Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for February 19

Welcome to another NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays. This is a fantasy hockey post focused on top lineup plays each day. This edition is focused on the Main slate for Tuesday, February 19th 2019.

Monday night was a dynamic event for fantasy hockey players. The Lightning continued their offensive explosion with five goals in Columbus, and the Senators and Blackhawks decided to avoid any sense of defense, allowing a total of 15 goals in Chicago.

Fortunately, this is what we were hoping would happen. Patrick Kane and Nikita Kucherov were our two top plays at winger and they both had great nights. Kuch was especially dynamic, totaling 57 FanDuel NHL points with two goals, two power play assists, a third assist, and five shots on goal.

Stamkos added another 15+ FanDuel NHL points, and Dylan Strome turned out to be a great second center pick with a goal and two assists, adding another 32.8 FanDuel NHL points to our lineups.

Alex DeBrincat bounced back, along with the rest of the Blackhawks second line, with a hat-trick, three of the eight goals scored by the Hawks on Monday night, along with another two assists for a total of five offensive points. DeBrincat also had a goal and assist during the power play, totaling 57.8 FanDuel NHL points, just more than Kucherov.

Unfortunately, some of our value plays like Pirri, Gustafsson, and Schmidt didn’t pan out well, but most of you should have received a great return in cash games and been at least in heated competition for cash in GPP plays.

While Fleury didn’t start on Monday night, I stuck with the Golden Knights and plugged Malcolm Subban into most of my lineups. The backup net-minder piled up an awesome 35 saves, but the Knights were shut out, reducing our goalie points to only 16. It would’ve been a fantastic night if they could create enough offense for a win.

Still, if you found a way to pay up for Vasilevskiy without sacrificing too many of the top plays of the night, you were still in the running for a nice cash payout. We hope to replicate the same success for Tuesday, although some of the scoring may not be as dynamic.

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  to catch late breaking lineup news.

Here’s a look at the NHL schedule for the Main slate on Tuesday, February 19th 2019:

Sabres at Panthers 7pm ET

Penguins at Devils 7pm ET

Lightning at Flyers 7pm ET

Rangers at Hurricanes 7pm ET

Blue Jackets at Canadiens 7:30pm ET

Maple Leafs at Blues 8pm ET NBC Sports Network

Ducks at Wild 8pm ET 

Predators at Stars 8pm ET ESPN+

Coyotes at Oilers 9pm ET

It’s a Tuesday night and that means the NHL has a bigger schedule for the DFS NHL slate. We have nine games and 18 teams on the ice for Tuesday, which presents a ton of options at each position, and as many as 18 goaltenders to analyze.

Some of these games could be tricky. While the Bolts offense is on fire right now, Carter Hart and the Flyers have been a very tough team to beat in 2019, and they’re in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

The Blues are also on fire and on home ice, but they’re facing one of the better teams in hockey this season. However, the Leafs are still giving up 2.83 goals per game, so we can expect some offense to continue from the Blues in St. Louis.

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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 is an overwhelming number of fantastic fantasy hockey plays at center on Tuesday. After Monday night, it’s tempting to grab one or more of the same top plays, without even considering their match ups. I think that would be a mistake.

Steven Stamkos ($8,600), Sidney Crosby ($8,900), Evgeni Malkin ($8,400), and Brayden Point ($7,800) are the top four plays at this position for Tuesday. Although, to be honest I’m tempted to take Stamkos out of this list, and I’ll explain in a minute why.

But first, Crosby and Malkin are hot right now and the Penguins face a vulnerable Devils defense. New Jersey is giving up too many goals lately, especially with great players like Taylor Hall off the ice due to an injury. You should create a line with one or both in your lineup, but that will really eliminate many of the top plays at the winger position.

Instead, I’d rather have Point as my top play, or even look for a better value from someone like Sean Couturier ($7,200) or Aleksander Barkov ($6,900). While Stamkos is tempting, you’re paying up for a solid shot at around 20 FanDuel NHL fantasy hockey points.

I realize the Flyers were a terrible hockey team in the first half of the season, and they still have games where they’re giving up too many goals, but the Flyers net-minding and defense is beginning to emerge as a stronger point in their roster, and that is opening up more scoring chances for aggressive guys like Couturier.

