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NHL DFS Man Advantage Thursday October 18

By Matt Vecchio

NHL DFS: OTTAWA, ON - OCTOBER 4: Alex DeBrincat #12 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates his first-period goal against the Ottawa Senators with team mates Jonathan Toews #19 and Dominik Kahun #24 at Canadian Tire Centre on October 4, 2018 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)
NHL DFS: OTTAWA, ON - OCTOBER 4: Alex DeBrincat #12 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates his first-period goal against the Ottawa Senators with team mates Jonathan Toews #19 and Dominik Kahun #24 at Canadian Tire Centre on October 4, 2018 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images) /
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NHL DFS
NHL DFS: COLUMBUS, OH – APRIL 23: Sergei Bobrovsky #72 of the Columbus Blue Jackets makes a save in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Washington Capitals on April 23, 2018 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Washington defeated Columbus 6-3 to win the series 4-2. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Sergei Bobrovsky /

Welcome to NHL DFS Man Advantage for Thursday night October 18. Tonight we have a nice 9 game slate with some of top scoring teams in Toronto and Chicago on the slate as well as some good choices in net like Hellebuyck, Kinkaid, Vasilevskiy,and Martin Jones. 

We have a matchup between the Leafs and the Penguins that could be a 7-6 game and that would be glorious! We also have the Blackhawks, who are a surprise offensive juggernaut, hosting the lowly Arizona Coyotes. Boston is finishing up their Alberta tour by taking on Connor McDavid and the Oilers and the Islanders play a back to back in Cali by taking on the Kings in L.A.

NHL DFS Goalies

My first and probably most obvious play seems to be Andrei Vasilevskiy as Tampa host the winless Red Wings. In his 3 starts Vasilevskiy has been as good as advertised with a .950 SV% and a GAA of 1.64. Detroit has only scored 14 goals in its first 6 games and are averaging nearly 29 shots a game.

Sergei Bobrovsky starts in net for the Blue Jackets on Thursday and seem to be a viable option. He is one the most talented goalies in the league but has been off to a slow start.  Philadelphia takes a ton of shots, 7th in the league with 192, and that bodes well for Bobrovsky. If he can fix what is ailing him early on, Bob could be a low owned high upside goalie for Thursday

Connor Hellebuyck seems to be in the article every game he plays and that’s probably because he is one of the best goalies in the league. Winnipeg allows the 7th most shots against and Hellebuyck has started slow as well with a .906 SV% and 2.99 GAA.

Chicago gets Corey Crawford back in net on Thursday against the Coyotes. Crawford has been out injured since December 2017 with lingering concussion symptoms. It won’t be 100% he starts until after the morning skate on Thursday, but as long as everything goes well he will be in net. Arizona has been one of the leagues worst this season with only 3 goals scored in 5 games this season. This seems like a great spot for Crawford to  make his return, I am taking a wait and see approach with Crawford but if you want to play him this is as good as any spot to play him.

If Keith Kinkaid gets the start against the Avalanche he is one of the top options for Thursday. Kinkaid has been one the league’s top goalies this season with a 1.00 GAA and 2 shutouts in 4 starts. Colorado is averaging the 4th lowest goals per game as well.

Some other options on this 9 game slate are Martin Jones from San Jose against Buffalo, and Jaroslav Halak  against Edmonton

TORONTO,ON – SEPTEMBER 21: John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs sets up the power play against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL pre-season game at Scotiabank Arena on September 21, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO,ON – SEPTEMBER 21: John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs sets up the power play against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL pre-season game at Scotiabank Arena on September 21, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

NHL DFS Game Breakdowns

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Pittsburgh Penguins

This game has all the makings of an epic shootout. Both teams have some of the best offensive players in the world and they will be on full display Thursday. Both teams have loaded top 6 forwards with players like Bryan Rust, Zach Hyman, and Carl Hagelin offering salary relief for line stack. One player from Toronto making an impact on the first line is Kasperi Kapanen who has been elevated to the first line with Matthew and Marleau. Kapanen has 4 goals and 4 assists on 17 shots this season and is a threat to put up multiple points against the Penguins. For Pittsburgh there is some value in 4th liner Daniel Sprong. He not only plays on the 4th line but also on the second pp unit. Sprong has 3 assists on the season but has yet to take a shot on net though. On defense Morgan Rielly and Kris Letang are both the top play, but there is some good value for Pittsburgh with Juuso Riikola in place on Justin Schultz. Riikola plays on the second pp unit and 3rd D pair and is averaging 18+ minutes per fame.  . Jake Gardiner is having a good start to the year with 5 assists so far and is averaging nearly 21 minutes per game ice time.

