Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for February 22

Welcome to 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 Friday, February 22nd 2019.

Fantasy Hockey was tricky on Thursday. There were tons of lures leading you to top plays who may have only scored a goal or logged an assists for decent, but expensive points. But, depending on how you played the slate, it was also fairly easy to win cash.

My most successful lineup left some money on the table with a couple of disappointing plays, but also won me 5X my pay-in. The Flyers were flat against the Canadiens, in Montreal, so having Couturier and Sanheim in my lineup didn’t help. Also, Frank Vatrano was cold in a solid win for the Panthers last night, as well.

But, Jesper Bratt had a shot on goal and assist for 9.6 points, a decent return for $4,000 in FanDuel NHL salary. From there, things get really interesting.

I ended up plugging Justin Williams into my lineup, because it seemed like the hot Hurricanes winger wasn’t on many radars. Boy did that work out! Williams was just above 0% to 5% owned in all of the formats I played. Meanwhile, he had two goals, one during a power play, five shots, and an assist for 40.5 FanDuel NHL points.

I paid up for Ovechkin, who had a goal and 17.3 FanDuel NHL points. That was OK, but Travis Zajac added another 16.8 points with a goal as well, so I was still in a decent spot.

Also, if you followed the column yesterday, you saw I was making an attempt to pay up for Brent Burs as a top defensive pick. Well, I kept him in my lineup, and Burnsy did a lot! With six blocked shots, a short-handed assist, power play assist, power play goal, and another assist, Brent gave me 42.2 FanDuel NHL points.

How could I afford all of that? As discussed yesterday, it seemed like Pekka Rinne was in a great spot, and more affordable at $8,400 in FanDuel NHL salary. So, I played him in all of my lineups. He was popular but not the chalk. He only gave up one goal, after 29 shots on goal from the Kings, and logged the win as well for 30.4 points.

It was a great night in what has become a great week. So, can we end it with some great plays for a fairly big Friday night slate? I think we can.

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 Friday, February 22nd 2019:

Blue Jackets at Senators 7pm ET

Avalanche at Blackhawks 7:30pm ET ESPN+

Wild at Red Wings 7:30pm ET NHL Network

Ducks at Flames 9pm ET

Jets at Golden Knights 10pm ET ESPN+

The Senators give up a lot of goals on any ice, but they’re a little tougher to beat on home ice. That being said, the Blue Jackets and Senators are two teams I need to look at for Friday night. Also, while the Blackhawks continue to be a great play, we may need to consider the Avalanche ‘awake’ again. That’s another game I love on Friday.

The Wild seem to be in a spiral downward, and they’re in Detroit on Friday night. In theory, that should help the Wild bounce back, but it could also be a great way to get some sneaky plays in from the Red Wings.

The Ducks are playing better, but they could be walking into a buzz saw against the Flames in Calgary. I like both teams on offense. But, the Jets and Golden Knights are two teams I can’t figure out right now, so I’m likely fading the game completely.

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

Before I figured out who I wanted at center, I went to the goalie options first. We’ll get to that later, but I believe we can snag some value from that position. I’ll address options in case you take the more expensive, and less risky, route there. But, that’s a strategy I’m likely executing on Friday night.

Also, I flipped through the center options looking to see if there was any obvious value I wanted to tackle before I settled on my top picks in the position. There isn’t much, but there’s one pick I love and will have in all lineups.

Carl Soderberg ($4,500) is a fantasy hockey option easily overshadowed by the more dominate Nathan MacKinnon ($8,000) each on the Avalanche. Over the past month, I’ve avoided the Avs, and we knew there was some trouble with the team when the coaching staff started toying with the baffling decision to push MacKinnon down to the 2nd power play line (I still don’t get that thought process).

But, there are a few things that peak my interest with both of these guys, starting with the value from Soderberg. First, while the Blackhawks are hot, and winning, right now, they’re still giving up a bunch of goals, even on home ice.

