Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays for February 25

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 Monday, February 25th 2019.

On Saturday, our fantasy hockey plays worked out nicely. We had a solid 2x to 3x return, plugging Auston Matthews with Sean Couturier at the center position. That combo yielded over 62 FanDuel NHL points, and set us up well for a NHL DFS optimal lineup.

Leon Draisaitl continues to be a great fantasy hockey play at winger, Tomas Tatar scored, even though the Maple Leafs crushed the Habs, and Sam Gagner‘s goal was a sneaky value play, just as we expected.

While I didn’t love the Sunday Main slate, and therefore didn’t write a post, I did ultimately drop a little of my earnings into a few lineups. I missed the 100 FanDuel NHL point mark, but ironically still had a 2x return, mostly from cash games, which tells you how odd the slate was on Sunday.

Sean Monahan was sort of a bust, but Mikael Backlund was a solid mid-salary range play. Of course I had the Vladimir Tarasenko chalk in my lineup, but the rest of my wingers were ‘meh’ for the night.

Oddly, the defense position saved me. Expecting the Coyotes to have a solid game on home ice against the Jets, I went with a Yotes stack. Goligoski and Ekman-Larsson had a combined 28.8 FanDuel NHL points. I didn’t get the goalie win with Jake Allen, but the 1-2 loss to the Wild still get me another 18.4 points.

The Monday night slate is more robust than Sunday’s. There is a lot of offense to consider, plenty of chalky plays, but also great fade-the-chalk options. We’re hopefully gabbing some of the hot teams and may even have the ability to avoid taking too many value play risks with a solid lineup.

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 slates on Monday, February 25th:

Sabres at Maple Leafs 7pm ET

Canadiens at Devils 7pm ET

Kings at Lightning 7:30pm ET NBC Sports Network

Oilers at Predators 8pm ET ESPN+

Panthers at Avalanche 9pm ET

Ducks at Canucks 10pm ET

Six games is a fairly big slate for a Monday fantasy hockey night. The Maple Leafs are playing well, but hosting a Sabres team who’s been scoring often lately. The Sabres also made a solid trade to beef up their defense a bit.

The Canadiens should be able to handle the Devils in New Jersey, and we all get to see the Lightning very likely dominate the Kings on home ice. In fact, it’s likely the Bolts will be the chalk-play of the slate.

The Predators have struggled with their defense, most recently, but the Oilers aren’t as great a team with Connor McDavid off the ice due to a two-game suspension. The Avs and Panthers offenses are very appealing, but I’m not sure how much exposure I want to the Ducks and Canucks on Monday.

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

For a top center on Monday night, take your pick. There is a long list of great plays at this position. That’s great, because it should lower ownership across the lineups. However, I do still think the Lightning are the chalkiest play of the night.

Steven Stamkos ($8,600) and Brayden Point ($7,700) are two solid plays, especially in cash games, against a really bad Kings team, right now. The Kings are 0-5-2 in their last seven games, and have given up 4.14 goals per game in that time. So, it doesn’t take much thought to rationalize Stamkos and Point as top plays in the position.

While maybe not as chalky, Nathan MacKinnon ($8,000) is likely to be one of the top fade-the-chalk plays. The Avs have had their struggles lately, but MacKinnon continues to be a dominating fantasy hockey player.

In his last four games, Nathan has three goals, two during the power play, and two assists. Oh, and he’s averaging nearly six shots per game. But, in the last seven games, or over the last two weeks, the Panthers have only averaged 2.85 goals against per game. Also, the Panthers top line is solid. So I’m not comfortable playing that much for MacKinnon on Monday night.

However, if you’re going to spend that much FanDuel NHL salary on your top center pick, I’d rather have Auston Matthews ($8,200) in my lineup. This is a better shot at over 20 points, and double-digits even if he doesn’t get too involved in scoring over the Sabres.

Also, Aleksander Barkov ($7,400) is hotter (and cheaper) than MacKinnon right now. In his last four games, all on home ice, Barkov has six goals and five assists. He’s averaging over 30 FanDuel NHL points-per-game during that time.

