NHL

3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 5/19/21

Spending up in any daily fantasy lineup is how to get the superstars and the highest upside players in your lineup.

In NHL DFS, it’s different from paying up in sports like NBA or NFL. Someone can be one of the highest salaried players at his position and put up a total dud of a performance, and paying that much for him would be a huge mistake. Let’s make sure we are paying up in the right spots when building our lineups tonight.

Wednesday night brings us four games on the NHL DFS playoff slate. Let's take a look at a few studs.

Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $9,200

For a solid four-game playoff slate, Connor McDavid in an opening game scenario against the Winnipeg Jets is too hard to pass up.

What got lost as McDavid was chasing 100 real-world points was that his shot interval stayed up. He had 18 shots over his final five games of the regular season with 16 scoring chances. Chance to shot ratios are usually never that close to one. McDavid does this often.

McDavid had 2 goals and 10 assists in that five-game segment. Few teams have been able to slow the center down. Winnipeg was not able to do it in their last two meetings as McDavid had multiple real-world points in each game and had 12 shots on goal.

Nathan MacKinnon ($8,800) fired in two goals and an assist in Game 1 for the Colorado Avalanche. He makes for the 1B option on Wednesday night.

Andrei Svechnikov, Wing, Carolina Hurricanes

FanDuel Salary: $6,500

One game with a bunch of scary scoring chances got us thinking about Andrei Svechnikov. The funny thing was his easiest of the eight shots he had on goal went into an empty net. The Russian also had 12 shot attempts in Game 1 versus Nashville.

The biggest issue for Nashville is they allowed 37 shots on goal and there stands a very good chance the Predators could yield 35+ shots or close for every game in this series. Carolina has too many weapons in the arsenal for Nashville to slow down all of them.

The only thing Nashville did somewhat right on Monday as they held the Hurricanes without a power-play goal in four opportunities. On the other hand, four of Svechnikov's eight shots were on the man advantage.

Another option is to spend up on one of Colorado's top wingers in Mikko Rantanen or Gabriel Landeskog. Also, do not forget about Taylor Hall ($6,700). Washington does not have the manpower to slow him down.

Darnell Nurse, Defenseman, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $5,800

The Edmonton defenseman has enjoyed a breakout season behind the offensive force that is Connor McDavid. However, Nurse has improved his shot selection and puck-moving ability which has also paid dividends.

The results have been astounding. Nurse ended up with 16 goals and 20 assists on 154 shots in 56 games. He also was one of the few defensemen who topped 100 blocks along with 100 or more shots.

Also, Nurse will play in any and all situations and is projected to play at least 25 minutes tonight versus Winnipeg.

There is always Colorado and Cale Makar ($5,900). Makar scored a power-play goal on Monday and the St. Louis Blues' penalty kill was just 75% on the road this 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/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.