Each day throughout the NHL season I am going to be recommending players to target in your DFS lineups with the focus on tournament lineups (with DraftKings prices). I will try to avoid posting the obvious plays on a given night — for example Tyler Seguin is an automatic play for me every day he plays.
[Play The NHL $55K SNIPER Contest On DraftKings Tonight!]
Quick recap from my recommendations last night…Mathieu Perreault notched two assists, Mark Scheifele a goal with three shots but Nikolaj Ehlers has held off the scoresheet with three shots. Teuvo Teravainen and Patrick Kane were a great stack as they had 6.5 and 7.5 points last night respectively. Sidney Crosby finally scored his second goal of the season. Frederik Andersen made 23 saves in the Ducks 3-2 shootout win over the Panthers.
There are nine games on the slate today.
C – Sam Bennett ($3,500) – CGY
The Flames play host to the Flyers tonight in a match-up of two terrible defensive teams. Both teams give up a pile of shots. I really like the forwards from both teams tonight. Bennett sticks out to me because of his cheap price tag. Bennett has six points in his last three games since he has been bumped up alongside Johnny Hockey and Sean Monahan/Jiri Hudler. Bennett is expected to remain on the top line tonight and with such a favourable matchup he is a must-roster for me.
C – Claude Giroux ($6,700) – PHI & RW – Jakub Voracek ($6,400)
Just as I said above the Flames cannot keep the puck out of their at all. Giroux and Voracek both have not performed to the level they were expected to so far this season but tonight could be a coming out party for both of season. I expect this game to be full of goals and both Giroux and Voracek should play a significant role in that.
C – Nicklas Backstrom ($6,600) – WSH
The Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron duo will be preoccupied with trying to shutdown the 1st line of Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Oshie which will give the Capitals second line centered by Backstrom a lot more room on the ice to operate. Backstrom is playing great this season with four goals and four assists in eight games playing alongside Marcus Johansson and Justin Williams for the most part. He is also on the first PP unit on a team that ranks seven on the power-play. Surprisingly Boston is ranked dead last in the league in penalty killing percentage making this matchup very appealing for Backstrom.
RW – Tyler Toffoli ($5,700) – LAK
Toffoli is off to a hot start for the Kings with nine goals in eleven games alongside running mate Jeff Carter they have become a very strong duo with Lucic on their wing. The Kings are playing the Blue Jackets who struggle defensively. I will not be surprised if Toffoli can keep up his scoring touch tonight and not his tenth goal of the season. I really like a mini-stack of Toffoli and Carter.
Other forwards I like: N. MacKinnon ($7,400), J. Gaudreau ($6,100), J. Carter ($5,800), T. Hertl ($4,600), M. Zibanejad ($4,500), B. Jenner ($3,900), M. Boedker ($3,900), M. Perreault ($3,800), J. Donskoi ($2,600)
D – Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($5,000) – ARI
The Coyotes are facing the Avalanche tonight who rank 28th in the league in even strength shots against per sixty minutes with 31.1. The Coyotes should be able to pepper Varlamov tonight. OEL, one of the most dynamic offensive defensemen in the NHL, is averaging 3.3 shots per game this season. He has one goal and six assists on the season and should be able to improve on that tonight. There are thirteen defensemen who are more expensive than OEL tonight but he is certainly one of, if not my favourite, play of the night on the blueline. I will continue to stack against the Avs while Patrick Roy remains their coach.
D – Ryan Murray ($3,200) – CBJ
The former 2nd overall pick is finally healthy and playing as the Blue Jackets had hoped he would since being drafted in 2012. Columbus does not have many bright spots on the season so far but Murray has been one with seven points in twelve games. He is a solid cheap option on defence tonight against the Los Angeles Kings. Murray is logging just over twenty minutes of ice time this season with an average of 3:34 of PP time. His time on the power-play makes him an appealing option tonight. While I wouldn’t expect him to fill the stat sheet, a point and a couple of shots certainly isn’t out of the question tonight.
Other defensemen I like tonight: E. Karlsson ($6,800), T. Barrie ($4,800), TJ Brodie ($4,200), R. Ristolainen ($4,100), R. Ellis ($3,600), C. Ceci ($2,700)
G – Linus Ullmark ($6,100) – BUF
I know this may seem like a very contrarian play and it may turn out to be one but Tampa has had some serious trouble scoring as of late. Buffalo is a much improved defensive team this year than they were last season. Ullmark will be making his fourth NHL start tonight. Other than his first start this season, which was also his first start of his career in the NHL, against the Devils he has been lights out. He has a .930 save percentage and 2.03 goals against average in those three starts. Ullmark is a swing-for-the-fence kind of GPP option tonight and if the Sabres can find a way to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Lightning than Ullmark will be in for a solid night fantasy wise.
Other goalies I like tonight: B. Holtby ($7,900), M. Jones ($7,300)
Hope this can be a help to you guys tonight, let’s have a great night in DFS! Feel free to comment and ask questions below or on Twitter (@XNSports, @doshjaniels). Best of luck!
Featured Image Credit: By Michael Miller (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
