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 brings us eight games. Let's see what studs are out there.
Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche
FanDuel Salary: $10,400
The Colorado Avalanche visit the Blackhawks on Tuesday, and Nathan MacKinnon draws a prime matchup on the road as a result.
There's plenty of value on the slate to fit in the cream of the crop, and MacKinnon has real-world points in seven straight games despite a slight pause in the action.
MacKinnon may only have three goals on the season, but the feeling has to be the goals will regress in his favor. The center has 72 shots (80 scoring chances) in just 18 games for Colorado. His season has been derailed by injuries and health protocols.
Chicago has allowed 108 goals in 32 games this season, and the potent Avalanche are capable of scoring three-plus goals with ease on Tuesday night. Expect MacKinnon to be heavily in on the action.
Timo Meier, Wing, San Jose Sharks
FanDuel Salary: $10,100
Timo Meier stays past the $10,000 mark on FanDuel for another game, and he's worthy of that title.
The San Jose Sharks winger has an incredible floor for daily fantasy with 119 shots and 20 blocked shots in just 28 games. That's 4.97 combined shots and blocks per game before getting to the scoring column.
Meier has what should be a favorable matchup versus the Detroit Red Wings; Detroit yielded five goals to the Boston Bruins over the weekend while yielding 37 shots.
Additionally, the Sharks are still producing well and have stacking options with Erik Karlsson and Tomas Hertl. Add in a power-play option like Logan Couture, and they have all the makings of an underrated game stack on Tuesday.
Meier has 8 multiple real-world point performances in his last 14 games and shows little signs of slowing down.
Roman Josi, Defenseman, Nashville Predators
FanDuel Salary: $7,300
Even with Cale Makar and Victor Hedman enjoying solid opportunities in daily fantasy this evening, Roman Josi still carries the most reward despite the slight risk.
He returned from COVID-19 protocols on Saturday and still produced more than 20 FanDuel points against Chicago.
Josi has 11 goals and 19 assists in 31 games. He also has 112 shots and 43 blocked shots to boost his floor. Like Meier, he averaged over five shots and blocks combined, so the FanDuel-point total is not just reliant on real-world points.
He is averaging 17.4 FanDuel points per game (second amongst blue-liners to Makar), and he will have enough opportunities against the Vegas Golden Knights' struggling defense (3.06 goals per game allowed).
Andrei Vasilevskiy, Goalie, Tampa Bay Lightning
Andrei Vasilevskiy got some of the rust out of his system on Sunday against the New York Rangers. He allowed four goals on 21 shots, but it was his first action since December 21st due to the extended break and entering the COVID-19 protocols himself.
The Tampa Bay Lightning draw the scuffling Columbus Blue Jackets, who have just a 3-6-1 in their last ten games. Joonas Korpisalo is expected to start against Tampa Bay, and the Lightning have enjoyed great offensive success against him.
Vasilevskiy eclipsed 25 FanDuel points in the previous three games before the break, and a return to "MVP" form is expected on Tuesday.
Despite the salaries, he should have the highest salary on the slate but doesn't. Take advantage of it.
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.