Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for November 9

Welcome back to the NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays column. We’re a fantasy hockey column focused on your top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Friday, November 9th 2018.

I’ve missed a few NHL DFS FanDuel Fantasy Hockey slates over the last couple of days. Including last night when I took my son to his first live NHL game, the Flyers hosting the Coyotes concluding a home-and-home match-up.

Fortunately, Gritty high-fived my son twice, slapped me in the face, and the Flyers pulled of an exciting overtime win…to set my son up expectations he likely won’t meet each time his goes to a game. But, it was a great night.

Looking back to the last post, on Tuesday, we did quite well. Most of our lineup combinations landed between 175 to 215 FanDuel NHL points. The lineup I landed on using the most flipped Andrei Vasilevskiy into the goal spot, thanks to the awesome value I got from from Rangers Defense-man Neal Pionk.

While I was hoping to replicate that outcome on Thursday night, we still have a nice six-game slate to dig into for Friday, so there is likely a similar outcome we can develop for one of the bigger Friday night slates we’ve seen in a while for the NHL.

Before we get there, a reminder to never take a NHL DFS optimal lineup as ‘bible’ for your personal lineup each day. Use the suggestions as guidance. Also, make sure you follow final lineup thoughts throughout the day on our twitter account @FantasyCPR or me @MattyMcMatt17 look for late breaking lineup news.

Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for the Main slate on Friday, November 9th 2018:

Devils at Maple Leafs 7pm ET

Blue Jackets at Capitals 7pm ET

Rangers at Red Wings 7:30pm ET ESPN+

Sharks at Blues 8pm ET 

Avalanche at Jets 8pm ET

Wild at Ducks 10pm ET

Boy are there some great games on Friday night. The Avalanche and Jets are two teams with enormous talent, and they’re facing each other in Winnipeg on Friday night. I likely want to get a piece of that action. While they both have solid defense and net-minders, their offense is just too strong to avoid.

The Maple Leafs and Devils could have a high-scoring result, and the Capitals have a decent shot at piling up goals tonight. The Rangers have some value plays I want to continue to use, and the Ducks are facing a Wild team rolling right now, while the Ducks are struggling to fly lately.

So, let’s start building our NHL DFS optimal lineup by looking at the top centers for this slate…

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Centers

I’ve taken a similar approach at the center position with the last several posts. I’ve been exploiting value at other positions, like winger and defense, and using that value to play two solid $6K salary picks at this position.

Especially considering one of our value options at goalie tonight, that’s feasible for Friday. But, I’m likely going to use a value play with the second pick. Why? Frankly, it’s hard to pass on a red-hot Travis Zajac ($4,500) for the Devils right now.

The Maple Leafs are hosting the Devils in Toronto, and while they’re having a good start to the season, they’re giving up too many goals lately. And the Devils offense has been solid this season, especially the offense coming from Zajac over the last month.

If you’re looking at the FanDuel NHL designation giving Travis a 3-line play, keep in mind that Zajac is also the center for the Devils second power play line. Also, Travis has been averaging nearly 20 minutes of ice time each game, a high amount for someone on the third line.

Also, in the last six games, Zajac has three goals and three assists, along with several shots on goal and several blocked shots. So for under $5K, we’re getting a solid shot at 15-20 points with this pick, giving us plenty of cash back for a big pick at center, or to spread across all of the great winger options on Friday.

While I’m considering playing top center picks like Nathan MacKinnon ($8,700) against the Winnipeg Jets or Nicklas Backstrom ($7,000) hosting the Blue Jackets, I simply can’t ignore Ryan O’Reilly ($6,600) and his red-hot scoring streak right now.

But first, don’t expect the same outcome we got from Ryan on Tuesday. O’Reilly was our favorite center play earlier in the week, and he rewarded us with 44.5 FanDuel NHL points thanks to a hat-trick.

We simply can’t expect a hat-trick every time Ryan is on the ice. But, right now it’s not unreasonable to expect another two point (goals and/or assists) from O’Reilly hosting the Sharks tonight. And for only $6,600, we have another decent shot at a 25-35 point ceiling.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

One of the reasons I looked for some value at the center position, even though I new I’d get some value from the goalie spot, is that I’m drooling over the winger options. I mean, there are so many great picks Friday night, it’s becoming a problem. So, I’ll try to help you zero in on the best bets.

I mentioned earlier I like the Winnipeg Jets and Colorado Avalanche tonight. But affording stacking either team is quite honestly expensive, at least if you want to get their best options. Still, I want to get a piece of the Jets, and I’m starting by paying up for Blake Wheeler ($7,400).

While the Jets coaching staff continues to play around with the top line, they’ve continued to allow Scheifele and Wheeler to play together, and they do that very well. Even with Nikolaj Ehlers ($4,800) now likely on the top line, a solid value play by the way, they’re likely to score a few goals again tonight.

Blake’s biggest contribution has been via assists. Wheeler has at least one point in each of the last eight games, but he has at least one assist in seven of those eight games. In that time, Wheeler has a total of 11 assists, approaching almost two a game. Given all of his production on the ice again tonight, he is a solid shot at 20 to 30 points, with a 10-15 point floor.

But within the same game, I want to get a piece of the Avs too. On the Avs top line, my favorite play at winger is Mikko Rantanen ($7,700), but he’s a little too expensive considering all of the talent I want at this position tonight.

Instead, I’d rather save some salary and get nearly the same type of offensive production from Gabriel Landeskog ($6,900). While MacKinnon gets a lot of the media attention, Rantanen and Landeskog are also among the top offensive leaders in points so far this season, and they’be both averaging nearly 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game.