So, I’d rather have the Sean in my lineup over Steven. You’e paying too much for around the same amount of 20-ish FanDuel NHL points. And if you can afford him, Point is the best play.

That being said, I may not ultimately go with Point either, but Barkov is a sneaky top play as well. Facing a hot and tough Canadiens team on home ice in Florida, Aleksander piled up 55.7 FanDuel NHL points with a hat-trick, assist, power play goal, and seven shots. He also has one of the best goal highlights of the season now.

We may not get another hat-trick from Barkov, but his current aggressive play and 15 shots in the last three games bodes well heading into a home ice match up against the Sabres. In the last seven games, Buffalo has given up 3.57 goals per game, a high mark and great opening to play Barkov at a sub-$7K salary.

Also, as you’ll see in the winger position, this opens up more salary to make a big splash piling up massive points while likely also getting 20+ points from Barkov. So while the Penguins are a great top play at center, and the Bolts and Flyers have some hot centers as well, I’d rather take a step back and grab Barkov, making the rest of this lineup easier to build on 20 picks from my first pick.

Fortunately, there is some exciting value options in the center position too. Travis Zajac ($4,000) is a sneaky pick against the favored Penguins. Zajac has a goal and two assists over the last three games, and while the Penguins are winning games lately, they’re giving up way too many goals along the way.

In a similar position but with a significantly hotter offense, Tyler Bozak ($4,400) is awfully cheap for a guy who has two goals and two assists int he last five games.

Bozak leads the Blues second regular and power play lines, so his unit doesn’t get the attention O’Reilly and Tarasenko get right now. That’s just fine, because Bozak should log us ten to 15 points with a better defensive match up on home ice Tuesday.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

OK, you have the option to go super expensive and find cheaper plays at winger or go mid-level salary expensive at the center position and grab some top-notch plays. Regardless of which route you take, you should have either Nikita Kucherov ($9,100) or Vladimir Tarasenko ($8,500) in our lineup Tuesday.

If you have to pick one, Kuch is the obvious move. However, I recommend going with someone like Barkov and Bozak/Zajac and grabbing BOTH of Kucherov and Tarasenko. Yes, that’s actually possible on Tuesday night!

We you look at our defense and goalie picks, you’ll realize we’re getting enough value in our lineup to afford each of these two dynamic plays. Kucherov has a tougher match up on Tuesday, but even the Flyers will likely break during several of his scoring chances.

Also, while the Maple Leafs are a good hockey team, they’re still giving up several goals each game, and Tarasenko has eight in the last six games.

And this is where the night gets really fun. If you want to fade either Kuch or Tarasenko, you have another great scoring option from a red-hot Leon Draisaitl ($8,000). Leon has eight goals in the last seven games, nearly as impressive at Tarasnko. Also, he has a better match up, on home ice, and you’re saving $500 to over $1K with this pick…assuming you fade Kuch or Vlad.

OK, we just spent a ton of FanDuel NHL salary on two, of three, great picks so now we have to find some value. However, I believe we can get three decent picks from the defense and goalie position that we may avoid being too stingy in our spending with the next two wingers.

With that in mind, I’m comfortable grabbing Brayden Schenn ($5,800) and Frank Vatrano ($4,300).

Vatrano has moved to the Panthers top line with Barkov and is now logging over 15 minutes per game. Also, Frank now has 20 goals and 11 assists in 56 games this season, many of that coming over the last two months. Frankly (pun intended), I don’t get why Vatrano is so cheap for FanDuel NHL, so I’m using him as a value play, yet again.

Schenn plays on the Tarasenko/O’Reilly top Blues line and has six assist and a goal in the last six games. We’re expecting more scoring from that line, and I’m paying for the additional residual benefit.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

If you only grab one top play at winger and find some cheaper value with the ‘bottom two’ winger picks, you likely have enough salary left over toe pay for some more expensive defense picks. If you have plenty, Kris Letang ($7,400) is an obvious choice. However, I don’t think he’s worth paying down at other positional spots to get him into your lineup.

