NHL

NHL Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 3/8/19

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Mar 8th, 2019
Friday night comes in with a four-game slate, including Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals. Who else should you trust in NHL DFS?

A good chunk of you played daily fantasy football this year, and I'd be willing to bet a significant portion have also tried out daily fantasy basketball and baseball. But hockey? Hockey?

It's time to give it a try over on FanDuel, because it's a ton of fun. And our analysis and projections can help you win.

To help, let's take a look at some goalies, high-priced skaters, and lower-priced players to target for today's slate.

Goalie to Target

John Gibson ($7,300): The Anaheim Ducks are projected to start Gibson against the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night. It has been a struggle for Gibson, and the loss to the St. Louis Blues was on the team, not him. He had two quality starts in his return from injury while facing 59 shots. Montreal shoots the puck at a rate of 33.4 per game while Anaheim allows the same exact amount, ranking in the bottom five in the NHL. With Carey Price projected to start for the Canadiens, this game carries an over/under of 5.5, which indicates bullishness for goalies. Petr Mrazek ($8,400) and Braden Holtby ($8,900) are decent cash options as well.

High-Priced Skaters

Sebastian Aho ($7,700): Aho is in a nice spot against a Winnipeg Jets team that is hurting in the depth department. With Connor Hellebuyck taking a shot to the mask on Tuesday, Laurent Brossoit could draw a start for Winnipeg. Expect Carolina to pile on the shots against a team without three of their top six defensemen. The top line for the Hurricanes makes for a nice stack, and there are options to use the first-unit power play for correlation. Aho has goals in four straight games and 18 shots on net in that span. He also generated a total of 16 scoring chances in those contests. Aleksander Barkov ($7,600) is another good choice tonight against a Minnesota Wild team that is on the backend of a back-to-back.

Alex Ovechkin ($9,100): Honestly, Ovechkin is difficult to fade on any night. And tonight, he faces what amounts to be an AHL team in the New Jersey Devils. New Jersey has played a bit better defensively of late behind strong goaltending, however, they still yield 3.91 goals per game on the road and are 8-21-3 away from home. The left winger has double-digit FanDuel points in 10 straight contests, which provides a good floor in the event he doesn't reach value. There are options like Tom Wilson and others to stack along with Ovechkin. Winnipeg's Blake Wheeler ($8,300) is a target, too; he has about the same floor as Ovi at this point.

Value Skaters

Joel Eriksson Ek ($3,900): The injury to Luke Kunin likely moves Eriksson Ek up to the second line, which means a bit more power-play time as well. Florida can be a bit of an adventure defensively (19 goals yielded in their last five games) and have lost six games in a row. Their urgency may cause more mistakes. The Minnesota center could benefit from that and has fired 25 pucks on net in his last six starts. His ice time is that of a second-line forward currently. How long his price stays there is an excellent question. Michael McLeod ($3,000) and Jordan Weal are value options on Friday night, and should be well below 1% owned. Ryan Donato ($3,700) makes for a cheap stacking option with Eriksson Ek depending on line shifts.

Kenny Agostino ($3,300): Agostino likely winds up on the second line, at worst, even if Kyle Palmieri plays against Washington on Friday. As for Agostino, he is a nice spark plug with good speed and handled playing 19 minutes well on Tuesday night. He had five shots on net and three scoring chances. This is a moderate to high-risk punt play on a short slate. Blake Coleman ($4,000) is another value play as New Jersey is so generally cheap that you are almost being dared to roster some of their players on this slate.


Chris Wassel is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Chris Wassel also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username chriswassel. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.