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.

Tuesday night brings us four games as the rest of the 2022 NHL Playoffs opens. Here are some studs.

Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $10,000

The choice here was a bit more cut and dry than Monday's. Nathan MacKinnon has waited a year for this moment. He was tired of the bleep from last year's postseason, and the center sets out to ascend Colorado to new levels of success.

The Avs' last meeting with Nashville saw the center rack up nine shots on goal, ten scoring chances, and five high-danger chances. It is safe to say the Predators had some issues defending MacKinnon.

Even better for the Avalanche, Juuse Saros will be out for the first two games due to a lower-body injury. David Rittich is not exactly as imposing of a goaltender to face here.

Figuring that into the equation, expect more goals similar to what was seen in Edmonton last night.

Look to see who Colorado puts on their power play before game time and then stack accordingly. That will be a way to add some pieces without exhausting so much in salary.

Johnny Gaudreau, Wing, Calgary Flames

FanDuel Salary: $8,800

So, Johnny Gaudreau, this is the time for the forward to take the regular season and turn it up a notch for the postseason.

The Calgary Flames forward enjoyed a 40-goal season with 75 assists and set a career-high with 90 even-strength real-world points.

The Dallas Stars employ a more defensive and restrictive system at home, but on the road, they have shown a tendency to give up three or more goals with a lot of frequency. Their road record was a game under .500 as opposed to 17 over .500 at home.

Gaudreau had six goals and eight assists in seven games before he was "rested" a bit against Winnipeg Jets. He will be raring to go on Tuesday night.

The Flames expect to come out firing early and often, and that top line will be a handful.

Roman Josi, Defenseman, Nashville Predators

FanDuel Salary: $7,800

The Nashville Predators will have to play an even more frenetic style in the first two games if they expect to steal one against the Colorado Avalanche. Roman Josi will have to take even more risks to achieve that goal.

Josi had an incredible season with 23 goals and 73 assists along with some other eye-popping numbers. He closed the season with three straight 20-plus FanDuel point performances. That must continue for Nashville to have any chance early on in this series.

Since Colorado averages more than four goals at home, expect Nashville to have to at least match that. This means it is up to Josi to set the table for players like Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene.

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.