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 hammers in with 11 games. Let's hunt for some the best studs.
Aleksander Barkov, Center, Florida Panthers
FanDuel Salary: $9,700
The Florida Panthers have the best matchup of the night against the Detroit Red Wings. Aleksander Barkov is one of the prime options for the center position.
Barkov comes off a hat trick on Tuesday against the New York Islanders. He scored all three goals in the 3-2 overtime victory.
The Red Wings give up 3.79 goals per game while Florida scores at a clip of 4.17 goals per contest. Detroit's penalty kill functions at just 73.2% on the road while Florida's power-play connects at just over 24% at home.
With Auston Matthews on the road against Tampa Bay Lightning -- if he even plays -- Barkov is by far the best stud choice tonight.
Johnny Gaudreau, Wing, Calgary Flames
FanDuel Salary: $9,300
The wing carries some significant prominence on this Thursday slate.
It's been something to see how consistent John Gaudreau has been at even-strength. There is a chance that Gaudreau could approach 90 even-strength real-world points.
With the Dallas Stars in town, they are desperate for a win. Their eagerness to find offense and being unrested after playing Edmonton only helps Gaudreau's cause.
The Calgary Flames have far more depth, and the Flames could easily exceed their 3.03-goal projection.
A few other choices in this salary range include Jonathan Huberdeau and Kirill Kaprizov.
Victor Hedman, Defenseman, Tampa Bay Lightning
FanDuel Salary: $7,100
The Tampa Bay Lightning suffered an embarrassing loss to the Red Wings on Tuesday night and look to bounce back versus the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It is a matchup that becomes quite vital for Tampa Bay. They need points to avoid playing Carolina or even the New York Rangers. Victor Hedman has five assists in his previous two games but does not have a goal in the last 10 contests.
However, his floor has been reasonably solid, and he has 10 shots and 4 blocked shots over this latest three-game span.
There is a likelihood that Hedman notches a third consecutive game with double-digit FanDuel points with ease on Thursday.
Ilya Sorokin, Goalie, New York Islanders
When Ilya Sorokin is up against Igor Shesterkin, just get the popcorn ready.
The goaltender has three stud performances out of his last six starts. Even in the loss to Florida on Tuesday, Sorokin stopped 39 of 42 shots in the 3-2 overtime loss. He was a bit unlucky on goals two and three from Aleksander Barkov.
Sorokin has seen 122 shots over his last three games, and he has stopped 116 of them. Sorokin went just 1-1-1 in the span, illustrating just how few goals the New York Islanders score sometimes.
The Islanders do play better against the Rangers, especially at home. That gives Sorokin the chance for a win as a cheap stud play.
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.