FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays: October 30
By Matt Rogers
Welcome back to the FanDuel NHL Blue Line Power Plays, for Monday October 30th. We’re a daily fantasy hockey column focused on top FanDuel NHL plays for your lineups each day.
The NHL schedule is typically quite on Monday nights. But likely due to the Halloween holiday, this Tuesday in the states, the NHL piled up eight games for the Monday, October 30th FanDuel NHL slate. We have five games starting between 7pm and 8pm ET, followed by two games after 10pm ET.
Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for Monday, October 30th:
Golden Knights at Islanders (7pm ET)
Coyotes at Flyers (7pm ET)
Bruins at Blue Jackets (7pm ET)
Canadiens at Senators (7:30pm ET)
Lightening at Panthers (7:30pm ET)
Kings at Blues (8pm ET)
Stars at Canucks (10pm ET)
Maple Leafs at Sharks (10:30pm ET)
Like we did last Friday, this slate is loaded with some of the NHL’s top, and hottest, goalie talent. There are also several top offensive players to pick through, some incredibly expensive, and the top-two NHL DFS defenders. To make the night even more exciting, and easier for lineup builders, there is plenty of value options across the board. So we’ll explore the top options, our top value, and develop an example lineup for tonight.
As always, we’ll look to update our picks and final lineups prior to lock on our twitter account @FantasyCPR so make sure to give us a follow for all the late breaking lineup news.
Now let’s start building our lineups by looking at the top centers for this slate…
Top FanDuel NHL Centers: Oct 30th
It’s going to be tempting to load up your center picks with top talent tonight. Steven Stamkos ($8,800) is averaging almost 22 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, thanks to a strong start from the Lightning’s top line. But we’re going to tackle that line from the wing position tonight. Stamkos cooled off a bit against the Ducks on Saturday.
Tyler Seguin ($8,500) has been one of our favorite picks of the season, as the Stars top line continues to fire shots into the net. And the Stars have a favorable match up, visiting the Canucks in Vancouver. Seguin is one of the best cash-game plays of the night, and pairs well with one of our value picks at center.
Austin Matthews ($8,300) is typically a great play, but I don’t like his match up against Jones, in San Jose tonight. Instead, I’d rather grab the red-hot John Tavares ($8,000), and save $300 for a bigger pick in my lineup.
But we don’t need to go expensive with our centers tonight. Derick Brassard ($5,300) is manning the Senators top line tonight, at home in Ottawa, against Montoya and the struggling Canadiens. Derick can be quiet at times, but he’s on the ice for 20-25 minutes (a lot of time), and has three goals and two assists in the Sens last five games. With this match up, Brassard is a great value play, especially paired with Seguin and Tavares for cash games, or GPP plays.
Another value play we’ve loved all season is Sean Couturier ($6,100). Sean has become expensive over the last week, he used to be in the high $4K’s, but the reason is simply production. Couturier is leading the Flyers top line, and has three goals and three assists in their last three games. He has two incredible veterans at his wings, and stacking them against a horrendous Coyotes defense is a great opportunity tonight.
Now let’s take a look at the wings we want to stack along with our centers…
Top FanDuel NHL Wings: Oct 30th
We left off the top centers, with a potential Flyers top-line stack, and that’s where we begin for the wing position. Both Jakub Voracek ($7,400) and Claude Giroux ($7,100) are having and incredible start to the year.
Voracek and Giroux both struggled for a good part of last season, but Dave Hakstol, the Flyers head coach, began toying with the idea of putting Couturier with Voracek and Giroux on their top line. It went well, and continued into the season. Now, Giroux is averaging over 15 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and Voracek has over 18 a game. Stacking all three is very expensive, but Courtuier with one of the two is affordable and great for your lineup, in all formats.
We also mentioned Stamkos an the Bolts solid match up against the Panthers tonight. Vladislav Namestnikov ($5,800) is an affordable cash and GPP play stack on the Bolts top line, but Nikita Kucherov ($9,100) is a must-play in cash games.
Stacking Kucherov with Stamkos will really limit your ability to build a great lineup, so we’re going to plug Kucherov into all of our lineups, and likely fade Stamkos for better value plays at center. Nikita is averaging over 23.4 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and is red-hot right now.
Digging deeper for value picks, we love Tom Pyatt ($3,600) and Artturi Lehkonen ($4,000). Pyatt isn’t on Brassard’s top line for the Senators, but he does man the Sens second line, averages over ten FanDuel NHL points-per-game, and has several 15 to 20 point games. Also, this play leverages our ability to make big plays at defense, and keep Kucherov in our line, and with Ottawa’s match up tonight, he could have double-digits on a dirt cheap salary.
