Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for November 21

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 Wednesday, November 21st 2018.

We had a solid return from our lineup plays on Monday night, depending on the combinations you used. The NHL slowed things down, for Fantasy Hockey, to only one game on Tuesday so we essentially took the day off yesterday.

But, we’re back in a big way with 14 games for the NHL DFS slate on Wednesday, the day before the U.S. Thanks giving holiday. There are no games schedule for Thursday, making Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday huge hockey slates.

Like Monday, we’re looking at spending a lot of our salary at the center position, and will likely grab at least two big plays at winger. In order to do this, we’re going to need value at winger, and we may use a decent punt play with one of our defensive positions.

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 Tuesday, November 21st 2018:

Canadiens at Devils 7pm ET

Islanders at Rangers 7pm ET

Stars at Penguins 7pm ET

Blackhawks at Capitals 7pm ET ESPN+

Maple Leafs at Hurricanes 7pm ET

Flyers at Sabres 7:30pm ET NBC Sports Network

Bruins at Red Wings 7:30pm ET

Panthers at Lightning 7:30pm ET

Blues at Predators 8pm ET

Senators at Wild 8pm ET

Golden Knights at Coyotes 9pm ET

Jets at Flames 10pm ET

Canucks at Ducks 10pm ET

Avalanche at Kings 10:30pm ET

Yes, that’s a lot of hockey games in one night. It’s difficult to narrow in on the top games because, frankly, you have some great plays in practically every game on Tuesday. That makes winning GPP more difficult, but cash games are still in a usual winning range.

A few teams I’m going to continue to look at tonight are the Senators, Bruins, Stars, and Maple Leafs. I may also go back to the Jets and Lightning, as they’re two of the better teams in the NHL for a reason.

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

NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Centers

With so many teams playing on Tuesday, you have an overwhelming number of top NHL talent to pick through for your Fantasy Hockey teams. Narrowing down the best plays for DFS NHL optimal lineups will be difficult.

John Tavares ($8,500) has a decent match up in Carolina, but Nathan MacKinnon‘s ($8,600) match up is more ideal, in Los Angeles. The Kings are at team I’m going to target players against as long as they continue to play like a team with no identity. Their defense is dreadful, and MacKinnon and the Avs top lines are playing very well this season.

Another hot option we’ve played recently is Tyler Seguin ($7,700) and he’s in play again on Tuesday night. But, there are two other centers I like most for Tuesday’s slate, Mark Scheifele ($8,100) and Brayden Point ($7,000).

In just 21 games, Point has 26 points, including 14 goals. So Brayden is providing at least one point per game this season, and while Steven Stamkos ($7,900) mans the top line for the Bolts, Point is still on the ice for close to 20 minutes per game and has been more productive on offense all season.

In the last three games, Point has five goals and two assists, four of those goals being during a power play. Points also providing several shots on goal, not surprising considering his goal production, and some blocked shots each game. Frankly, $7K for Point seems cheap.

Scheifele may seem expensive, but Mark has also been hot lately, and has 22 points in just 19 games. Scheifele splits his points with 11 goals and assists, while leading the Winnipeg Jets top line.

If you’ve been following the column the past several weeks, you know we’ve been hot on Blake Wheeler, as he’s been a very productive NHL DFS player. One of the reasons Wheeler is such a great play is thanks to Scheifele’s production.

What I like so much about Mark, lately, is the goal production. In the last five games, Scheifele has five goals and four assists. So Wheeler and others on the top line are dishing the puck more for Scheifele and he’s using these opportunities to score. Even against a decent Flames team in Calgary, I like the Jets top line.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

We pointed out Point’s incredible 14 goals in just 21 games, but that’s only third to Alex Ovechkin‘s ($8,800) 15 goals in 20 games and David Pastrnak‘s ($8,400) amazing 17 goals in just 20 games.

That’s right, Pasta has 17 goals in 20 games, or nearly a goal per game this season. What a run! I’m concerned about Pasta’s production with Patrice Bergeron now off the ice due to a recent injury, but I love the Bruins match up against the Red Wings in Detroit on Wednesday night.

In fact, after scanning the rest of the top picks, I like Pastrnak the most of all options, with maybe an exception being Mikko Rantanen ($7,600) in L.A. facing the Kings.

So with either Pastrnak or Rantanen as my top winger pick, and some expensive picks in the center spot, we need to start considering cheaper options. Before we dig deep for those value picks, I want a mid-salary range guy and fortunately there are plenty on Tuesday.

Mostly because of injury issues, Alexander Radulov ($6,200) has somehow fallen off many DFS NHL players radar. I’m not really sure why. Radulov is back on the ice, playing on the Stars top line (one of the most productive in hockey) and his points per game is one of the better stats in hockey.

In just eleven games, Radulov has eight goals and seven assists. That’s nearly two points per game, and close to a goal per game. Alexander is also averaging over 20 FanDuel NHL points per game, for a fairly cheap price.

OK, now we need to find some cheap picks. And if you have followed me on twitter or have been reading these columns this season, my favorite value picks aren’t going to surprise you.

I continue to be amazed by the Senators offensive production this season. This is a team who looked dreadful on the offensive side of the game last year. And the Sens offseason seemed baffling.

