NHL

5 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 11/24/21

In any daily fantasy lineup, 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 comes in fierce with a punch. There are 14 games in all. Let's get at it!

Nazem Kadri, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $7,100

Sure, Connor McDavid or even Leon Draisaitl would have been easy choices versus the Arizona Coyotes. However, what fun is that?

Nazem Kadri of the Colorado Avalanche expects to have a solid matchup at home once again versus the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night. Kadri is the hottest player right now in the NHL with 19 real-world points in just his last nine games.

Kadri has a projection of 12.2 FanDuel points, which is outside the top-10 centers on this immense slate. He is still one of the better plays at his salary, however. Also, the Avalanche are a team that can put up four or more goals in short order.

Alex Ovechkin, Wing, Washington Capitals

FanDuel Salary: $9,300

Alex Ovechkin is the machine that never breaks down. The left-winger of the Washington Capitals has 15 goals and 15 assists on the season already.

A forward who averages more than five scoring chances a night, Ovechkin should have an excellent opportunity against the Montreal Canadiens, who allow the second-most points to forwards in DFS.

The gigantic slate will cause some to ponder mini-stacks or duos on Wednesday. Tom Wilson is a solid option to pair with Ovechkin then maybe a Dmitry Orlov or John Carlson if defense is your pick.

Artemi Panarin, Wing, New York Rangers

FanDuel Salary: $7,700

There were some choices left on the table for Wednesday like Kyle Connor, who is a solid backup option. However, Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers faces the New York Islanders on Wednesday night who have as many as nine players out of the lineup due to COVID and injuries.

With so many players out of the lineup for the Islanders, Panarin faces a team defense that was already struggling allowing 3.13 goals per game. The Rangers love to score goals and come off a 5-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Panarin also features some nice ways to correlate a lineup with Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, or even Adam Fox. Needless to say, there are quite a few options on what may be the Rangers' best chance to beat the Islanders convincingly.

Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $7,100

One of the best defensemen in the league right now has to be Cale Makar. Since returning from injury, the Colorado Avalanche defender has five goals and four assists over his past five games.

He is the second highest-projected defenseman on this slate, coming in with a very respectable 14.8 points. On the other hand, he may do more damage than expected on Wednesday night against an Anaheim team Colorado has success against at home.

We have the Avalanche to score 3.45 goals, so you can plug Makar in mini-stacks with value players like Valeri Nichushkin or go up and get Nazem Kadri.

The Avalanche can draw most teams into a high-paced game especially at home. Anaheim is no exception which Is why Makar is a very good option on Wednesday night.

Tristan Jarry, Goalie, Pittsburgh Penguins

FanDuel Salary: $7.500

One of the hardest debates tonight was choosing between Igor Shesterkin and Tristan Jarry. Both goalies have been performing like studs and Shesterkin is a huge reason why the Rangers have 11 wind on the season already (the Russian has nine).

On the other hand, Jarry just swept the Canadian prairies into his back pocket. Jarry, in three starts, stopped 88 of 89 shots, and posted 2 shutouts. That has boosted his FanDuel points per game to 20.14 per contest. His salary may only be $7,500 but Jarry, in fantasy circles, has been every bit of a stud this early part of the NHL season.

Jarry and the Pittsburgh Penguins entertain the Vancouver Canucks, who yield the most DFS points to goalies in the entire National Hockey League.


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.