NHL

​3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 3/11/22​

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Mar 11th, 2022
Sidney Crosby draws a solid matchup with Vegas on a back-to-back. Who else can you trust in NHL DFS?

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.

Friday night fires up four games on the schedule. Here are a few studs.

Sidney Crosby, Center, Pittsburgh Penguins

FanDuel Salary: $8,400

There are not as many centers on Friday night that have as good of a matchup as Sidney Crosby does.

His matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights is a stellar one. Vegas just played last night and is without their goalie, Robin Lehner. Vegas' defense has been one of the worst in the league over the past month allowing three goals a game. Against Boston, they allowed five, and against Calgary, they yielded six.

Crosby himself has three straight games of 20+ FanDuel points. Our model projects Crosby at 16.8 points among skaters on Friday (third among skaters).

This matchup makes for other targets as well. Bryan Rust and Kasperi Kapanen are plus options.

Alex Ovechkin, Wing, Washington Capitals

FanDuel Salary: $9,800

Alex Ovechkin had a sure goal taken away from him on Tuesday night in Edmonton Oilers, and he was displeased -- to say the least.

Ovechkin had 8 shots on 11 attempts against the Oilers though with a whopping 9 scoring chances. He could enjoy the same type of night against a Vancouver Canucks' defense that has the league's worst penalty kill at home (70%).

Before that Oilers game, Ovechkin had five goals and three assists in his previous six contests. He was averaging a not-so Ovechkin like 3.33 shots per game. Usually, that number is closer to four.

This Friday night play has some stacking possibilities too with Nicklas Backstrom or Tom Wilson, too.

Noah Dobson, Defenseman, New York Islanders

FanDuel Salary: $6,300

The New York Islanders' young defender keeps on rolling along.

Noah Dobson sees a plus-matchup against the Winnipeg Jets, who just played in New Jersey last night.

The defenseman is their best offensive threat arguably on the entire team right now. Dobson has real-world points in six of his past seven starts.

Dobson had an assist, on three shots, and three blocked shots against Columbus Blue Jackets in his last game.

The Jets are only killing penalties at a 75% clip on the road since January 1st. They just are not the same since Paul Maurice "retired".


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.