Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for December 6

Fantasy Hockey: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 04: Kevin Fiala #22 of the Nashville Predators skates against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on October 04, 2018 in New York City. The Predators defeated the Rangers 3-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Welcome to NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays. We’re a fantasy hockey column focused on top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Thursday, December 6th 2018.

It’s been around a week since I’ve last posted my fantasy hockey NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays. But, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been actively playing. Playing and taking the time to lay out all of your thoughts take two completely different amounts of time. The latter is pretty time consuming, but also fun to do.

So, we’re back at it for a big Thursday night main slate in early December!

While I’ve had some success in the past week, I’ve also had some plays fall flat. That’s mostly due to a transition from one set of hot players to another. Like all sports, NHL is streaky. But unlikely most sports, the NHL can be incredibly streaky!

So, while there is a big schedule for Thursday night, we’re going to zero in on some of the best plays during this period, mostly focused on the hot players at the time. However, we’ll also highlight some of the more rock-solid plays for Thursday. There are some obvious plays as well, but they may be chalky, even for a big slate.

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 Thursday, December 6th 2018:

Red Wings at Maple Leafs 7pm ET

Avalanche at Panthers 7pm ET

Blue Jackets at Flyers 7pm ET

Islanders at Penguins 7pm ET ESPN+

Canadiens at Senators 7:30pm ET

Bruins at Lightning 7:30pm ET

Wild at Flames 9pm ET

Capitals at Coyotes 9pm ET

Predators at Canucks 10pm ET

Blackhawks at Golden Knights 10pm ET ESPN+

Devils at Kings 10:30pm ET

There are a few games that jump off the NHL schedule for me. First of all, while they’ve struggled to be a winning team this season, the Panthers have a winning record at home, near the Everglades in Florida.

But, while the Panthers are scoring nearly five goals per game lately, they’re also losing games. That means they’re giving up nearly as many as they’re scoring, which is a high volume of goals right now. So that also makes the Avalanche an attractive team to play. The problem with the Avs is, they’re very expensive on FanDuel NHL.

Two other games I like is the Coyotes hosting the Capitals, but for defensive reasons, and the Flyers hosting the Blue Jackets. The Flyers seem to be heating up a bit since their general manager change, could that continue? But the Blue Jackets are playing better lately too. And the big questions in Arizona will be, can Hill continue to play at such a high level between the pipes?

Quick Plug: You may have noticed a lot of NHL games are now aired on ESPN+. I have a subscription so I can watch more sports in general, but enjoy the coverage from ESPN+ for Hockey as well. If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to follow more live coverage of the NHL, you can get a trial-subscription here.

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 played Sidney Crosby ($8,800) in a recent post and it panned out. In fact, after staying away from Crosby most of the season, the one time we really liked him, he happened to score three goals, a hat-trick, against a good Avalanche team.

But, on Thursday night, I would rather pay up for Nathan MacKinnon ($9,100), speaking of the Avs. I’m struggling to find a lineup I like with MacKinnon in it, because he hand-ties you to play too many value picks. Still, if you can dig and find some solid value, MacKinnon should be a fantastic play Thursday, even on road ice in Florida.

Assuming you have been following hockey daily, this is likely obvious. But for those who aren’t, Auston Matthews ($8,600) is back on the ice from a month-long injury hiatus. How has he done since returning to the ice?

Well, he has a goal in each of his three games, five total. Against the Red Wings on home ice, Matthews is a decent play. But keep in mind, before you plug him in, Howard is doing well between the pipes for the Red Wings this season. I prefer to pass on this one.

So if we’re not paying up for MacKinnon, and we’re fading Sidney and Auston, who do we like? Well, I want to like Brayden Point ($7,900), but he’s become too expensive for the likely return. Instead, I’d rather buy a red-hot Aleksander Barkov ($7,500) on home ice.

As you’ll notice in my lineup, the Panthers are one of many stacks I’m considering for Thursday. Barkov is a big reason for that. In his last five games, Alek has three goals and five assists. Against Boston on Tuesday, Barkov had three assists for 31.4 FanDuel NHL points.

You have to be careful with streaky players, but Barkov is not one of those. Aleksander can go ‘off’ for an extended period of time, and this seems to be one of those periods.

You can probably tell the first center pick is going to be expensive, regardless of who we ultimately go with Thursday. Even if we play Barkov, I want to dig for some value. Fortunately, in that same game we can grab Carl Soderberg ($4,400), who we’ve played several times in the past month.

With the Avs’ top line making so much noise this season, it’s hard to see that Soderberg is playing exceptionally well on the third regular and second power play lines. And in the last five games, Carl has at least one goal or assist in four of those games. Even if he doesn’t score, Carl should get us a decent amount of points, around ten-plus.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

The winger position is another situation where you can spend big on picks like Mikko Rantanen ($8,600), Mitch Marner ($7,800), or even Claude Giroux ($7,800) and have a great outcome. The problem I have with that is there are so many great mid-salary range picks at the winger and defense position, that picking any of those three would eliminate one of those great options.

We’ll get to them in a minute, but there’s another reason I’m likely not picking any of those three…although fading Rantanen hurts a bit. I really like how hot Evgeni Dadonov ($7,100) and Jonathan Huberdeau ($6,600) are right now.

