4 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 5/5/21

Spending up in any daily fantasy lineup is how to get the superstars and the highest upside players in your lineup. NHL DFS is different from NBA or NFL daily fantasy. Someone can be one of the highest-salaried players at his position and put up a total dud of a performance, and committing a ton of salary to him can be very costly. Let’s make sure we are going after the right high-salary players when building our lineups tonight.

Wednesday night features a nine-game slate. Let's find some of those studs!

Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $9,100

Nathan MacKinnon gets to play against the San Jose Sharks once more. The Colorado Avalanche scored four or more goals twice against the Sharks, and in their last two matchups, MacKinnon had a whopping 18 shots on goal with 30 shot attempts. Also, he had one goal and three assists in that span. San Jose had few answers while MacKinnon averaged over 23 minutes of ice time as well.

This is the time for MacKinnon to thrive as Colorado tries to catch the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the West Division. He has to carry this team with the defense a little bit inconsistent at times (allowed seven goals in two games).

There are studs out there like Mika Zibanejad ($8,400) and Brayden Point ($7,400) but they have tougher matchups against the Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars, respectively.

With an abundance of potential from the center position, Tyler Seguin ($6,700) scored a goal in his return and has a decent chance to score again versus the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

Evander Kane, Wing, San Jose Sharks

FanDuel Salary: $7,400

San Jose does not have to worry about making the playoffs at this point. However, they have been playing Colorado pretty tough of late -- losing by just one goal in consecutive contests. A big reason for that has been the play of Evander Kane and his line.

Next up is yet another game in this long four-game series with the Colorado Avalanche. Kane has nine real-world points in his previous six contests with five goals. He has four or more shots on goal in five of those games. The winger even chipped in a couple of blocked shots for good measure. Colorado's mobile defense has not found a way to slow down the Kane.

An option to consider to stack may just be Tomas Hertl ($6,600). That is a bit expensive but one can use Erik Karlsson ($4,800) or Mario Ferraro ($3,700) to help offset a potential Center-Wing-Defense alignment. That is a high-risk contrarian stack but an economical one salary-wise.

Filip Forsberg ($7.300) is a nice play from the Nashville Predators against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday. Finally, Kyle Connor ($6,600) is a high-risk play on Wednesday night against Calgary.

John Carlson, Defenseman, Washington Capitals

FanDuel Salary: $6,700

If this was a smaller slate, playing some Washington Capitals stacks would be a nice option. With the New York Rangers attempting to retaliate for what happened on Monday, the focus would be on the players who can further hurt New York from an offensive standpoint and not the fisticuffs.

Now, John Carlson is quite the risk because his floor had lowered a little but he does have five blocked shots in his previous two games. That is some improvement. He also has six shots in that span and one assist. This is why we are saying the option has plenty of risks. Carlson has to score at least an assist or goal to hit value on Wednesday night. There should be power-play chances as New York chases players and the play.

Adam Fox ($6,300) has some upside as well but the same blocked shot risk. Somehow, Jakob Chychrun is salaried at $5,700 against the Los Angeles Kings.

Philipp Grubauer, Goalie, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $8,500

After the Nashville Predators blew a three-goal lead, one could be a bit hesitant even on Juuse Saros ($7,600). So, we turn to Philipp Grubauer naturally

Part of the reason is that Grubauer was not happy after giving up 4 goals on 27 shots. He previously had a 21-save shutout against those very same San Jose Shsrks. It was a down performance and why he was rested on Monday night.

Does Andrei Vasilevskiy ($8,600) play against the Dallas Stars tonight or are the Tampa Bay Lightning hiding some sort of injury? Igor Shesterkin ($7,900) could see quite a few shots on goal from the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

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.