NHL DFS Man Advantage 10/6

Welcome to NHL DFS  Man Advantage for  Saturdays big 11 game slate. I am going to a hybrid of best plays and game breakdowns for each NHL slate I cover. I will give you my choices for cash and GPP goalies, a break down of 4-6 games depending on slate size, for smaller slates I will break down every game, and lastly I will give you a “best of the rest”  for the remaining games on the larger slates.  

This is the first Saturday of the season and for those of you new to NHL DFS or the NHL in general Saturday is like an NFL Sunday where almost every team is in action at some point in the day. Tonight all the stars are out for the first Saturday of the season. We have Crosby and Malkin hosting Montreal, Stamkos and the Lightning hosting the Florida Panthers, Patrick Laine, Dustin Byfuglien and the Jets skating down in Dallas against Jamie Benn and the Stars to name a few.

For tonight’s slate I will be giving you two cash plays in net and 1 GPP play as well as breaking down 6 games that seem to have the best fantasy plays and then lastly, the best of the rest section with some quick hits on line stacks and individual players who could help you cash outside of the 6 featured games. Remember to check me out on Twitter @MVecchio81 and follow @FantasyCPR for all your fantasy needs!

NHL DFS Goalies

Cash

Matt Murray ( PIT) – Murray had a less than stellar performance against the Capitals to open the season giving up 6 goals, but he did earn the win in the Penguins 7-6 overtime win. Tonight Murray has an easier matchup it would seem in the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal scored only 2 goals in their opener on Wednesday against the Maple Leafs and do not have the fire power to put up the time of goals the Capitals did. I think Murray has a bounce back performance Saturday in what could be an easy win for him and the Penguins

Frederick Andersen (TOR) – Andersen gets a home matchup on Saturday with the Ottawa Senators. Andersen and Murray are only separated by $200 on DraftKings so it really comes down to who you feel more comfortable using tonight. I would favor Andersen tonight even though he is the higher priced of the two because I do think his matchup with the Senators is the easier of the two and there is more shutout potential with Andersen

GPP

Antii Raanta (ARI) – Even though Raanta is an underdog on Saturday I like his chances of picking up a win against Anaheim. Arizona is at home and is a younger and faster team then the Ducks. This game has the closest money line of the night (-120) and is one of the few games that has an over/under below 6. Neither team is an offensive juggernaut a so it could be a low scoring game, even though Anaheim did put up 5 goals against the Sharks in their opener.  Raanta will be extremely low owned as well with so many other options in net he could set you apart from the crowd in large GPP conests

NHL DFS Man Advantage 10/6

Montreal Canadiens @ Pittsburgh Penguins

This game has a very lopsided feel to it with the Penguins being a Stanley Cup contender and the Canadiens in a rebuild. Starting with the Penguins their first two lines are ALWAYS in play. With the potential for a lot of goals to be scored by them tonight I might employ a strategy of taking two forwards from different lines but play on the same PP unit. If you are looking to spend way up on the Penguins tonight, and this is a place I would recommend doing so, then you could use Sidney Crosby or Patric Hornqvist to get exposure to the first line, and then either Evgeni Malkin or Phil Kessel for 2nd line minutes. All 4 of those guys play on the same PP unit with Kris Letang. If you want to spend down a little and save your big bucks for a different game, which I would recommend for GPP’s, you can use Jake Guentzel who plays with Crosby and Hornqvist on the first line and then use Derick Brassard along with him for exposure to the second PP unit. On defense both Justin Schultz and Erik Johnson play on the second PP unit and will give you value on defense. As far as Montreal goes there is less to be excited about here. I am not a big fan on Montreal’s first line, I would rather use Jesperi Kotkaniemi or Jonathan Drouin from line 2. You can also go down to the Canadiens 3rd line of Max Domi – Paul Byron – Artturi Lehkonen since they seemed to mesh very well as they scored 4 points combined against the Maple Leafs. There is very little fantasy value in Montreal’s defense.

Winnipeg Jets @ Dallas Stars

This is my pick for game of the night. This game can one of two ways, it can be an offensive shootout or be an extremely low scoring game as two of the games best goaltenders are likely to be in net for this one in Connor Hellebuyck and Ben Bishop. Starting with Dallas I am really only interested in their first line of Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov. If you want to find some cheap value you can use Mattias Janmark or Jason Spezza but that is probably as far as I would go with the Stars until I see more out of the younger guys they have in the lineup. I do really like their first d pair of Esa Lindell and John Klingberg. Both of these guys get you PP exposure and Lindell is severely underpriced at $3.5k on DraftKings. For Winnipeg there is much more to like from a fantasy point of view. Their first line is one the best in the league ( Kyle Connors – Mark Scheifele – Blake Wheeler) and they are usually on the score sheet some way in every game. You can use their second line as well as Patrick Laine is one of the best young players in the league and has a legitimate shot at the scoring title this season. His Mathieu Perreault and Bryan Little are also in play as well as 3rd line winger Nikolaj Ehlers. On defense there are 4 possible fantasy option, though Dustin Byfuglien is the best of the bunch.