And, we’re not talking about a situation where the Panthers happened to be playing against weak opponents. In the last four games, the Panthers have played the Bruins, Lightning, Sabres, and Ducks. Most of those teams are off to another great start this season.

Granted, those games were at home, but so is the game tonight. Dadonov has been exceptionally hot lately, scoring a goal in each of the last four games (all power play goals, even better). Evgenii added another four assist in the last six games, and has been getting a high volume of shots on goal as well.

While Huberdeau only has three goals in the last six ways, his offense has been essentially more dominate. In that same time, Jonathan also has eleven assists, just under two assist per game, literally. With these two picks, we’re looking at a decent shot of 40 to 60 points.

With those Panthers, now three total, locked into my lineup, I’m going to pick from two of three mid-salary range picks. Unfortunately, I like all three so I may create multiple lineups with different combinations of this group.

Kevin Fiala ($4,700) is the cheapest of the three. The Predators sniper was high on my list multiple times last season, but mostly when he was playing on the top lines for the Preds. Well, guess what…he’s likely playing on the top line again tonight, and now has three goals and three assists in the last six games. Shocker.

Because of Fiala’s value, I’ll likely keep him in all lineups and pivot between either Travis Konecny ($5,700) and Jonathan Drouin ($5,800). Of the two, I like Drouin’s match up more, and he has two goals and four assists in the last five games.

However, while Konecny is very streaky this season, he’s on a hot streak right now and having watched him play each of the last six games, he’s moving very hard and quick on the ice right now. As a result, Travis has five goals and three assists in the last six games.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

Sticking with the theme of the night, I also struggled between picking a top defender and value play versus picking two mid-salary range players. I started off with Kris Letang ($6,800) and Morgan Rielly ($6,600), who each theoretically have great match ups Thursday night.

But, while I was digging for value, I couldn’t drop the thought that I wanted Thomas Chabot ($5,800), Tyson Barrie ($5,700), and Seth Jones ($5,500) in my lineup as well. As these FanDuel NHL salaries begin to add up, you realize Letang and Rielly hand-strung you again and are worth fading Thursday.  Though, they’re both still great plays.

Obviously, I can’t play Chabot, Barrie, AND Seth Jones. So I have to narrow down the two I want from there. While I’ve been on Chabot most of the season, I don’t love the Senators match up against the Habs. The Canadiens are laying great defense this season, and that worries me about Thomas’ ceiling on Thursday night.

We already know we like the Avs’ offense in Florida on Thursday, but we’ve mostly had to stay away from their offensive picks because of the salary. However, this is a great chance to get a solid piece of their top lines while on offense. So I’m definitely grabbing Barrie for my lineup.

While I think the Flyers have a decent chance of continuing to roll on home ice against the Blue Jackets, I also know the Flyers defense this season, and frankly goaltending as well, has been fairly bad.

Meanwhile, Jones has a goal and four assists int he last four games, at least one point in each game. It’s a good match up, and he likely stays hot so he’s my second defensive pick. Assuming you’re going this route.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

With so many games, ten, played on Thursday night, you have a long list of 20 goalies on the ice. And of course, there will be at least ten winners. And of those ten, you’re probably going to have a handful of great plays, scoring 30 to 40+ points.

Of the top-tier goalie options, I again like Pekka Rinne ($9,100) the most, even on road ice against the Canucks in Vancouver. I just wish Rinne’s salary was more palpable.

If you consider our offensive, and defensive, picks already identified in the lineup, you should be scrolling down the list of goalies by salary. There are many trap plays spending too much FanDuel NHL salary on Thursday.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of sneaky value. That leads us to my favorite goalie pick of the slate.

I get it, the Capitals are Stanley Cup champions and yes…they’ve played quite well already this season. But the Caps have been vulnerable at times, early this season. Also, the Caps have now lost six of their 13 road games.

Meanwhile, one of my favorite fantasy hockey goalies is very likely between the pipes for the Yotes in Arizona Thursday. Adin Hill ($7,700) only has three legit NHL starts this season and has appeared in just five games.

After 214 minutes on the ice and 85 shots on goal, Hill has only given up two…TWO, goals. That’s an impressive run. I’m worried it’ll stop at some point, and maybe the Caps are the team to do it. But I’m also willing to pay a low $7.7K salary to take on the risk of grabbing 30 to 40 points from a low-owned but high-reward fantasy hockey play.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays December 6th 2018 Summary

Alright, we have Hill between the pipes, and I decided to land on Barrie and Jones at defense. We could also pivot to Chabot, and these three give us plenty of cash to make smart and expensive moves at the center and winger spots.

But, we don’t have to get too expensive at center, because we found some value in Soderberg. While I’d love to play someone like MacKinnon, I’d rather grab Barkov (in the same game), and stack him with Dadonov and Huberdeau.

From there, I get value again from a young Predators sniper, Fiala, and I’m either going with Konecny or Drouin as a mid-salary range winger with big point potential on Thursday night.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Thursday, December 6th 2018:

C       Aleksander Barkov ($7,500)

C       Carl Soderberg ($4,400)

W     Evgeni Dadonov ($7,100)

W     Jonathan Huberdeau ($6,600)

W     Travis Konecny ($5,700)

W     Kevin Fiala ($4,700)

D      Tyson Barrie ($5,700)

D      Seth Jones ($5,500)

G      Adin Hill ($7,700)

Remaining Salary: $100

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!