In any daily fantasy lineup, 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.
Tuesday night features seven more games on the NHL slate. Let's spend it up!
Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche
FanDuel Salary: $8,900
It has been a rocky month for Nathan MacKinnon. Everything from COVID to the Colorado Avalanche's early chemistry issues has impacted his DFS production. The game against the Tampa Bay Lightning was the first time MacKinnon looked like MacKinnon.
It was more than the goal and two assists. There were four scoring chances, and though several missed shots were again a part of the vocabulary, the center gets another prime matchup against the struggling Vegas Golden Knights
The matchup is a good one tonight for two reasons -- Colorado is home and Vegas is allowing 34.6 shots per game. Also, the Golden Knights are 26th in goals allowed per game at 3.80.
A standard center-wing-defenseman stack could work here with Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar as good stacking partners alongside MacKinnon.
Kyle Connor, Wing, Winnipeg Jets
FanDuel Salary: $8,100
The Winnipeg Jets play the Anaheim Ducks, and honestly, this can be a hit-or-miss matchup. However, Kyle Connor has five goals, three assists, and 14 shots on goal in his last three games. Yes, one of those games was against Anaheim.
Overall, Connor has six goals in five games in October. He has just one power-play goal but a slew of scoring chances on the man advantage. Add in several blocked shots in the last three games, and the winger is almost a must-play in this form.
Winnipeg has our second-highest projected goal total on the slate at 3.12. This top line makes for a good stack given how hot Connor is right now. You could even add a Josh Morrissey or Neal Pionk, as well.
Roman Josi, Defenseman, Nashville Predators
FanDuel Salary: $6,500
Roman Josi is the second-highest defenseman in our projections on this seven-game slate, and he'll likely be a popular target because Nashville has few better options.
The San Jose Sharks are a fun team to watch, but they can give up their fair share of scoring chances. Josi has two goals and three assists over the past two games, amassing five shots and eight scoring chances.
With Josi utilized 62.9% of the time in the offensive zone, that is a full 13 percentage points above his career numbers. If John Hynes keeps putting him in these situations, Josi should keep producing.
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.