Lehkonen is a riskier play, facing a tough Anderson in goal for the Senators tonight. And the Canadiens have struggled lately. But Artturi is getting 15 to 20 minutes of ice time per game, playing on the Habs top line, and is consistently landing around seven FanDuel NHL points-per-game. So we’re locking in close to ten points, for a cheap $4K price, and leaving cash on the table for some bigger plays across the lineup.
Top FanDuel NHL Defenders: Oct 30th
We were high on Erik Karlsson ($7,500) on Friday, and he rewarded us with 16 FanDuel NHL points. However, that was lower than we were expecting, given his 19.7 FanDuel NHL points-per-game average so far this year, and the pricey salary.
But tonight, we should see a better result with the Habs giving Care Price a rest in Ottawa. The Senators have a favorable match up, and Karlsson is too great to ignore for cash games. Also, we’ve already accumulated a lot of salary thanks to several great value picks in our lineup.
While he hasn’t been as dominate this season, Brent Burns ($7,200) should also be a great play tonight. The Maple Leafs have been a hot offensive team, scoring the most goals per game this season. But their defense and goal-tending has been unsatisfactory. Burns will have several scoring chances tonight, and could put a few in the net. Stacking these top-two defenders is pricey, but not impossible.
The hottest defender for FanDuel NHL to start this season is Alex Pietrangelo ($4,600). He’s been my favorite play of the season on defense, so far, but I hate his match up against a very hot Jonathan Quick. Instead, I’m going to look for value while playing Karlsson or Burnsy.
With Shayne Gostisbehere ($5,900) day-to-day because of what they’re calling an ‘upper body injury,’ Ivan Provorov ($4,300) is an immediate upgrade. The 20-year-old second year defender has been on the Flyers top line since last season, but with Ghost on ice, Provorov is going to be more involved in the Flyers man advantage opportunities.
In Ottawa last week, Ivan had a goal and assists, three shots on goal, and three blocked shots for 31.2 FanDuel NHL points. Provorov followed that up with 11.2 points over the weekend. This is a solid 15-20 point play with a dirt-cheap $4.3K salary.
Top FanDuel NHL Goalies: Oct 30th
With Great goalie options on the slate tonight like Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,500), Sergei Bobrovsky ($9,400), and Jonathan Quick ($9,300), some of the better options like Ben Bishop ($8,800) will get buried tonight, and we could see low ownership across the board, in all formats.
That presents several great opportunities but we like two the most, Oscar Dansk ($7,400) and Brian Elliott ($7,400). There’s generally risk with each of these plays, but for two distinct reasons. After two unfortunate goalie injuries to the hottest team in the NHL right now, the Vegas Golden Knights, Oscar Dansk was called in to start for the Knights on Oct 21st.
Since his first start, Oscar is 3-0, giving up only three goals in 71 shots, an incredibly efficient start to his NHL career. But the 23-year-old Swede has not been this solid, historically, so there’s risk that Dansk could eventually ‘come back down to earth.’ That being said, riding the hot Knights has been a profitable start to the season for FanDuel NHL players. Oscar is a great value tonight.
While the Golden Knights have started the season with an incredibly positive surge, the Arizona Coyotes have been dreadful. The Yotes have yet to win a game this season, and they’re in Philly tonight to play an emerging Flyers team. Elliott will be minding the net for the Flyers tonight, and aside from two terrible starts this season, Brian has been having a great year.
Elliott gave up six goals to the Ducks and Predators, per game, in his only two losses of the year. But Brian is 5-2, and in five of his seven stars, he’s pulling in well over 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game. Tonight, he’s facing a team who has only scored 26 goals in eleven games. So Elliott’s odds of winning are significant, and his odds of giving up more than a goal or two are very low. This is another great value play at goalie tonight.
So, after reviewing all of our favorite options, here’s an example of a lineup we put together for Oct 30th FanDuel NHL:
C Couturier (PHI $6,100)
C Brassard (OTT $5,300)
W Kucherov (TB $9,100)
W Voracek (PHI $7,400)
W Lehkonen (MON $4,000)
W Pyatt (OTT $3,600)
D Provorov (PHI $4,300)
D Karlsson (OTT $7,500)
G Elliott (PHI $7,400)
Note: This is a recommended lineup after discussing our top options for the week. You should use this as a guide, and provide your own input when building FanDuel NHL lineups. We are not telling you, or selling you, to use this lineup.
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