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.

Monday night delivers four more Game 4s. Here are some studs.

Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $10,100

Nathan MacKinnon is the anchor for any roster on Monday night. The Colorado Avalanche center cannot be contained by the Nashville Predators.

The Avs' are up three games to none and have their first chance to close out the Predators.

This is mostly because of how MacKinnon has played over their previous four matchups. In that time, the center has 29 shots on goal, 32 scoring chances, 4 goals, an assist, and 2 power-play goals.

MacKinnon is the elite play, and he can be stacked in a variety of ways, but that power play of Colorado's is dynamite. It struck four times in Game 3 alone.

Keep a lookout to see how Colorado stacks their lines, but players like Andre Burakovsky, Valeri Nichushkin, and even Devon Toews are slightly less expensive ways to diversify without spending salary on their more costly counterparts.

Alex Ovechkin, Wing, Washington Capitals

FanDuel Salary: $9,700

In the first two games, the shoulder of Alex Ovechkin was an issue. Over the weekend, it was clear that Ovechkin was more healthy.

Obviously, playing more than 20 minutes was one sign. Another sign was the several high-impact hits the winger delivered.

He also scored a power-play goal from his office, and his shot had noticeably more zip. It was apparent from the beginning, as the Washington Capitals found a way to score six unanswered goals en route to a 2-1 series lead.

The "Great Eight" is a great option. For slightly less salary, also consider Jake Guentzel ($8,400), who has four goals against the New York Rangers in three games.

Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $7,600

The Cale Makar playoff experience has been frightening for Nashville but great for DFS players. Makar has 30-plus FanDuel points in every game so far in this series.

Makar now has three goals and five assists in his last four games versus the Predators. This comes with a whopping 21 shots and 8 blocked shots in all. That is a floor propped up by a man advantage that has bordered on ridiculous.

Nashville has little that can slow down that kind of production from Makar. It becomes a matter of which value plays can be stacked around such studs to assure success.

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.