Alex Pietrangelo ($5,900) isn’t as dynamic on the offensive side of the game, but he’s still going to get you double-digit points with a shot at 20 to 30 against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. If you need someone a tad cheaper, consider Seth Jones ($5,600) or Sea Weber ($5,600).

However, considering what I can get from my center and winger picks on Tuesday, I’d rather go even cheaper. Fortunately, guys like Justin Schultz ($4,300), Travis Sanheim ($4,200), or Jordan Oesterle ($4,200) are all dirt-cheap picks getting over 20 minutes of ice time on Tuesday, while giving you a solid shot at 15 to 20 points with each pick.

I like any two-man combination from these three bargain picks.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

Some of the goalie picks are still up in the air. While Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,500) was a fantastic play on Monday night, it’s not certain he’ll be in the crease for the Bolts on Tuesday. It’s likely Louis Domingue ($8,300) starts, to give Vas a break and he’s a decent play.

However, Flyers rookie Carter Hart ($8,400) may also be in goal, and he’s a tough beat on home ice his rookie season. The Bolts are likely too good of an offense for Hart to stonewall them, they’ll get some scoring it, but I’m nervous about stacking all of my chips on either one of these teams as there aren’t a lot of combined losses between the two teams.

Another rookie sensation at goalie, Blue net-minder Jordan Binnington ($9,100) is a decent play against the Maple Leafs. Binnington has won his last eight straight starts and has three shutouts in the last five starts. By the way, one of those shutouts was against the Kucherov led Lighting in Tampa. Yes, he’s that good!

Jordan is likely the best play, even against a good Leafs team. Toronto will likely force Binnington to pile up a bunch of saves on Tuesday as well. But, much like how I didn’t like how limiting Vas’ salary was yesterday, I’m nervous about spending this much on a goaltender when there is so much dynamic offensive options in my list.

Fortunately, there are two other cheaper options who, while not as great as Binnington, could yield nearly just as many points as Jordan on Tuesday.

Darcy Kuemper ($7,700) recently shut out the Maple Leafs in Arizona and has three wins in his last four starts. The only loss was to the Blues against Binnington. Kuemper and the Yotes face a beatable Oilers team in Edmonton Tuesday.

However, I think James Reimer ($7,500) is an even better value play on home ice against the Sabres Tuesday. Reimer hasn’t given up more than three goals in any one game in his last six straight starts.

Also, James is 4-2 in his last six games, losing only to the Lightning and the Blues in back to back starts. In those games, he only give up three goals a piece. In fact, most of Reimer competition has been very challenging, but he’s holding his own lately. Meanwhile, he’s facing a Sabres team who’s scoring less than three goals per game in the last two weeks.

This is a solid play at 20 to 30 FanDuel NHL points without spending much salary, and it allows us to really load up on great picks at winger and center. Ultimately, any of these three should be a top goalie play for Tuesday’s Main slate.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays February 19th 2019 Main Slate Summary

There are tons of great center picks on Tuesday. Unfortunately, there are also tons of great winger picks on Tuesday. I recommend finding value in the defense and goalie positions and loading up on either the Center position or Winger position.

You could also grab a top play from each and pick some mid-salary range guys in the second spot. My preference is to get someone like Barkov, who has a high ceiling, with my top center pick, then add value with someone like Bozak.

That allows me to go crazy with spending at winger Kucherov, Tarasenko, or Draisaitl. From there, I can still get some decent points with Schenn and Vatrano without spending too many of my FanDuel NHL salary.

I’d love to have Letang or Pietrangelo in my top defensive pick, but I prefer to spend more of my salary at center and winger, so I’m going with two value picks from two of Schultz, Sanheim, o Oesterle.

At goalie, I love Binnington as a top pick, but I also can’t ignore the value we’re getting from Kuemper and Reimer, likely each getting a win and allowing me to pay up at the other bigger offensive positions.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Tuesday, February 19th 2019:

C       Aleksander Barkov ($6,900)

C       Tyler Bozak ($4,400)

W     Nikita Kucherov ($9,100)

W     Vladimir Tarasenko ($8,500)

W     Brayden Schenn ($5,800)

W     Frank Vatrano ($4,300)

D      Travis Sanheim ($4,200)

D      Justin Schultz ($4,300)

G      James Reimer ($7,500)

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 winter!