After 61 games, the Hawks are just below the Senators giving up the most goals per game in the NHL, 3.70 per game. That’s nearly four goals per game. Another interesting stat is that Soderberg has 22 shots in the last six games, or nearly four per game.

When a skater starts firing off a high volume of shots, even when not scoring, the goals eventually start to evolve, weather as a goal for the player or assist from a re-bound goal. Then, on February 20th against the Jets, Soderberg had five shots on goal leading to a goal and two assists, totaling over 39 FanDuel NHL points.

I believe Carl stays hot against the Blackhawks in Chicago and he’s a guy I want in all of my lineups. Also, while questions are bubbling up around the Avalanche and MacKinnon, he’s still playing good offensive hockey lately and he’s one of the best fantasy hockey options at the center position on Friday.

I believe I can afford MacKinnon on Friday, which also allows me to pivot to really anyone else I want. If you go with a more expensive goalie, you’ll need to do that. Some other picks I really like are Dylan Larkin ($7,300), Sean Monahan ($7,500), Jonathan Toews ($7,700), and Dylan Strome ($5,900). That order is a ranking as well, after the Avs centers.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

Before I looked for top winger picks, I want to find some value plays. I need at least two for Friday night, even though I think we can save big at defense and goalie. Fortunately, the value continues with a pick from the Avalanche again, J.T. Compher ($4,300).

Compher is one of those guys who doesn’t typically jump off the list of winger options in your FanDuel NHL app. He’s averaging just under ten FanDuel NHL points-per-game. Also, he’s on the Avs 4th line!

However, that is a fairly consistent point average. And, J.T. is logging around 15+ minutes per game. How is he doing that? Well, Compher is typically centering the Avs top power play unit, lately, and that’s an offensive weapon you want on your fantasy hockey team. This is a sneaky good value play at this position Friday.

I realize there may be some perceived risk stacking a team in your fantasy hockey lineup who’s struggling lately, against a team who’s hot right now. But I frankly don’t see the risk. Again, the Hawks offense is saving them, not their defense.

Another off-the-radar fantasy hockey option I like for Friday is Jakob Silfverberg ($4,600). The 28-year-old Swede just signed a contract extension, and has celebrated with four goals in the last four games. The Ducks are starting to wake up again, as well, and Silfverberg’s improved offense is part of the reason.

Brady Tkachuk ($4,400) and Anthony Mantha ($5,100) are two other value plays you could consider, if your’e not quite sold on Compher or Silfverberg. However, they likely have higher fantasy hockey ownership.

Now that we’ve saved plenty of money, we need to look at the big-money plays in the winger position. My two favorite are likely going to be in every lineup. At the very least, you must have Patrick Kane ($9,400) in your lineup.

Is Kaner chalky? Yes, sure. But the dude is consistently logging goals and assists, at least one in 19 straight games and many of those those games have multiple goals and assists in just one game. Patrick is consistently averaging over 20 FanDuel NHL points per game and you’re unlikely to win on Friday night without him.

What I hope many FanDuel NHL players do from there is spend too much cash elsewhere so they can’t afford Elias Lindholm ($7,100). The 24-year-old Swede can be overshadowed by the fantasy hockey prowess of Johnny Gaudreau ($8,100). But, over the last couple of weeks, Lindholm has been the better fantasy hockey play, and that should continue tonight.

The Flames are hosting the Ducks, and while I think the Ducks are getting better, the Flames are still an outstanding offensive team, and getting shares of their offense through Lindholm is likely the best route on Friday night.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

First of all, most of the defensive picks on Friday night are really not that expensive. In fact, the Friday night slate helps us afford bigger plays at other positions. Looking at the three most expensive plays, I really only like Erik Gustafsson ($5,700) the most.

Mark Giordano ($6,300) was a better, more consistent, fantasy hockey play earlier in the season. But he’s been more streaky lately. Unfortunately, Thomas Chabot ($5,400) is gradually becoming more expensive again.

