NHL Daily Fantasy Helper: Monday 8/24/20
A good chunk of you played daily fantasy football this year, and I'd be willing to bet a significant portion of you have also tried out daily fantasy basketball and baseball. But hockey? Hockey?
It's time to give it a try over on FanDuel because it's a ton of fun.
Our analysis and projections can help you win. To help, let's take a look at a goalie, some high-priced skaters, and lower-priced players to target for today's slate.
Goalie to Target
Pavel Francouz ($7,800): The Colorado Avalanche expect to start Francouz on Monday against the Dallas Stars. This is a pivotal Game 2 and Francouz did stop 18 of 20 shots in relief of a fallen Philipp Grubauer. The understudy proved to be quite the quick learner and outperformed Grubauer during the regular season. Dallas has found their offense with 12 goals in the last two games. This will be a risky pick. Even riskier would be to look at Anton Khudobin ($7,500) but the Stars' goalie expects to easily see 30-35+ shots again on Monday night versus a motivated Colorado team.
High-Priced Skaters
Nathan MacKinnon ($8,800): There is MacKinnon and then there is the rest. The last two games have seen the Colorado pivot go off for seven real-world points, on 12 shots, four goals, and seven scoring chances. Not even Dallas could contain him in Game 1 as MacKinnon fired a half-dozen shots on net (ten shot attempts). There are few players who can take over a game quite like the center. It comes down to this question. Can the Stars slow the forward down in any way? That may be a tall task for Dallas. Tyler Seguin ($7,500) could be near a breakout game for the Stars and he did have a goal and assist in Game 1.
Jakub Voracek ($7,300): Voracek is a risky DFS play on Monday evening against the New York Islanders but if the Philadelphia Flyers are going to have success, they will need to on special teams. Voracek is a power-play hound who had several power-play points in Round 1 against the Montreal Canadiens. He will have to do that again versus the Islanders. The Flyers' winger has points in three straight contests and ten shots on 18 shot attempts in the previous four. Anthony Beauvillier ($6,200) is coming up in price and has entered the lower reaches of the upper-tier for New York. He is still worth a look.
Value Skaters
Valeri Nichushkin ($3,400): Nichushkin represents the ultimate high-risk GPP play on Monday night with a revenge motive. The Colorado forward only played 8 minutes in Game 1 but could see a few more minutes of ice time in Game 2. He had a shot and blocked shot in very limited action. While Nichushkin does not see power-play time, he would likely play against Dallas' bottom forwards and defensemen. It could be a good matchup for a forward with something to prove and plenty of speed to burn. Michael Raffl ($3,600) is likely as dicey but does on the top line at even strength for Philadelphia.
Nick Leddy ($3,900): The New York defenseman is a moderate risk GPP play on Monday night but he does have points in consecutive games while slowly improving his floor with a few blocked shots here and there. He is an intriguing play given Leddy's experience and again, the blueliner has looked a step faster in these playoffs. With Erik Johnson likely out for the Avalanche, Ryan Graves ($3,800) could return to the role that made him a value play for long stretches of the regular season.
Chris Wassel is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Chris Wassel also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username chriswassel. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
