NHL

3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 12/10/21

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.

Friday night has seven games on the schedule. It is time to hunt down a few more studs and get ready for the weekend.

Sidney Crosby, Center, Pittsburgh Penguins

FanDuel Salary: $8,100

Honestly, with Sidney Crosby on a hot streak, who else would one trust on Friday night in our nation's capital? Exactly!

Crosby has three goals and eight assists in his last six games for Pittsburgh. He has three or more shots in four of the previous six games. Some may be dissuaded since the center will be without Jake Guentzel due to injury. However, this may be the time to double down as Crosby could shoulder more of the scoring burden.

The good news is that Crosby can now be paired with a Danton Heinen to save some salary. Heinen is a nice offensive sparkplug who can play with higher-end top-six talent.

Also, Pittsburgh tends to fare well offensively no matter who is in net for Washington. With the two teams scoring seven combined goals in the last matchup (six by Washington), that could easily happen again with Pittsburgh seeking a measure of revenge.

Max Pacioretty, Wing, Vegas Golden Knights

FanDuel Salary: $9,800

The Vegas Golden Knights' forward is scoring and generating opportunities at an incredible clip.

Max Pacioretty is now approaching a $10,000 salary on FanDuel. Pacioretty has real-world points in six straight games and goals in four consecutive contests. The winger has seven goals in eight games already.

Vegas is gifted with a matchup versus the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers allow more than 35 shots a game on the road, which is the most in the league. Philadelphia, even with a coaching change, is still losing games with ease. They dropped a 3-0 decision to the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night.

Bluntly, Pacioretty could not even be contained by a rested Dallas team. The winger might be chalk, but he can be stacked on Friday night.

Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $7,100

The Colorado Avalanche are scoring goals at a ridiculous clip. As a matter of fact, they are now at 4.26 goals per game. Does it matter who they play against at this point? They are at home on Friday night versus the Detroit Red Wings.

The Avalanche defenseman keeps on producing. He scores like a forward at times. Cale Makar has 11 goals and 12 assists on the season already. Overall Makar is averaging nearly three shots per game and well over three scoring chances per contest.

Most will correctly argue that Makar is not going to shoot at 19 percent forever. Now, that is true. Even in his rookie campaign, Makar was at s 9.9% shooting percentage. Honestly, Colorado is on such a run, though, that he can keep racking up assists. Per our model, the Avalanche are projected to score 3.58 goals on Friday night.

Also, look at Adam Fox, as well. Fox plays the Buffalo Sabres. You can also turn to Alex Pietrangelo versus the Philadelphia Flyers.



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.