FanDuel NHL: January 19
By Matt Rogers
FanDuel NHL: January 19 is a daily fantasy sports column focusing on the best FanDuel NHL player and value options for your daily lineups. The salary options are based on the daily salaries set by FanDuel. We’ll check the best options in each position, and help you afford an ideal lineup for your big FanDuel NHL paydays.
Before we review the top options for each FanDuel NHL lineup position, let’s review the FanDuel NHL scoring rules:
Forwards/Defense
- Goals = 12pts
- Assists = 8pts
- Shots on Goal = 1.6pts
- Short Handed points = 2pts
- Power Play Points = 0.5pts
- Blocked Shots = 1.6pts
Goalies
- Win = 12pts
- Goals Against = -4pts
- Saves = 0.8pts
- Shutouts = 8pts
Given the FanDuel NHL scoring options, we know the top options for offense and defense are players who tend to score a goal or record an assist in most games. Also, if one of those players is often playing on the penalty kill, there’s an added benefit if they could score the unique short-handed goal.
As for Goalies, you’ll want to pick a goalie on a team who has the highest winning percentage of the day. Losing the 12 point win can easily be the difference between losing money and a big pay-day. A FanDuel comparison would be picking a MLB pitcher who will most likely win.
Now that we’ve established the rules and goals for playing FanDuel NHL, let’s take a look at tonight’s best options:
Next: Top Centers
Top Centers
Stacking teams against bad defenses and bad goalies will be the theme of today’s lineups.
The Dallas Stars have given up 144 goals already this season, near the bottom of the NHL. Over the last three games, the Stars over 5.3 goals given up per game. So with the New York Islanders playing the Stars tonight, we’re going to stack several Isles into our lineup to take advantage of Dallas’ poor defensive play.
The Islanders aren’t having a good season, even recently canning their head coach. But John Tavares ($8,200) is still a great hockey player and the best player on the Islanders this season. And recently, Tavares has been hot. Over the last three games, John has ten shots and five goals, not a bad shooting average. Tavares is expensive at Center, but he’s very likely to score at least one goal tonight for the Islanders.
As a value pick Stephen Gionta ($3,000) probably isn’t going to jump out to a lot of FanDuel NHL players. Gionta was recently called up from the AHL, and scored 4.8 FanDuel NHL points against Boston on Monday. Tonight, Stephen’s leading the Islander’s 2nd line and, with a game under his belt, Gionta is going to pick up more points with multiple scoring opportunities. Stephen is a sneaky value pick tonight.
Next: Top Wings
Top Wings
One of the current NHL era’s top offensive talent’s, Alex Ovechkin ($8,900) is on fire lately. Ovi has three goals and six assists in the Capitals last five games. Alex is averaging well over 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game in the last two weeks and exceeded 30 points twice in the last five games. Tonight, the Caps are playing the Blues in St. Louis and we expect Ovechkin to have another double-digit night.
With Martin Jones likely getting a night off for the San Jose Sharks, we expect a re-surging Tampa Bay Lightening offense to overwhelm Aaron Dell. So we’re going to stack the rest of the wings with Tampa talent.
At the top of the Lightening list of offensive talent at wing is Nikita Kucherov ($7,800). Nikita is know to be hit-or-miss for FanDuel NHL players, but when he bounces back with the right match-ups, he’s a windfall of points. And, tonight is a good match-up for Kucherov.
Looking for value in the 2nd and 4th line for the Lightening tonight, we’ll plug-in Erik Condra ($3,000) and Gabriel Dumont ($3,000) into our lineups.
Condra is the only wing with a $3,000 salary range who plays higher than a 4th line tonight. He may be a miss, but has incredible upside if he gets a few shots at goal. These plays will also allow us to continue to hit big names at defense and goaltender.
Next: Top Defense
Top Defense
At risk of sounding like a broken record (do people still understand that phrase?) for defense, Brent Burns ($8,200) is a must have in this spot when playing. Burnsy is quite simply the most offensively dominate defender in the NHL and will consistently inflate your NHL point totals when he’s on the ice. Play the man!
Scott Mayfield ($3,300) is another Islander recently recalled from the AHL. Having only seen NHL ice four times this season, Scott is actually very effective for FanDuel NHL, averaging around 15 points-per-game. On Saturday, Mayfield had an assist and three shots on goal totaling 14.4 points on a very cheap salary. A great value pick to tag to Burns tonight.
Next: Top Goalie
Top Goalie
I typically like to find value at goalie so we can build a more even lineup, but we identified multiple value picks already while building a robust lineup, and we have $9,600 left for salary.
So, we’re going with the best option on the goalie board, Braden Holtby ($9,600). Holtby and the Capitals have absolutely been on fire. When the Caps played the Blackhawks last weekend, I noticed multiple obvious scoring opportunities for the Blackhaws, but Braden seems to have a magnet for pads with the puck.
The big question will be can he shake off a bad no decision against the Penguins from Monday? My bet is he will. The last time Holtby need to rebound from a bad no decision, he shut out a streaking Columbus Blue Jackets and piled up 43.2 FanDuel NHL points. Let’s hope he can do that tonight!
Next: FanDuel NFL Conf Champ Playoffs
Always check NHL lineups throughout the day when playing FanDuel NHL. As a fan, you likely know the league isn’t overly forthcoming with injury news, and players are often scratched at the last-minute with little information. Also, goaltenders are never a sure-thing. Good Luck today FanDuelers!