It’s unfortunately, because he’s my favorite defensive play on Friday night. However, he still not too expensive, and we’ll likely have him in all lineups and all formats on Friday. Chabot was a disappointing 1.6 FanDuel NHL point play in New Jersey on Thursday night. Don’t let that scare you off Thomas on Friday night. He’s very likely to bounce back.

Flipping through the rest of the defensive options, I wasn’t that impressed. However, Mike Green ($4,200) and Travis Hamonic ($3,900) are likely two of the best value plays of the night.

These are both defense-man who can deliver nearly ten points just from shots on goal and blocked shots, but their scoring has been hot lately. So it’s feasible to assume we could get 15 to 20 points out of either Green or Hamonic.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

For the goalie position, the Friday night slate is funky. All week, we’ve had some obvious great goalie plays for fantasy hockey. The more difficult move was trying to figure out how to afford their expensive FanDuel NHL salary.

Fortunately, last night we identified better mid-salary range options. On Friday, the goalie picks are littered with guys like that. Unfortunately, most of these plays have big question marks hovering over them.

In theory, Sergei Bobrovsky ($8,700) is a solid play against the Senators. In fact, he’s likely the best play or option with lowest risk. The Senators aren’t winning many games lately and Bob has only given up around two to three goals per game in recent starts.

But, I’m not a huge fan of targeting the Senators in Ottawa. I’ve been doing this for several years and they keep burning me there.

Another seemingly obvious play is Connor Hellebuyck ($8,100) against the Golden Knights in Vegas. But, I don’t love grabbing a so-so goalie, lately, against Marc-Andre Fleury ($8,000) and a Knight team who could be re-emerging again.

This thought process has lead me down a path I didn’t expect to go down for Friday night. Jimmy Howard ($7,400). The Red Wings aren’t typically a team you look to for winning points. Also, Howard has given up ten goals in his last three games.

But, the match-up is interesting. First of all, the Red Wings, and Howard especially, play better hockey in Hockeytown USA, Detroit. Also, the Wild are struggling with scoring lately. Significantly! In their last seven games, the Wild have 13 total goals, or a trifling average of 1.86 goals per game.

So, what I’m expecting from Howard, even if they take a loss, is a very low-scoring and high save number game. That alone could get me 15 to 18 FanDuel NHL points. With a win, we’re easily in the mid-20’s. Even better, the ownership is likely very low on Friday. So if some of those more popular goalies lose, and we have Howard…we’re immediately at an advantage point.

Programming Note: Howard was ruled out mid-day Friday due to an illness. This was a surprise. Jonathan Bernier ($7,500) is still a solid, although more risky option. The script is the same, just with a bit more risk…and I’m sticking to it.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays February 22nd 2019 Main Slate Summary

I tried to talk myself out of it, but I’m likely playing Howard in goal against the Wild in all formats on Friday night. I could pivot to Bob or Helley later, but those options actually make me more nervous at the position.

Fortunately, Jimmy’s salary really makes life easier within the rest of the lineup. I know I like some value plays like Soderberg at center, and Silfverberg and Compher at winger. We could also consider Tkachuk and Mantha at the winger position, to save some money, and Mike Green and Hamonic are great cheap plays at defense.

So with plenty of salary to spend, I only like Chabot as a top defense pick, making Kane easy to afford. That’s great, but Kane is in all of my lineups on Friday, and I may plug Lindholm right next to him.

At center, I love MacKinnon on Friday. If you can’t afford him, consider Larkin, Monahan, Toews, or Strome. With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS FanDuel Main slate on Friday, February 22nd 2019:

C       Nathan MacKinnon ($8,000)

C       Carl Soderberg ($4,500)

W     Patrick Kane ($9,400)

W     Elias Lindholm ($7,100)

W     Jakob Silfverberg ($4,600)

W     J.T. Compher ($4,300)

D      Thomas Chabot ($5,400)

D      Mike Green ($4,200)

G      Jimmy Howard ($7,400)

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 winter!