comes good matchups for the defensemen on those teams as well. Save on the blue line and spend on the forwards.
Guaranteed Prize Pools/Tournaments
| Center | Wing | Defense | Goalie |
| Crosby (PIT) – $8800 | Kunitz (PIT) – $7200 | Stralman (TBL) – $3400 | Peters (WSH) – $6200 |
| Stamkos (TBL) – $8400 | Hornqvist (PIT) – $7800 | Visnovsky (NYI) – $3700 | Nabokov (TBL) – $6200 |
| Filppula (TBL) – $5000 | Callahan (TBL) – $4700 | Holden (COL) – $2900 | Elliott (STL) – $8000 |
| Backstrom (WSH) – $5800 | Ovechkin (WSH) – $9000 | Niskanen (WSH) – $3200 | |
| Johansson (WSH) – $4400 | St. Louis (NYR) – $5500 | ||
| Brassard (NYR) – $5400 | Nash (NYR) – $7000 | ||
| Strome (NYI) – $3500 | Okposo (NYI) – $6800 | ||
| Nelson (NYI) – $5400 | McGinn (COL) – $3800 | ||
| Duchene (COL) – $5700 | Burakovsky (WSH) – $3400 |
- With all the backup goalies going tonight, it makes for a night where there are a lot of GPP-usable goalies that are cheap with good matchups.
- Like cash games, there is no need to spend on defensemen tonight.
- Of course, the vanilla plays are advisable. I will say that the Islanders get a very good special teams matchup tonight against the Islanders.
- The top line in Colorado was split up, and now Duchene/McGinn are on the second line. They should be able to avoid tough matchups, and are cheap to use as a secondary stack.
- The top line from the Rangers will be hard to avoid. They have a plus-matchup, and the Leafs are hobbling a bit with Daniel Winnik/Joffrey Lupul out, and Phil Kessel/Jake Gardiner injured-but-likely-playing.
Slim’s Pickins (bargain plays)
Jori Lehtera (STL-C, $2800) – Still centering Tarasenko/Schwartz with power play time, still barely above minimum price. Plug-and-play.
Nikolai Kulemin (NYI-W, $2700) – Though he’s not on the top power play unit, he’s still on the top line with John Tavares and Kyle Okposo.
Nick Holden (COL-C, $2900) – He’s been “demoted” to the second power play unit, but at this point, there’s really not much of a difference between the two.
Good luck!
