The two big favorites on the board tonight are Winnipeg and Colorado, in that order. It’s not necessary to just blindly follow Vegas lines for goalie options, but tonight, that’s not a bad course of action to take. Both Varlamov and Hutchinson are expected to start, have great matchups, and are fairly cheap. I wouldn’t stray far from the straight and narrow in this regard tonight.
Detroit changed up their lines and switched Tatar and Nyquist, with the former playing with Zetterberg and the latter with Datsyuk. This makes me nervous for stacking purposes because it’s not certain that Datsyuk’s line will be used in a shutdown role as had been the case recently. Also of note is that Drew Stafford joined the Little/Ladd line in Winnipeg with Blake Wheeler joining Scheifele/Perreault.
Enter the $17,000 guaranteed, $2 entry Sniper contest on DraftKings tonight! Details below.
-$17,000 prize pool.
– First place wins $1,500
– $2 entry fee (FREE with first deposit)
– Top 1,950 finishing positions are paid.
– Starts Monday, February 16 at 7:00 PM EST
– Salary Cap Style Drafting. $50,000 to select 9 spots. 8 players and 1 goalie.
– Roster Format: 2 C, 3 W, 2 D, 1 G and 1 Util.
– First time depositors at DraftKings receive a 100% bonus up to $600
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
| Centre | Wing | Defense | Goalie |
| Little (WPG) – $5100 | Ladd (WPG) – $4700 | Barrie (COL) – $4600 | Hutchinson (WPG) – $7000 |
| Zetterberg (DET) – $6300 | Landeskog (COL) – $5400 | Karlsson (OTT) – $7800 | Varlamov (COL) – $8100 |
| MacKinnon (COL) – $5600 | Tatar (DET) – $5500 | Myers (WPG) – $4500 | |
| Krejci (BOS) – $4400 | Ryan (OTT) – $5500 | Leddy (NYI) – $3000 | |
| Lee (NYI) – $5600 | Killorn (TBL) – $3700 | ||
| Zibanejad (OTT) – $3600 | Pominville (MIN) – $6600 | ||
| Carter (LAK) – $6500 | Pastrnak (BOS) – $3200 | ||
| Skinner (CAR) – $5300 | |||
- Barrie should be a focal point of the Colorado’s offense tonight, regardless of which forward line scores. He should be a defenseman in a lot of cash lineups tonight.
- I wouldn’t use both Detroit players in a cash game for the reasons I outlined above.
- For those looking for a cheap centre, Zibanejad is the play. He should have good in-game matchups, a good amount of ice time, and his price is very reasonable.
- The expensive players tonight – Stamkos, Nash, Pacioretty, Tavares – don’t have particularly good matchups tonight. That means extra funds can be allocated to defensemen.
Guaranteed Prize Pools/Tournaments
| Centre | Wing | Defense | Goalie |
| Little (WPG) – $5100 | Ladd (WPG) – $4700 | Myers (WPG) – $4500 | Varlamov (COL) – $8100 |
| Krejci (BOS) – $4400 | Stafford (WPG) – $4000 | Kronwall (DET) – $4500 | Lehner (OTT) – $7800 |
| Zetterberg (DET) – $6300 | Pastrnak (BOS) – $3200 | Barrie (COL) – $4600 | |
| MacKinnon (COL) – $5600 | Tatar (DET) – $5500 | Karlsson (OTT) – $7800 | |
| Zibanejad (OTT) – $3600 | Abdelkader (DET) – $3700 | ||
| Landeskog (COL) – $5400 | |||
| O’Reilly (COL) – $4500 | |||
| Ryan (OTT) – $5500 | |||
| Hoffman (OTT) – $4500 |
- As I mentioned, Detroit should be used with caution. There’s no telling how the new lines will be used, and I’d prefer to use the line that should avoid P.K. Subban the most. Hopefully that ends up being the Zetterberg line.
- The Boston duo of Krecji-Pastrnak should have very good in-game matchups, and their prices allow for a lot of wiggle room with the rest of the lineup.
- Leaning on Ottawa for a stack is always a nervous time, but the Zibanejad line should at least avoid the Staal line for the most part.
Slim’s Pickins (bargain plays)
Jordan Schroeder (MIN-C, $2900) – Has been playing well on a solid third line for the Wild with Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter. They should avoid the Sedin line the entire game, too.
Brett Connolly (TBL-W, $3000) – Should get good, deep-roster matchups in-game, and plays the second power play unit with Kucherov, Johnson, and company.
Nick Holden (COL-D, $2600) – Second power play unit duties in a very favorable matchup.
Good luck!
**UPDATE: Pastrnak was replaced by Reilly Smith on the Krejci line. I would use Smith instead of Pastrnak.