But, the Senators did show signs of offensive hope last year, when on home ice. This season, the Senators are capitalizing on their offseason moves, over the last couple of years, by playing top young prospects and reaping rewards from their play on offense.

Two guys I’ve played often, one all season and another only since he’s been called up to the NHL, are Brady Tkachuk ($4,100) and Drake Batherson ($3,200).

I don’t just like the 19-year-old Tkachuk rookie because I still have nostalgia from playing NHL ’94 and using his father Keith to set up some sweet goals. In ten games, Brady is averaging 16 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, thanks to six goals, four assists, three blocked shots, and 31 shots on goal.

For just over a $4K FanDuel salary, that’s quite a return. Like Tkachuk, Batherson has now spent a few games in the NHL and is already turning heads as well.

Drake has only played in three games this season, but he already has two goals and three assists, at least one point per game. Even better, Batherson has two power play goals in just three games, and is averaging nearly 20 points per game.

This is a tougher match up in Minnesota, for the Senators, but we’ve got to ride this value for as long as it’s producing. Otherwise, it’ll be difficult to keep up in GPP tournaments, or land big cash plays.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

We grabbed two great value plays at the winger position, but we likely need to be more frugal with our picks at defense, if we want to have a decent shot at some of the top goaltenders on Tuesday night.

So while Morgan Rielly ($6,600), Dustin Byfuglien ($6,100), Mark Giordano ($5,800), and Keith Yandle ($5,700) seem like great top picks at the defense position, I’m not comfortable paying up for either of them, unless we can find a great value pick at goalie. If you go that route, pick any of those four, in that order of ranking, for your top defense pick.

As I’m scanning through the list of cheaper options, one of my favorite is Mathew Dumba ($5,500). The Wild’s top defender has three goals and two assists in the last four games. Two of those goals were of the power play variety. In that time, Dumba is averaging well over 20 FanDuel NHL points-per-game.

So we like how hot Dumba is, he’s a good shot at another double-digit play and could exceed 20 points. That’s great, we’re going to need that.

I don’t typically like finding punt-plays for NHL DFS, but I love my expensive picks for Wednesday night’s slate, so I’m going to dig for a decent cheaper defensive play who will get me points regardless of how well he does on Wednesday, and has a shot at going on a hot streak getting me some more double-digit points.

I spent more of my time researching this part of the lineup, and I ultimately landed on the Red Wings top line defender Trevor Daley ($3,600). He only has one goal and three assists this season, but Daley has been peppering a decent two to three shots on goal per game lately, and is capable of piling up several blocked shots.

I also like that Trevor has been on the ice around 20 minutes per game. If we can get several blocked shots from the Bruins, get a few shots on goal…and hopefully an ounce of offensive, we’ve get a great value pick here.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

There are some cheaper goalie options on Wednesday that I’m tempted to consider. Carter Hutton ($7,900) is one of them. The Sabres have won six straight, and a lot of that is thanks to the incredible play between the pipes from Hutton.

We plugged Carter as a top play in Pittsburgh on Monday, and even though he gave up four goals to the Penguins, Hutton still had 36 saves and won the game for 24.8 FanDuel NHL points. In theory, Hutton should have a good home ice match up against the Flyers, but I’m nervous about how the Flyers have played tough over the last two weeks.

If you need to save money at the goalie position, I’d go with Hutton. But I found a way to save money for a reason. I’m spending big at goalie. I probably can’t quite afford Pekka Rinne ($9,200), but I know I can still afford Frederik Andersen ($8,900).

Actually, between the two I like Andersen more. The Leafs are in Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night, but they’ve been playing great hockey both on the road and at home. In his last six starts, Frederik only gave up eight goals, or just over one goal per game.

And one of my favorite stats from Andersen and the Leafs is the fact that they consistency give up a high volume of shots per game. Also in the last six straight games, Frederik is averaging well over 30 saves per game, which makes him a decent play at 30 to 40 points.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays November 21st 2018 Summary

We’re spending big at the goalie position, paying up for Frederik Andersen. If we don’t go that route, Carter Hutton is our next favorite play at goalie. I’m just more nervous about the Sabres trying to maintain their winning streak against a currently tough Flyers team.

To help afford Andersen, I’ve using Daley as a punt play on defense, and paying down a big for Dumba as my top play on defense. Looking at the four winger spots, I’m using two for value, but I feel great about the young stars Batherson and Tkachuk in my lineup.

From there, I’m mostly going with big-spending top picks for my remaining winger spots, and two center picks. Scheifele and Point should yield me 40+, combined, FanDuel NHL points on Wednesday night, and I could seen even more than that, combined, from Pastrnak and Radulov being in my lineup.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Wednesday, November 21st 2018:

C       Mark Scheifele ($8,100)

C       Brayden Point ($7,000)

W     David Pastrnak ($8,400)

W     Alexander Radulov ($6,200)

W     Brady Tkachuk ($4,100)

W     Drake Batherson ($3,200)

D      Mathew Dumba ($5,500)

D      Trevor Daley ($3,600)

G      Frederik Andersen ($8,900)

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!