NHL Daily Fantasy Helper: Monday 12/9/19
A good chunk of you played daily fantasy football this year, and I'd be willing to bet a significant portion of you 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.
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
Braden Holtby ($8,700): Holtby is confirmed to start against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night. The Washington Capitals goaltender has won 15 of the 22 games he has played in. That includes a four-game stretch where he allowed ten goals on 124 shots. More importantly, Holtby won all of those games. Washington has a good home matchup tonight with Columbus. Also, the Blue Jackets are sixth in the league in shots per goal at 33.7. After that, options have to be waited on confirmation of goalies.
High-Priced Skaters
Nathan MacKinnon ($9,000): MacKinnon nets one of the prime matchups of the night against a Calgary Flames team that allows 3.24 goals per game on the road. The top line for Colorado is healthy, but with injuries to Cale Makar and Erik Johnson, the Avalanche may need to score a few more goals. Calgary averages only 1.82 goals per contest on the road, so it may not take much from MacKinnon and company to exceed value. Also, there are few high-priced options on this slate other than Evgeny Kuznetsov ($7,700).
David Pastrnak ($8,700): Pastrnak has come down about $500 in price over the last week, which makes him more affordable on Monday night. He has no points, five shots, a block, and five scoring chances over the previous two games. Chances have been there but did not go in over the weekend. Ottawa presents a good opportunity for Pastrnak to add to his 25 goals on the season. Nikita Kucherov ($8,300) and Alex Ovechkin ($8,600) are solid choices as well on this short slate.
Value Skaters
Valeri Nichushkin ($3,700): Nichushkin, out of nowhere, is hot with five real-world points in his last seven games. He even has 3+ shots in five of those matches. With all the players coming and going for Colorado lately, Nichushkin has been a relative constant over the past couple of weeks. There are a few other viable wingers out there at around or under $4,000. Tyler Ennis ($3,500) is a top-six option from Ottawa that could be used on Monday night. Also, there is Dillon Dube ($3.300), who has 15+ FanDuel points in two of his last three games as a second-line plug for Calgary.
Ryan Graves ($3,900): Graves becomes a good peripheral play on Monday for his ability to generate shots and blocks. He averages nearly 2.5 blocks per game and almost two shots a night over his last ten games. With the injuries in Colorado, Graves expects to see more ice time tonight against a Calgary team that has one of the worst road goal differentials in hockey (-1.42). Zdeno Chara is another sneaky choice on Monday with his booming shot on the power play, especially if one does not want to spend up for Torey Krug.
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.