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Colorado Avalanche @ New Jersey Devils

We know Phillip Grubauer is starting for Colorado, this is his second start of the season. In his first start Grubauer gave up 4 goals on 34 shots. New Jersey has been on fire starting the season 4-0-0 with Kyle Palmieri there hottest player. His line mates, Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier have combined for 6 assists to go with Palmieri’s 7 goals. Jean-Sebastien Dea is a great value play and has 3 goals while playing on the 4th line and 2nd pp unit. For Colorado their top line is their man source of goals, but both Carl Soderberg (3 goals and 2 assists)  and Alexander Kerfoot (1 goal 4 assists) have been playing for the Avalanche. On defense, New Jersey has a few options worth considering in Will Butcher, Sami Vatanen, and for Colorado it’s Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie with 4 assists each.

Columbus Blue Jackets @ Philadelphia Flyers

If you don’t trust Bobrovsky than Philadelphia will be a good play on Thursday. Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek are the best plays for Philly. Wayne Simmonds is also a top play with his 5 goals and 1 assists. For value you can look to Scott Laughton with 3 goals and 1 assist and 13 sog. For Columbus their top line is best, but most expensive, stacking option. For some value you can look at Nick Foligno and Anthony Duclair. On the point Philadelphia has Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov but only Ghost has been producing offensively. Robert Hagg has 2 goals and 2 assists on 14 shots this season. There is not much on Columbus’ defense for fantasy purposes. Ryan Murray has upside and gets the ice time but has not been producing this season (2 assists).

Boston Bruins @ Edmonton Oilers

I sound like a broken record when it comes to Boston, but they are a one line team. If Marchand/Bergeron/Pastrnak don’t score then Boston pretty much doesn’t score. For some value, and mostly GPP only plays, you can look at a player like Joakim Nordstrom, he has 1 goal in 4 games but is getting minutes on the second line with David Krejci (4 assists) and Jake Debrusk and his 2 goals. For Edmonton, it is similar to Boston with one line doing all the scoring. The Oilers have scored 10 goals, 6 of them from the RNH/McDavid/Rattie line. Leon Draisaital has 1 goal and 4 assists so far and on defense Darnell Nurse has 1 goal 2 assists. Boston’s defense is pretty pedestrian so far as well with only Charlie McAvoy and Zdeno Chara scoring thus far.

Buffalo Sabres @ San Jose Sharks

Buffalo has only netted 12 goals in 6 games to start the season but they have too  much talent on offense to continue this lack of offense. The Sabres top line has been producing with captain Jack Eichel leading the way with 3 goals and 2 assists. Buffalo has a chance to get going especially against a Sharks team that hasn’t been playing well allowing over 3 g/pg. For San Jose the top line of Evander Kane / Joe Pavelski / Kevin Labanc for 8 of San Jose’s 17 goals this season. Timo Meier has been playing at a high level as well scoring 3 goals to go along with 1 assist while playing wing on the second line and 2nd pp unit. On the point Brent Burns is starting to get going with 4 assists and 17 sog and Erik Karlsson has added 3 assists and 18 sog.

NHL DFS
LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 14: Anze Kopitar #11 of the Los Angeles Kings celebrates his goal, to take a 2-0 lead, with Alex Iafallo #19 and Dustin Brown #23 in front of Anders Nilsson #31 of the Vancouver Canucks during the first period at Staples Center on November 14, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

NHL DFS Best of the Rest

Los Angeles’ top line is the way to go tonight with Alex Iafallo the teams leading scorer and Anze Kopitar and Ilya Kovalchuk  with him they are starting out playing very well together. Also look at Jaret Anderson-Dolan who plays on the Kings 4th line but is playing on the first power play is only $2.8k on DraftKings.  Any of the Kings top 4 d men are also in play tonight

I love the Blackhawks top line right now, especially Alex DeBrincat and his 6 goals and 3 assists in the teams first 5 games. Also Jonathan Toews is having a resurrection right now to start the year with 5 goals and 4 assists.

Vancouver doesn’t interest me tonight against the Jets. For the Jets Patrik Laine has started heating up with 2 goals and 2 assists .  Of course the Jets top line is in play as well. On defense I like Josh Morrissey tonight

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