NHL DraftKings Man Advantage – 10/3
By Matt Vecchio
Welcome to the inaugural edition of NHL DraftKings DFS Man Advantage! In this article I will breakdown the NHL slate of games for each night throughout the season. Wednesday is opening night around the league and we have a small 4 game slate to start out with. As is tradition the reigning Stanley Cup champs raise the banner in what could be a high scoring affair involving two of the best offenses in the entire league in Washington and Boston. There is also the debut of John Tavares in Toronto against the Montreal Canadians. In the two late contests there is Calgary in Vancouver, which has the potential to be a one sided affair and then in the last game of the evening Erik Karlsson debuts for the San Jose Sharks at the Shark Tank as they open the season with rival Anaheim.
In this article I will attempt to give you a core of NHL DraftKings players to build your lineups around as you get set for each nights slate. I will give you multiple goaltender choices for, one each for cash and GPP plays (sometimes more depending on slate size). I am going to give you individual players in tiers (High, Mid, Value) for both defenders and forwards and then lastly I will give you a couple line stacks and possibly a game stack to target depending on the size of the slate.
As always make sure to follow me on Twitter @MVecchio81 and also follow @FantasyCPR to keep up to date on all the moves that happen throughout the day. Also make sure to check out my NHL DFS strategy guide to help you get an understanding of to build lineups and what are some of the best strategies to use when playing NHL DFS
NHL DraftKings Goaltenders
Frederick Andersen (cash) Toronto – Andersen is the unsurprisingly the highest priced goaltender on DraftKings tonight ($8,400). He is facing a Montreal Canadian team that lacks any real top end talent heading into this season. Meanwhile the Maple Leafs are loaded with talent from top to bottom and are a Stanley Cup contender entering the season. Last season Andersen had career highs in wins (38) and shutouts (5) as well as facing more shots than any goalie in the entire league last season. As the biggest favorite on the slate, Andersen is the best option for a big night and a big win tonight.
Mike Smith ( cash/gpp) Calgary – I originally had Smith as my top goalie for the night, but after checking out the Vegas lines, he is not the big favorite I expected. I still think he gets the win, but it may not be such a lock as I expected. Calgary has a much better team then Vancouver does, but the Canucks do have a bunch of young unproven talent on their roster that does make them a slight mystery heading into the season. Smith played in 55 games last season for the Flames picking up 25 wins and a very respectable 2.65 goals against average (GAA)
John Gibson ( GPP) Anaheim – Gibson is ranked as the top goaltender in the league by Corsica.Hockey, but on a night like this I am not sure I trust him cash games as the Sharks are a favorite and the Ducks are on the road. Anaheim is a team in transition, in my opinion, so this makes them hard to trust and hard to expect a win from them. Gibson is coming off the best season of his career where he had a career best .926 save percentage which was good for 8th best in the league
NHL DraftKings Individual Skaters
Defense –
High tier
Brent Burns/Erik Karlsson (San Jose) – These are two of the best fantasy defensemen in the NHL right now. Whenever they are on a slate you should always attempt to fit one of them into your rosters, especially for cash games. They both put up numbers that rival most offensive players in the league. I wouldn’t recommend using them both together, especially since they are on different d pairs. Currently according to dailyfaceoff.com they have Burns on the Sharks first defensive pair and the Karlsson on the second, but they are both on the first power play unit. I cannot really decided which one is the best option, and you can’t really go wrong with either of them especially since they are only $200 apart on DraftKings (Burnsy is the higher of the two at $7,100)
Mid tier
Mark Giordano (Calgary) – Giordano is the Flames top defenseman heading into the season. He plays on the first d pair as well as the power play and played on average over 24 minutes per game last season which was just outside the top among all players. One thing you want to look for when using a defenseman in NHL DFS is time on ice, for obvious reasons. I like Giordano against the Canucks tonight for his point potential and the fact he plays both power play and short-handed minutes. He is a good GPP pivot off of the top SJ defenseman and will save you about $1700 in salary.
