5 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 3/10/22
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.
Thursday night checks in with 13 games in all. Let's get at it!
Auston Matthews, Center, Toronto Maple Leafs
FanDuel Salary: $10,100
The great news for the Toronto Maple Leafs? They play the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night. The even better news? Auston Matthews has been firing in goals from all angles lately.
It has been essential since Toronto has needed every goal just to offset its leaky goaltending. Matthews has 43 goals in 54 games -- including six in his last three alone. Arizona allows 3.55 goals per game. but more importantly, they cede 35.4 shots per game on the road (31st in the NHL).
The Toronto center has three straight games of 30-plus FanDuel Points, and a fourth is at least plausible given the matchup on Thursday.
Matthews has a projection of 18.1 FanDuel points, which is second among all skaters on this immense slate. He is one of the better plays at his salary.
Max Pacioretty, Wing, Vegas Golden Knights
FanDuel Salary: $9,300
Max Pacioretty could be showing signs of a possible return to DFS prominence.
He has 12 shots on goal and 15 scoring chances in his last two games. Yes, there has been just one assist on the score sheet, but the feeling is that points could be on the way with that volume.
As Jack Eichel makes his long-awaited return to Buffalo on Thursday night, the expectation is that Pacioretty should get plenty of looks while the Sabres paying extra attention to the former disgruntled Buffalo star and current Vegas Golden Knights center.
The gigantic slate will make it difficult to mini-stack this line, but playing Pacioretty could be beneficial. This game expects to be one of those that starts with a bang.
Kyle Connor, Wing, Winnipeg Jets
FanDuel Salary: $9,700
Kyle Connor also gets a matchup against a team with a porous defense. New Jersey should have trouble matching up with the Jets' power play because of Connor's ability to get open for his one-timer -- one of the best single shots in the entire NHL.
However, Connor has been dangerous in all phases of late. He scored a short-handed goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. In that wild, six-goal first period, Connor played a role with two of the three tallies for Winnipeg.
With the possibility that this game in New Jersey is as wild (7.0-goal total), Connor becomes a viable option again. He also has five or more shots on goal in four of his last six starts for some security.
Winnipeg has plenty of value to offset his salary, including a defenseman like Neal Pionk or Josh Morrissey.
Noah Dobson, Defenseman, New York Islanders
FanDuel Salary: $6,400
One of the newest DFS studs amongst defensemen may just be Noah Dobson. The young blueliner from the New York Islanders is gaining confidence and shooting the puck much more lately.
Any player in a matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets can be considered a good one. Dobson has at least five shots on goal in two of his last three games, and he is up to 10 goals on the season. Really, he is just tapping into his potential as his role increases.
He's now regularly seeing power-play time and over 21 minutes per contest. Plus, Dobson overall has two goals and five assists in his last six games, and quietly, the defender can sneak in multiple blocked shots at times as well.
We have the Islanders projected to score 3.43 goals, so you can ram Dobson into your lineup while looking for cheaper options like Kyle Palmieri to offset his decently-high salary.
Sergei Bobrovsky, Goalie, Florida Panthers
One of the easiest decisions to score a win on Thursday night involves Sergei Bobrovsky and the Florida Panthers.
They're hosting the lowly Philadelphia Flyers. Bobrovsky has 20-plus FanDuel points in five of his last seven starts, and that includes three straight wins. The Florida goaltender has won 9 of his last 11 decisions to boot.
Bobrovsky has a solid matchup against the Flyers and could see 30-plus shots against -- great for his DFS point potential on Thursday.
Also, Florida has one of the best win probabilities of the night at 71.4%.
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.
