Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for January 15th

Welcome to NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays. This is a fantasy hockey column focused on top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Tuesday, January 15th.

After taking a few days off from playing FanDuel NHL, thanks to the day-job and a snowstorm, I’m back at nailing down the top Fantasy Hockey options for the rest of this week.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had some hits and misses, but mostly only missing with either a bad goalie pick or some whiffs on value plays. For the most part, we’ve had solid success this season and hope to continue that success with another great set of lineup picks for fantasy hockey on Tuesday.

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, January 15th:

Blues at Islanders 7pm ET

Hurricanes at Rangers 7pm ET

Devils at Blue Jackets 7pm ET

Panthers at Canadiens 7:30pm ET

Ducks at Red Wings 7:30pm ET

Capitals at Predators 8pm ET

Kings at Wild 8pm ET NBC Sports Network

Golden Knights at Jets 8pm ET

Lightning at Stars 8:30pm ET

Penguins at Sharks 10pm ET ESPN+

We have a ten-game, 20 team, slate to contend with for Tuesday night. That’s not a bad number. It creates more options making it can be difficult to narrow down picks, especially for the goalie position. But, it’s not as overwhelming as, say, last Thursday’s slate.

The Hurricanes and Devils offenses are hot right now, so I’m going to see which top plays and values they may have to offer. The Golden Knights continue to have ridiculous value plays and the Jets offense has been a consistent play most of this season.

There are several favorable match-ups we should consider, so picking the right goalie options won’t be that difficult on Tuesday. I also like both the Predators and Sharks playing on home ice.

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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

There are plenty of top skating centers on the ice Tuesday, but I like Brayden Point ($8,100) and Mark Scheifele ($7,600) the most of that top-tier group. Until a slow-down against the Islanders in New York recently, Point had been red-hot with six goals and three assists in prior five games.

You’ve seen Scheifele in several of our articles recently, and he’s continue to provide consistent points each week, now with two goals and five assists in the last five games. It’s likely Mark stays hot on home ice, in Winnipeg, against a beatable Golden Knights team.

However, I think we can get as many, if not more, FanDuel NHL points per play from two cheaper, mid-salary-range, options. While Sebastian Aho‘s ($6,600) offensive production seems to ebb and flow, often, throughout this season, he’s currently in the middle of a major flow period.

In just the last two games, Aho has a total of five goals and one assist, including a power play and short-handed goal. In fact, Seb has the power play and short-handed goal in the middle of a hat-trick against a very good Nashville Predator’s team. Now in New York, Aho should continue to stay hot against a Rangers team giving up a lot of goals lately.

I love Aho’s price, but I also like Nico Hischier‘s ($5,800) value in Columbus on Tuesday night. The Devils piled up a ton of goals against the Blackhawks on Monday night, and I expect their offense to stay hot in Columbus on Tuesday.

Hischier is a big part of their offense, a goal and two assists in just the last two games, and should give us another shot at over 20 FanDuel NHL points with the second center position pick and without giving up too much salary.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

Regardless of your spend at the center position, you should be able to afford our four favorite winger picks for Tuesday night.

First of all, as we noted with Hischier’s pick, the Devils piled up a ton of goals last night, and the offense is generally in a hot place right now. Blake Coleman ($4,400) is a big part of that elevated offense, scoring two goals against the Blackhawks last night, and five in the last six games.

Coleman also has two assists in the last two games. In the last six games, Blake had at least 20+ FanDuel NHL points in three games, and double-digit points in five of six games while playing on the Devils top two lines.

Coleman appears to be a tremendous value. But with the Golden Knights back on the ice, and FanDuel NHL seemingly content with providing incredible value with Brandon Pirri ($3,800), we have another great salary-savings pick.

Pirri is averaging over 18 FanDuel NHL points-per-game, while also costing less than $4K at the winger position. So we continue to have an easy-shot value play at this position on Tuesday.

Now with plenty of salary left, I’m either going to spend big with my next two winger picks or take a shot at one of the more expensive defensive options. Looking at the scope of teams available, I really like the Jets offense at home against the Golden Knights.

