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 has eight contests on the slate. Let's hit the ice for some studs.
Mika Zibanejad, Center, New York Rangers
FanDuel Salary: $7,300
The New York Rangers can do little wrong lately, and Mika Zibanejad is a big reason why.
Zibanejad has been inching toward averaging a real-world point per game all season and is up to 14 goals and 23 assists on the season. He is averaging 2.9 shots per game as well. That is not the greatest floor, but perhaps he'll be more aggressive in a tough matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Expect the Rangers (and particularly the center) to be raring to go. Mika has a goal or assist in six straight contests, and he's pounded minutes (at least 21:00 in ice time) in New York's last two competitive games.
The Canes are an offensive juggernaut, and at a reasonable salary, Zibanejad must be up to that same level for the Rangers to compete.
Nikita Kucherov, Wing, Tampa Bay Lightning
FanDuel Salary: $9,800
All Nikita Kucherov has done is pile up goals and assists in his return from off-season surgery.
In nine games, the right-winger has five goals and ten assists. The Tampa Bay Lightning forward also has four or more shots in five straight games. It's come lately as well; Kucherov also has four goals and five helpers in his previous four contests.
Most encouraging of all, his average time on ice was over 20 minutes in three consecutive games last week.
The Russian has created a whopping 21 scoring chances during this real-world point streak. Tampa matches up well against the Anaheim Ducks; young teams are ones that the Lightning often exploit. Look at what they did to the Los Angeles Kings as an example. Kucherov had a goal and assist in that one and could have easily had a couple more goals on quality chances.
Tampa Bay is expected to score only 2.95 goals on Friday night according to our model. That seems low for the visiting defending champs.
Adam Fox, Defenseman, New York Rangers
FanDuel Salary: $6,600
The New York defenseman had a not-so-good first 20 minutes on Wednesday night, but Adam Fox proved his mettle as the game went along.
The Rangers' blueliner had two goals and an assist as he single-handedly sliced through the Toronto Maple Leafs' defense. New York rallied from an early 3-1 deficit and won with ease.
Fox had two goals on just two shots but also blocked five shots. It was the kind of performance we are accustomed to seeing from last year's Norris Trophy winner.
Like Zibanejad, New York's top line may see extra run to keep pace with the high-flying Hurricanes.
Ilya Sorokin, Goalie, New York Islanders
Arizona benefitted from a series of crazy events on Wednesday to beat the New Jersey Devils. They had few chances, and yet, pucks went in the net en route to a 4-1 win.
Ilya Sorokin is a step up in class compared to a banged-up Mackenzie Blackwood -- with all due respect. Sorokin is 5-1-1 in his last seven starts and has allowed three or fewer goals in each one. Furthermore, the Islanders' goaltender is getting a bit more goal support recently. It is still hard to believe that it took this run to get the Russian above .500 at 10-7-5.
Sorokin is enjoying an excellent campaign with a goals-against-average of 2.37 and a save percentage of .927. That features three shutouts. Yes, shot volume will be a question mark from the Yotes, but Sorokin has shown he can handle heavy and light nights equally well.
The New York Islanders' goaltender vaults to the top of the stud class on Friday 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.