Granted, the Panthers haven’t been out of Florida in a long time, so they made fade a bit on offense in Colorado, but I’m willing to gamble they stay hot against a potentially vulnerable team. It’s also possible Barkov could be overlooked, even given his current hot streak.

I’m likely going to match up my top center pick with a mid-to-low salary range pick. Two guys in this range I like most are Max Domi ($5,900) and Carl Soderberg ($4,700). Domi leading the Canadiens second line and Soderberg leading the Avalanche second line.

Domi has three goals and two assists in his last four games and has a history of going on extended scoring streaks this season. He also has a solid match up against the Devils second line.

Soderberg has a tougher match up, but he has three goals and four assists in the last three games. Carl is also shooting the puck more, a reason why I’ve been playing him as a value option at center in the last couple of weeks.

Programming Note: The Panthers, who play the Avalanche in Colorado tonight, just sent Derick Brassard ($3,800) to the Avalanche. It’s entirely possible Brassard could play with the Avs tonight, which could impact Soderberg and Landeskog’s lines.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Wingers

Again, Nikita Kucherov ($9,300) is hard to avoid when on the ice right now. The Bolts are a dominating fantasy hockey team to play and they’re hosting one of the worst teams in hockey this season. But, Kuch did cool off a bit over the last two games, scoring only one goal with no assists, with nine total shots.

The game against the Flyers was especially disappointing, but his eight shots on goal against the Sabres suggests he may stay hot against the Kings on Monday. Leon Draisaitl ($8,100) is nearly as good as Kucherov lately, and is clearly cheaper. He’s a sneaky Kuch fade, but the Predators are also stingy on defense so don’t expect an explosive fantasy hockey night from Draisaitl.

I’d rather save some with my top two winger picks so I can use it to pick better options throughout the rest of the lineup. While scanning players at each position, it occurred to me that we have some great picks in the mid-salary range, especially at winger.

Fortunately, Jonathan Huberdeau ($6,300) and Gabriel Landeskog ($7,000) are smoking hot fantasy hockey options right now, playing in the same game but not the same lines. Like Barkov, Huberdeau is a big reason the Panthers top line is playing so well right now.

In the last four games, Jonathan has four goals and four assists, and 18 total shots on goal. He’s averaging well over 20 FanDuel NHL points per game, and his scoring streak could continue in Colorado.

Landeskog has already remained hot over the last week, even generating a decent amount of points without scoring, thanks to a higher shot volume. The high shot volume is typically an indication the scoring will continue, and Gabriel has three goals and three assists in the last four games.

Matching Huberdeau with Barkov and Soderberg with Landeskog, provides plenty of salary for us to grab two hot second line players above $5K on FanDuel NHL. Sam Reinhart ($5,400) was in my Early Only lineup yesterday. I didn’t play many options in that slate, and my lineup mostly failed, but Reinhart was a big win with a hat-trick against the Capitals.

Sam has been hot and cold this season, but he’s beginning to demonstrate some offensive consistency. While the Maple Leafs are a hard team to beat, they’re also not great on defense, giving up around three goals per game.

The Leafs second line is solid, so there’s some risk this play doesn’t work out, but I still think Sam gets a higher volume of shot on goal Monday for some decent points.

While not on the Panthers top line, Evgenii Dadonov ($5,200) is a cheap way to get some of the Panthers goodness from Vinny Trocheck’s line. Dadanov enters the game with a five-game point streak in which he has two goals and four assists. Evgenii is also providing a solid two to three shots on goal per game.

If you’re going to play more expensive options at either the center or winger position, fortunately there’s two from the Devils. Jesper Bratt  ($4,100) continues to be dirty-cheap while heavily involved in the Devils offense, and Miles Wood ($3,700) has been a great play recently as well, especially on home ice.

Programming Update: Jesper Bratt is now OUT on Monday night due to a lower-body injury. Adjust accordingly.

