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 serves up four games on the schedule. Here are a few studs.
Jack Hughes, Center, New Jersey Devils
FanDuel Salary: $8,200
The New Jersey Devils are awful on the road. Thankfully, Jack Hughes is not awful from a DFS standpoint.
His youth serves him well, even against the Calgary Flames. Calgary can frustrate the opposition, but occasionally they can get suckered into a free-wheeling game. That is right up Hughes' alley. He thrives off chaos. On Tuesday night, he had a goal and an assist against Vancouver with five shots on goal. With him on the ice, scoring chances were nearly three to one in favor of New Jersey.
In 10 of Hughes' last 12 games, he has 19-plus FanDuel points.
This game has the look of a track meet if New Jersey wants it that way. It could be fun to look Damon Severson, as well, along with Dawson Mercer.
Johnny Gaudreau, Wing, Calgary Flames
FanDuel Salary: $8,700
The salary of John Gaudreau gradually inches upward. That is great news on Wednesday night.
New Jersey has allowed more than 3.6 goals per game on the road since January 1st. They allowed six against Vancouver on Tuesday night and had severe trouble defending the Canucks' top-six.
Now, Gaudreau and the top line is just a little bit better and has more firepower with Matthew Tkachuk, Elias Lindholm, and company. Calgary's left-winger could easily top 20 FanDuel points. After all, he has done it three times in his past six tries.
He has a possible defensive companion in Oliver Kylington.
Zach Werenski, Defenseman, Columbus Blue Jackets
FanDuel Salary: $6,600
The Columbus Blue Jackets could score some goals on Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators.
Considering the Blue Jackets have allowed 35 goals in their last nine games, they likely have little choice.
The defenseman is their best offensive threat -- period. He has real-world points in consecutive games and at least three shots on goal in seven straight. Werenski even has two blocked shots in three of his past four appearances.
The Senators allow 33.4 shots per game and 3.27 goals per night (27th and 22nd, respectively), so Werenski has plenty of upside.
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.