4 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 1/13/22
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.
Thursday night has 11 games currently on the schedule. Let's explore the best of the best studs.
Mathew Barzal, Center, New York Islanders
FanDuel Salary: $6,900
Which team will be rustier? That's the risk with looking at Mathew Barzal. The New York Islanders haven't played since January 1st, and the New Jersey Devils haven't played since January 8th.
The Isles' center historically has had quite a bit of success versus the Devils. Also, Barzal had a goal and 11 assists over his past seven games prior to the break.
Do not expect that to slow down. With New Jersey's penchant of allowing three-plus goals, no starting-caliber NHL goaltender, and several regulars still in COVID protocols, this is a matchup that speaks for itself.
The Islanders' offense could break out in a game that should feature a bit more "unusual" than normal.
Timo Meier, Wing, San Jose Sharks
FanDuel Salary: $9,800
Timo Meier is still hanging around the $10,000 salary plateau, and there are plenty of good reasons why. Meier has 18-plus FanDuel points in five of his last seven games and is on the verge of 40 real-world points this season already (15 goals and 24 assists).
The San Jose Sharks have a very good matchup against a New York Rangers team that relies a lot on scoring against the flow of play. Basically. Meier should be able to surpass four shots again as he has in his three previous contests. Meier will occasionally block shots (averages right around a blocked shot per game) to go with more than four shots a night, too.
Meier is given a lot more freedom than most forwards to create, and this season, it has paid off handsomely. This is part of why San Jose is around .500 despite shoddy goaltending -- their improved offense.
With the Rangers still on their "California Trip", this could be an electric game full of offense. Do not sleep on it.
Roman Josi, Defenseman, Nashville Predators
FanDuel Salary: $7,500
It is hard to stay away from the defenseman tonight.
Roman Josi has an excellent potential versus the Buffalo Sabres. With three straight 20-plus FanDuel point games under his belt, Josi has a good chance of making it four on Thursday night.
Josi just does not top our projections with 17.9 points tonight, but he does so by a substantial margin. Even then, we believe that number could be conservative given how high Josi's floor is when it comes to shots and blocked shots. He is easily surpassing five shots plus blocked shots per game combined over the last month. Nashville could easily top four goals tonight, according to our model.
Nashville isn't a great hockey club, but it's okay to turn to their blueliner -- at least tonight.
Frederik Andersen, Goalie, Carolina Hurricanes
Andrei Vasilevskiy and Juuse Saros will again get tons of looks on Thursday, but Frederik Andersen may just have the best chance at a win against the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Carolina Hurricanes goalie has exceeded expectations with an 18-5 record in 23 decisions. That includes a .929 save percentage and a 1.96 goals-against average.
Andersen has yielded two goals or fewer in five of his last seven appearances. That features four contests where the Carolina goaltender gave up just one goal. Even in his prior two starts to this hot streak, the veteran faced 72 shots and still won both games.
Despite not playing since last Friday, do not expect Andersen to be rusty against the Jackets on Thursday night.
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.