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

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Defenders

It’ll prevent you from grabbing the top goalie pick, but you can easily afford Roman Josi ($6,800) and Morgan Rielly ($6,100) for a top defense pick, as long as you didn’t snag any of the expensive chalk plays.

Both Josi and Reilly are finally heating up again, and they’re not too pricey for Monday night. At least not as pricey as the two-headed monster sharks have been this season. That being said, I don’t think you need, or should, spend that much on this position.

Potentially completing a Panthers stack, or at least getting a piece of their offense, Keith Yandle ($5,200) should be a solid double-digit play on Monday, with the potential to exceed 20 points. Even if the Panthers offense doesn’t overtake the hot Avs defense lately, Yandle should pile up points with blocked shots and shots on goal Monday.

In a very similar situation, Rasmus Dahlin ($4,200) had a power play goal yesterday, following a goal against the Lightning in Tampa on Friday. After much hype about Dahlin during the preseason, he wasn’t quite as great as advertised to start the year. However, Rasmus has looked fantastic over the month of February and he’s quickly becoming a great fantasy hockey option.

Fantasy Hockey: NHL DFS FanDuel Power Plays Top Goalies

I typically don’t pay up for Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,600) because his salary often forces me to miss great offensive plays in other positions. However, as you’ll see in the example line, if you’ve been following how we can get great fantasy hockey points without paying too much for top picks at each position, it’s feasible to own Vas on Monday night.

I do worry about Andrei being able to get to a high volume of saves. But the Kings are averaging over 28 shots on goal in the last two weeks, so we could get 25 to 30 saves on Monday night. Also, there’s a decent chance at a shutout, which really pushes Vas’ value to over 30 FanDuel NHL points.

While Vasilevskiy is the best bet at over 20 FanDuel NHL points with a win, you can’t afford him if you’re grabbing the expensive picks at other positions. Fortunately, Pekka Rinne ($8,600) is another very decent bet at over 20 points on Monday night.

Typically the Predators have a stingy defense, however they’ve giving up over three goals per game in the last two weeks. And, Pekka did struggle against a re-emerging Avalanche team on home ice recently.

However, that game aside, he’s looked fantastic against most of their opponents this month, only missing out on great point returns because of the lack of offense from this team this month. But without Connor McDavid on the ice Monday, the Oilers are going to struggle to score many goals or steal a win from the Predators in Nashville.

Fantasy Hockey: FanDuel Power Plays February 25th 2019 Main Slate Summary

There are two routes I like for Monday, but one is chalky. There are some great expensive picks on the ice like Stamkos and Point at center. Also, MacKinnon or Matthews should be great plays. But Barkov is a tad cheaper and should yield as many, if not more, FanDuel NHL points for the center position.

Regardless, you’ll likely need a Soderberg or Domi in the second spot to afford any of those guys.

At winger, Kucherov and Draisaitl continue to be great plays, but are likely very chalky on Monday night. Leon may not be as chalky as Kucherov, who is likely in practically every lineup considering how hot he is right now.

That being said, Kuch is expensive, and I believe you can get a ton of points from paying for guys like Landeskog and Huberdeau. Also, that allows us to afford better cheaper plays in the third and fourth spot, like Reinhart and Dadonov.

If you need value at the winger position, Bratt is back on the ice and Wood is now offering almost as much value from the Devils, as well.

On defense, Josi and Reilly are the top plays, and if you’re going with Rinne as your top goalie, they make sense together. But I’m likely taking a shot with Vasilevskiy, now that I can afford him, with Yandle and Dahlin in my lineup.

With that summary in mind, here’s a look at a sample lineup for the NHL DFS Main slate on Monday, February 25th 2019:

C       Aleksander Barkov ($7,400)

C       Carl Soderberg ($4,700)

W     Gabriel Landeskog ($7,000)

W     Jonathan Huberdeau ($6,300)

W     Sam Reinhart ($5,400)

W     Evgenii Dadonov ($5,200)

D      Keith Yandle ($5,200)

D      Rasmus Dahlin ($4,200)

G      Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9,600)

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!