Spending up in any daily fantasy lineup is how to get the superstars and the highest upside players in your lineup. In NHL DFS, it’s different from paying up in sports like NBA or NFL. Someone can be one of the highest salaried players at his position and put up a total dud of a performance, and paying that much for him would be a huge mistake. Let’s make sure we are paying up in the right spots when building our lineups tonight.
Wednesday night gives us six games on this slate. Let's take a look at a few studs.
Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers
FanDuel Salary: $9,100
The Edmonton Oilers' center had a couple of okay games recently with just an assist in each of his last two contests. Connor McDavid does have 10 shots on 17 shot attempts though and gets to face the Calgary Flames again on Wednesday night. Calgary used Jacob Markstrom to slow down McDavid more than anything as he made several high-danger stops on McDavid scoring chances. That is playing with fire though and McDavid could easily produce a big total on Wednesday night.
There are some creative ways to stack Edmonton. Keep an eye on who stays on the line with McDavid. Some may even employ a defenseman like Adam Larsson just because his salary is less than $4,000 and Kailer Yamamoto, who also has a lower than average salary on FanDuel. Again, it is okay to get a bit creative if the Oilers is where one wants to go on Wednesday night. There are ways to even stack four-wide with Edmonton to squeeze McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in. Utilizing the utility could be a decent move.
Also, Anze Kopitar ($7,600), is up against the inconsistent St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. Sean Couturier against a down on their luck New York Rangers defense is intriguing as well.
Max Pacioretty, Wing, Vegas Golden Knights
FanDuel Salary: $8,000
The Vegas Golden Knights and Max Pacioretty remain a great play against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night because of the high-volume shooting tendencies of players like Pacioretty and San Jose will give them plenty of scoring chances. Despite a three-game winning streak, San Jose still ranks 30th in goals allowed at 3.46 per game and 29th in shots per 60 yielded at nearly 33 a game.
Few duos create fear in the hearts of defenses quite like Mark Stone and Pacioretty. San Jose has not shown any pairing that can truly slow the duo down this season. Pacioretty has six real-world points in four matchups and has at least three quality scoring chances in each contest. Include several posts and a crossbar hit and literally, the winger can shoot and score from almost anywhere versus the Sharks. Any and every shift could create opportunities at home for Vegas.
The Vegas Golden Knights' wingers will be rostered at a high rate, so for alternatives, maybe the Philadelphia Flyers' wingers are attainable -- particularly James van Riemsdyk and Joel Farabee perhaps. Or does one spend up to Artemi Panarin ($7,500) from the Rangers, who looks in top-form after taking some time off. Even Tyler Toffoli is plausible from Montreal going up against Winnipeg Wednesday night.
Ivan Provorov, Defenseman, Philadelphia Flyers
FanDuel Salary: $5,300
This choice features risk but Ivan Provorov suddenly looks like the offensive-defenseman most thought he was from a few seasons back. He has double-digit FanDuel points in his last four games and is carrying that floor that makes him extremely viable versus a below-average New York defense.
The floor (shots plus blocked shots) rose significantly for Provorov over the past couple of weeks. While the rest of the team has been inconsistent, Provorov has been a rock for DFS purposes of late. Again, can he keep sustaining a floor of five or more shots and blocked shots a night. So far, he has managed to.
Some possibilities on Wednesday could also include Jeff Petry ($6,400) from Montreal and Darnell Nurse ($5,700) from Edmonton who could see extra time on the top Oilers' power-play.
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/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.