3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 3/23/22
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 delivers four games on the schedule. Here are a few studs.
Auston Matthews, Center, Toronto Maple Leafs
FanDuel Salary: $10,200
The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best matchups of the week -- nevermind tonight -- against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday.
Auston Matthews' goal-scoring prowess has been well-documented. He has scored nine times in the last six games on eye-popping 39 shots on goal. The center is averaging 10.3 shot attempts per game during that span.
Even in victory on Tuesday, New Jersey gave up four goals against the New York Rangers. With the prospect of Jon Gillies having to start, Matthews and Toronto could have a huge evening.
The Maple Leafs are projected to score a slate-high 3.81 goals on Wednesday, per our model, and that may be conservative. Get Matthews aboard now.
Mikko Rantanen, Wing, Colorado Avalanche
FanDuel Salary: $8,800
Mikko Rantanen has been a man on a tear over his last four contests for the Colorado Avalanche, totaling four goals and four assists in that time. For the season, he has 31 goals and 44 assists in 62 games. Rantanen has four or more shots on goal in three of his past four starts.
Colorado has a very good chance of scoring several goals tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. Our projections have them netting 3.5 goals. The Canucks rank dead last in the league on the penalty kill. Their percentage dips to 70% on the road.
Rantanen and Cale Makar are excellent options. We have Rantanen pegged for 18.3 FanDuel points, which ranks third among all skaters.
Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche
FanDuel Salary: $7,100
The aforementioned Avalanche blueliner remains a Norris Trophy and DFS favorite for a reason. He has four goals and seven assists across his last seven games. In four of these games, he had three or more shots on goal. Makar has blocked multiple shots in five of his past seven outings, helping boost his floor.
The defenseman has a superb matchup against Vancouver on Wednesday night. Colorado has a 69.5% implied winning probability.
Makar has scored at least 20 FanDuel points in two straight. He should flirt with that type of production again tonight. Our algorithm has him scoring 16.0 FanDuel points -- 3.4 more than any other defenseman.
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.
