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.

Monday night has six games on the schedule. It is time to find more studs!

Alex Ovechkin, Wing, Washington Capitals

FanDuel Salary: $9,900

The Washington Capitals' winger is nearly at that $10,000 salary but not quite again.

At any rate, Alex Ovechkin keeps aiming higher and higher in his quest to score goals. For those wondering if he is slowing down, the Russian has 50 goals over his last 79 games. He has 20 goals in 25 contests this year and still is averaging 4.08 shots per game. His ice time may decrease, but he is currently playing a career-high 21:36 per contest.

The Anaheim Ducks will be on the road and likely starting John Gibson. The good news for Ovechkin owners is that Gibson has allowed three or more goals in five straight games. So, there should be quite a few chances for Ovechkin to pad his goal and real-world point totals.

Ovechkin has just nine shots on goal in his last three games, but he could have one of those vintage "Home Ovechkin" efforts in him on Monday.

Miro Heiskanen, Defenseman, Dallas Stars

FanDuel Salary: $6,200

The highest-salaried healthy defensive option on Monday is Dougie Hamilton, Hamilton might be too chalky for some or hard to get to salary-wise. For a $1,000 less, there is Miro Heiskanen, who enjoys quite a matchup against the Arizona Coyotes.

Heiskanen has enjoyed quite a nice season for the Dallas Stars. He has three goals and 13 assists in 21 games. In his last meeting versus Arizona, the Finnish defender had five shots and four blocked shots. He even hit a post to go along with four scoring chances.

Heiskanen snapped a four-game double-digit FanDuel point streak against Columbus but could easily bounce right back against an Arizona team that allows 89 goals with a league-worst -46 goal differential.

The Stars are projected to score 3.42 goals on Monday night at home. Expect Heiskanen to be a key contributor on one or more of those goals.

Jack Hughes, Center, New Jersey Devils

FanDuel Salary: $6,600

Honestly, there are quite a few studs out there on Monday night, but why not give Jack Hughes a shot?

The center has three goals and one assist in five games for the New Jersey Devils. Now, he has fired just seven shots on goal, but keep in mind, the center is being eased into a transition back to the pivot spot.

The good news is that Hughes will be playing center on the top line on Monday night versus the Ottawa Senators. Playing on the wing did not appear to suit Hughes' production very well.

His goal against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night came as he tried to get in close on Connor Hellebuyck. Needless to say, it worked. Hughes is easily creating several quality scoring chances a game, and now, he will have the chance to take some faceoffs and likely see more ice time.

The numbers for some studs like Nathan MacKinnon (and even Roope Hintz) are higher on Monday, but the risk/reward with Hughes is hard to pass up. Ottawa has allowed 38 goals in their last eight games; that is almost five per contest.

With Hughes, check back on who are likely to be his linemates and stacking partners. They should make for nice salary relief on Monday 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.