Blake Wheeler ($8,100) is heating up again and he tends to go on prolonged hot streaks this season. In the last five games, Wheeler has three goals and five assists, including a power play goal and seven shots in one game against the Red Wings.

On the same Jets top line, Kyle Connor ($5,400) is rapidly improving his fantasy hockey value with three goals and three assists in the last six games. Now with around 20 minutes per game and shots on goal during the Jets power play, I’m even more confident picking Connor with such a cheap price.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

For Tuesday, I’m oddly excited about the defense position. This is probably the most excited I was about this position in weeks, if not the entire year. The reason, we have some expensive and cheap hot players who could yield more points than the majority of the winger or center plays.

Usually I like to grab some solid double-digit point plays at defense and load up on my centers and wingers. But that could be a mistake on Tuesday night. Also, we think we’ve already found an affordable way to stack our offense.

Instead of going that route, my most likely scenario is going to be to use Brent Buns ($7,600) with Mattias Ekholm ($5,100). While Ekholm finally cooled down a bit in Carolina, providing only 3.2 FanDuel NHL points with just two blocked shots, he’s still playing great hockey this month.

Since New Year’s even, Ekholm has three goals and eight assists in just eight games. So for a mid-salary range defensive pick, we’re getting a guy who’s averaging over a point per game, and then adds additional points during power plays, shots on goal, and blocked shots.

While Mattias has a FanDuel NHL point-per-game average of only just under 12 points, he’s playing like Burns typically plays all year. Speaking of, In the last six games Brent had three assists twice in two games.

He has three goals and nine assist in those six games and includes two power play goals. We’re not getting just a double-digit play with Burns, we’re getting a shot at 30 to 40 points on home ice against the Penguins.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

If you somehow have a ton of money left over at the goalie position, Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,300) is your man. In fact, one solid GPP play is to find greater value in your lineup and get Vas into the goalie spot for another 40 points.

However, I don’t like how much FanDuel NHL salary we have to give up just to get Andei and a decent shot at another 40 points. There are other goalies on the board, with a cheaper price, who have a shot at over 30 points on Tuesday night, there’s just a bit more risk.

Also, aside from maybe sneaking in John Gibson ($7,600) who hopefully breaks his losing streak tonight against the Red Wings in Detroit, most of the match-ups for the best fantasy hockey goalie picks aren’t great.

Except for one. Robin Lehner ($8,200) is clearly taking over the lead goalie spot for the Islanders. Lehner has only loss once in the last nine starts and has only given up more than two goals in just two of those starts.

In fact, Robin’s lone loss in that time is only a two goals-against game facing the Rangers in New York. Tonight, Lehner should remain hot facing a vulnerable Blues team on his home ice. Over 20 FanDuel NHL points is a very likely scenario for us tonight, but we also have a decent shot at over 30 points, and maybe over 40 with another shutout.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays January 15th 2019 Summary

OK, Gibson is a long-shot option at goalie, but he could be worth the sneaky pick in GPP’s. I’d rather have Lehner in my lineup for most plays, but either goalie leaves you with plenty of FanDuel NHL salary to spend big in other positions.

That’s a good thing because my favorite two defensive picks are Ekholm and Burns, costing me over $12K in salary, but with the potential to get me 40 to 60 points. Fortunately they’re also affordable because Pirri is back on the ice and the Devils’ Coleman is red-hot and super cheap right now.

We’re going to stack the two wingers from the Winnipeg Jets top line, Wheeler and Connor, which should yield a lot of points on top of decent salaries. And we’ll grab the young Hischier from the Devils’ lineup as well, along side Sebastian Aho, in New York against the Rangers on Tuesday night.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Tuesday, January 15th 2019:

C       Sebastian Aho ($6,600)

C       Nico Hischier ($5,800)

W     Blake Wheeler ($8,100)

W     Kyle Connor ($5,400)

W     Blake Coleman ($4,400)

W     Brandon Pirri ($3,800)

D      Brent Burns ($7,600)

D      Mattias Ekholm ($5,100)

G      Robin Lehner ($8,200)

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!