I mentioned how the Maple Leafs are hosting the Devils earlier, and that I’ve noticed the Leafs are giving up too many goals, even at home, lately. Meanwhile, the Devils offense continues to chug along, even though they’ve cooled off at times in the last week.

In the last two games, Kyle Palmieri ($6,400) has heated up again, scoring a goal against the Senators in Ottawa and providing two helpers against the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

We rode a Palmieri hot-streak earlier in the season and he was consistently providing 20+ FanDuel NHL points-per-game during that time. Now, Kyle is averaging just over 20 points this season, and we can expect about that much with his pick tonight.

Finally, Timo Meier ($5,600) is back on the ice again tonight and you know how much I love Timo! I’ve been harping on Meier’s value all season, and for some reason he’s still dirt-cheap on FanDuel. Meier now has 12 goals this season, tied with Kane, Ovechkin, and Pastrnak for the NHL lead. That’s not a bad group to be associated with!

Alright, let’s look at a few top picks on defense…

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

OK, we’ve spent a good deal of our salary already with a good center pick and four rock-solid winger picks, although we did get some value back with one of our center picks. In order to continue down this path, regardless of who you pick on defense, you will need value at the goaltender position. We’ll get to that soon.

But, with that in mind, you can probably realize that a Brent Burns ($7,300) or John Carlson ($6,400) play is a bit too rich for this lineup combination. Assuming Carlson is healthy enough to play tonight, I like either of those plays as a top pick on defense. But you’re going to need to get some value back with the wings.

Instead, I’d rather save some salary and keep those center and winger picks, and grab Morgan Rielly ($6,000) as my top defensive pick. The buzz about the Maple Leafs offense has quieted down a bit since Auston Matthews got hurt, but Rielly continues to be one of the best plays you’ll find at this position.

Morgan is averaging over 19 points-per-game, and that’s a fairly consistent result. Rarely do you see Rielly go below 9.6 points on a BAD night. On a goal night, Rielly is giving you around 30 points thanks to his high ice time usage, blocked shots, shots on goal, and offensive production.

And fortunately, we can afford Rielly thanks to a value play at the defense position, mentioned earlier in this post. I didn’t have Neal Pionk ($4,200) in my Tuesday column. But as I continued to research and play around with my lineups, which I do even after posting, I realized Pionk was a value I couldn’t pass up and seemed to be going unnoticed.

Pionk is piling up over 20 minutes per game for the Rangers, consistently getting shots on goal and around two to six blocked shots each game. But Neal also has a goal in each of the last two games. Pionk is quietly averaging well over ten points-per-game, while only costing you $4.2K. That’s a great DFS NHL value!

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

The goalie with the best match up tonight is likely Braden Holtby ($8,800) on home ice hosting the Blue Jackets. Even better, we know Holtby just had a red-hot start against the Penguins, saving 41 shots for a one goal-against win.

But, Braden has been fairly inconsistent lately. He gave up nine goals in the two games prior to his Penguins-win gem. And an inconsistent Holtby in goal facing an inconsistent Blue Jackets offense makes me a little nervous. This could still be a good play, but I want to see if there’s better, and given Braden’s price-tag, there’s likely better value.

I’m not going to touch Connor Hellebuyck ($8,100) or Semyon Varlamov ($8,000) because I know how each team’s offense is playing lately. And while John Gibson ($8,400) looks like a decent play, considering his 22 point-per-game average, I don’t like his match up against the Wild.

In fact, I love the Wild’s match up against the Ducks in Anaheim. First of all, the Wild just had a solid win over the Kings last night, 3-1 in the Staples Center. Now, the Wild are facing the Ducks who have scored only three goals or less in each of their last ten games. Even worse, in seven of their last ten, they’ve scored less than three.

That blows the door wide open for whomever is starting in net for the Wild. We should expect some Ducks scoring, but not much against the Wild’s solid defense and goaltending. At first, I was suspecting Devan Dubnyk ($8,900) would be in net again, but it looks like he’s getting the night off and Alex Stalock ($7,400) now becomes a tremendous value play at goalie Friday night.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays November 9th 2018 Summary

We could pay up for some more expensive centers on Friday night, because we know we’re getting value at the goalie position. But, I’d rather grab the value from a red-hot Devils’ center Zajac, and pair him with another red hot center, O’Reilly.

That will allow me to play some more expensive combination at the winger position, like one of the Winnipeg Jets top-liners, with one of the Avs top-liners, with Palmieri and Meier. Timo is another pick you could also consider to be a value play.

Finally, at the defense position, we’re getting value again by taking a shot at Pionk one more time, which allows me to plug in someone like Rielly, who provides consistent points each night. And this is all feasible thanks to the match up Stalock and the Wild have tonight in Anaheim.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Friday, November 9th 2018:

C       Ryan O’Reilly ($6,600)

C       Travis Zajac ($4,500)

W     Blake Wheeler ($7,400)

W     Gabriel Landeskog ($6,900)

W     Kyle Palmieri ($6,400)

W     Timo Meier ($5,600)

D      Morgan Rielly ($6,000)

D      Neal Pionk ($4,200)

G      Alex Stalock ($7,400)

Remaining Salary: $0

Note: This is a recommended lineup after discussing our top options for the slate. You should use this as a guide, and provide your own input when building NHL DFS FanDuel lineups.  We are not telling you, or selling you, to use this lineup.

Best of luck in your NHL DFS FanDuel contests and stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all your DFS news and analysis across College Football, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, EPL, PGA, and NASCAR this fall!