NHL

​3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 2/23/22​

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Feb 23rd, 2022
Nikita Kucherov has been rolling like his usual self lately. Who else can we trust on Wednesday's slate?

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 spending 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 spending salary in the right spots when building our lineups tonight.

Wednesday night has five games on the schedule. Here are some studs.

Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $9,900

Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers face one stern test this week with three of the toughest road games imaginable. First up, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Entering this stretch, McDavid has three goals and eight assists in his past seven games. That goes along with 31 shots and 35 scoring chances. McDavid is back to being a fantasy hockey cheat code.

Yes, Tampa Bay can be a difficult team to play against, but even the New Jersey Devils have scored eight goals against them in their last two meetings. McDavid, of all studs, could penetrate the defense that's first in goals allowed since January 1st.

With the matchup comes an opportunity to cash on an elite producer at minimal popularity. Plus, there are low-salary ways to stack McDavid on Wednesday, including Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard.

Nikita Kucherov, Wing, Tampa Bay Lightning

FanDuel Salary: $9,700

On the other side of that one, Nikita Kucherov and the Bolts entertain Edmonton.

Following last week's dud against the Arizona Coyotes, the Russian winger has 20-plus FanDuel Points in three of his past four games (and 8 of last 10). It is safe to say Kucherov is back to his normal self.

After being a top-five unit in three straight seasons, the Tampa Bay power play should be due for regression as well. They rank just 19th in the league at 19.2%, and Edmonton's 35 power-play goals allowed (seventh-most in the NHL) seems like a decent target for said regression.

Kucherov ranks sixth among wingers at 14.4 projected FanDuel Points, and Steven Stamkos is right there as a stacking partner, too.

Drew Doughty, Defenseman, Los Angeles Kings

FanDuel Salary: $6,900

Drew Doughty could be entertaining in a matchup versus the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night.

Arizona allows the second-most FanDuel points to defensemen. The veteran is playing well at the moment; he has 3 goals and 4 assists in his previous five contests with 17 shots on goal and 10 blocked shots to boot.

Los Angeles relies heavily on Doughty to start their offense, and he is the one producing at the best frequency with the Kings' top line and power-play unit.

On this slate, Cale Makar and Victor Hedman should be popular, but lower-salaried options like Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe can complete this budget-friendly stack and help get back to the Oilers-Bolts showdown.


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.