Other options : Fowler (Anh)
Value tier
Jake Gardiner (Toronto) – Gardiner had career highs in both assists (47) and points (52)last season and looks to improve on those stats this season. He plays both power play and penalty kill minutes which, like Giordano above, keeps him on the ice for a good amount of time each game. Gardiner also had 15 points on the power play and was 2nd behind Morgan Rielly for shots by a defenseman on the Leafs last season. He plays similar minutes to Rielly and won’t cost you nearly as much.
Other options: McAvoy (Bos), Orlov (Was)
Forwards –
High tier
John Tavares ( Toronto) – JT signed a huge contract to come home this off-season and you know he’s going to want to show the home crowd he was worth every penny opening night at home against his teams biggest rival. You can go for a mini line stack by pairing him with Mitch Marner. Marner lead the Leafs in points last season while playing all 82 games. Marner is also expected to see plenty of time on the first PP unit alongside Tavares.
Other options: Matthews (Tor), Gaudreau (Cgy), Boeser (Van), Kane (SJ)
Mid tier
Tomas Hertl (San Jose) Hertl just got himself a nice 4 year extension this off-season so we should see a more confident player to begin the season. Hertl was 3rd on the team with 22 goals last year and 4th in points (46). What makes has me on Hertl tonight is his use on special teams He plays on the PP but also kills penalties. Anaheim allowed the 6th most SA/GP last season and San Jose took the 9th most S/GP last season. You could also look at Hertl’s linemate Timo Meier for some added value as well.
Other options: Monahan (Cgy), Rakell (Anh), Drouin (Mtl)
Value tier
Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Montreal) – For those of you who did not play in the preseason you might be saying who is this guy? Jesperi was the 3rd overall pick in this past June’s draft. The 18-year-old had 1 goal and 2 assists in 5 games this preseason and will be centering the Habs 2nd line along side Joel Armia and Jonathan Drouin and also playing minutes on the second PP unit. If you plan on paying up for some of the top guys tonight you’ll love Kotkaniemi and his $2500 price tag.
Other options: Krecji (Bos), Pettersson (Van), DeBrusk (Bos), Vrana (Was), Ennis (Tor)
NHL DraftKings – Top Stacks
My top overall line stack for the night is arguably the best line in all of hockey, Pastrnak – Bergeron – Marchand of the Boston Bruins. You will have to pay a premium to use them all or just a mini stack so you will have to find value. You may just be able to find some value on their own roster in the form of DeBrusk – Krecji – Heinen. DeBrusk and Heinen both see PP minutes and will afford you the luxury of paying up elsewhere but still getting good production out of your stack.
My next line stack comes from the same game, it’s the Captials first line. Because of Tom Wilson‘s hit on Oscar Sundqvist of the Blues in their preseason finale he will not be available. At the time of writing the Caps haven’t announced who will replace him on the wing with Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. This will probably happen after the morning skate on Wednesday, my best guess is Brett Connolly. Once it is known who skates with the first line in the morning, I will update on my Twitter. Either way I like anyone who will ended up playing with these two as a value winger in this stack .
I’m not really going to touch too much on the Maple Leafs, except to say either of their top two lines is a great stacking option.
This last stack is a real value stack that I really only recommend using in GPP’s. The Calgary Flames projected 3rd line of Dube – Ryan – Neal will be severely under owned but could produce enough to help you win some big cash in a GPP (Note that both Dube and Ryan are centers according to DK). Everyone will be on Johnny Hockey and Sean Monahan, and rightfully so, but you cannot count out this third line from netting a goal or 2. James Neal has scored 20+ goals in TEN straight seasons, Derek Ryan had a successful end of 17/18, and Dillon Dube is highly touted rookie who was fire in the preseason. Also, both Neal and Ryan play on the Flames 2nd PP unit. This stack will only cost you $12k on DraftKings leaving you over $6.3k left per player.
Birthday Narrative section for my man Brian, the aforementioned Mark Giordano is celebrating his birthday tonight for what its worth .
NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for October 3. dark. Next
Stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your NHL DFS content and Fantasy Hockey news and analysis!