NHL

3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 12/3/21

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Dec 3rd, 2021
Kyle Connor continues to fire pucks at a rapid pace. Which studs are worth prioritizing on Friday's five-game slate?

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.

Friday night gifts us five more games on the NHL slate. It is time to hunt for more studs!

Kyle Connor, Wing, Winnipeg Jets

FanDuel Salary: $8,500

The Winnipeg Jets play a team in the New Jersey Devils that hate playing anywhere near the province of Manitoba.

Kyle Connor already has 14 goals and 10 assists in 22 games. He is one of the very few forwards in the NHL that has 100 shots on goal already, and he is right near 100 scoring chances as well.

The Devils will be starting Jonathan Bernier on the back end of a back-to-back. Bernier has allowed several key goals on the penalty kill lately. That could be right up Connor's alley; it's probably the one area he's due for regression with just one man-advantage tally this year.

Connor's shot volume could easily mean a multiple-goal output on Friday in what is one of the better matchups of the slate.

Adam Fox, Defenseman, New York Rangers

FanDuel Salary: $7,000

The highest-salaried blueline option on Friday has one that happens to "Bleed Blue".

Adam Fox has 4 goals and 18 assists in 21 games this season. The Norris Trophy winner is on pace to even exceed his totals from last season. Blocks, shots, and scoring chances are all slightly up for him.

Fox is riding a four-game assist streak and has six in all. He also has 10 blocks and 6 shots on goal in that span. He also faces a San Jose Sharks team that is on their East Coast trip and on the back end of a back-to-back.

The New York Rangers have the potential to exceed three goals on Friday, and Fox figures to play a prominent role in the offense.

Trevor Zegras, Center, Anaheim Ducks

FanDuel Salary: $5,800

Admittedly, the label "stud" may be a bit unconventional here, but Trevor Zegras is a young stud who will keep getting better and better.

The center has 17 real-world points in 22 games this season. The nice thing is his 10.3% goal-to-shot ratio is quite sustainable. He had four shots and four scoring chances in an October matchup versus these same Calgary Flames.

Our model projects Anaheim to score 2.69 goals, which is entirely possible for the Ducks on Friday night. The Flames are solid defensively, but their 89.34% high-danger save percentage as a team may see regression soon.

The Oilers' studs, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, project as the best center options but shape up to be popular plays with restrictive salaries. Buying low on Zegras' production can help build differentiated lineups on a five-game slate if you don't want to eat the Edmonton chalk.

With Zegras, stacking Sonny Milano is a great option and provides good salary relief.


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.