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators

As I talked about in the goalie section Frederick Andersen is my top cash game goalie so I won’t go to into detail about Ottawa. I will tell you that if you did want to try to use some players from them for GPP’s I would suggest staying with the Senators top line of Ryan Dzingel – Matt Duchene – Bobby Ryan or as a one off Zack Smith since I think he is playing with a chip on his shoulder since he was waived by this Senator team just a week ago. If you want some deep value on defense I like rookie Maxime Lajoie. He scored and had an assist to go along with 3 shots in his NHL debut Thursday against Chicago. For Toronto you all know the big guns on the top two lines which include John Tavares and Auston Matthews. If you want to use Tavares you pair him with Zach Hyman and Mitch Marner for a line stack, for Matthews its Patrick Marleau and Tyler Ennis. Outside of the top two lines I would only suggest Nazim Kadri as a forward since he plays on the first PP unit with Tavares and Matthews. On Defense only two guys have real fantasy value, Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner. Both play a similar game so either is a good play but Gardiner did jump $400 in salary since Wednesday ($5.1K).

NHL DFS Man Advantage 10/6

Florida Panthers @ Tampa Bay Lightning

This is going to  It is two high-powered offenses who know each other very well. A lot of people know how good Tampa is and who their stars are. Florida is a lesser known team but they do have some of the most talented players in the league. Florida’s first two lines are both a threat to score every time, if I was picking one line it would be Evgeny Dadonov – Aleksander Barkov – Nick Bjustad. You can save some cash with line two ( Jonathan Huberdeau – Vincent Trochek – Mike Hoffman), but I’d prefer single play here with either Trochek or Huberdeau. On defense there is Keith Yandle and Aaron Ekblad, these two played more minutes 5v5 last season together then any d pair in the entire league.  For Tampa its the usual suspects here of Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov on the first line and first pp unit. Brayden Point joins them there along with Victor Hedman. You can use Point with either Stamkos or Kucherov to get exposure to both first and second lines.

Vegas Golden Knights @ Minnesota Wild

Vegas had a let down in their opener against Philadelphia and look to bounce back in Minnesota. This game is another that has a chance of being a low scoring affair. I like the Knights second line of Max Pacioretty – Paul Stasny – Alex Tuch as my favorite line from this game. They are a veteran line who can score plenty of goals. Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson are alsoa good 2 man stack from the Knights first line. I am not big on anyone from Vegas’ d core. With Minnesota they have plenty of scoring options. I am very high on the first line of Jason Zucker – Eric Staal – Mikael Granlund, but there is a good sneaky third line here that could give you an edge in GPP contests. I am vey high on Joel Eriksson Ek – Jordan Greenway – Charlie Coyle. Mathew Dumba and Ryan Suter are the best options on defense in this game. Dumba had 3 shots on goal and a blocked shot in their opening season loss to Colorado.

PhiladelphiaFlyers @ Colorado Avalanche

This game has two very talented offenses battling in the Mile High city. I am a big fan of the Avalanche’s first line of Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen. MacKinnon had a goal and 8 shots in their first game and Rantanen had a goal and an assist in their first game. As far as the defense goes there isn’t much outside of Tyson Barrie for the Avalanche. For the flyers they go three deep in their scoring lines, here is a link the their daily face off page so you can see them yourself, https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/teams/philadelphia-flyers/line-combinations/ . They have one of the best D combos as well in Ivan Provorov and Shane Gostisbehere.  I love both of the defenders and if you can them in definitely use one of them.

NHL DFS Man Advantage 10/6

Best of the rest

Calgary first line Elias Lindholm – Sean Monahan – Johnny Gaudreau,  defenseman Mark Giordano

St. Louis top line of Patrick Maroon – Ryan O’Reilly – Vladimir Tarasenko on off players are Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn and Alex Pietrangelo on Defense. If Jake Allen starts he’s a cash option in net.

In the Nashville and New York Islanders game it’s the top lines here, Filip Forsberg – Ryan Johansen – Viktor Arvidsson for the Preds and Anthony Beauvillier – Matthew Barzal – Josh Bailey ( scored the OT winner Thursday)

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the new format. Please let me know your feedback.  My goal is to make these articles helpful and fun for you guys!