3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 1/19/22
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 spending 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 spending salary in the right spots when building our lineups tonight.
Wednesday night has three games on the docket. Here are some studs.
Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche
FanDuel Salary: $10,400
The Anaheim Ducks have regressed to a 2-6-2 clip over their last 10 games, and they have yielded 31 goals over their past 9 contests. At some juncture, this has to be attributed to the inevitable sliding back towards preseason expectation.
It won't help their prospects Wednesday that the Colorado Avalanche are still scoring at 3.47 goals per game on the road. Specifically, Nathan MacKinnon has six goals in his last seven games.
MacKinnon has five shots or more in every single game during that span. Whether the entire top line of Colorado is together or not, MacKinnon is asserting himself in all situations.
MacKinnon, by the way, is averaging 7.29 shots per game as a whole. He's a given; the difficult choice is choosing which teammate to stack.
The best options are Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen. However, names further off the radar include Devon Toews, Andre Burakovsky, and even Erik Johnson to punt on the blue line.
Chris Kreider, Wing, New York Rangers
FanDuel Salary: $7,600
The season Chris Kreider is enjoying can be best described as surreal.
Kreider is now averaging just over three shots a game -- a career-high. He has already nearly eclipsed his career-high of 28 goals; the winger has 24 goals in just 39 games played. He also has 11 assists.
After that, the numbers get even more stellar. Kreider has 12 of his 24 goals on the man advantage, and he's added 5 more helpers in extra-man situations. This kind of production is hard to pass up on a short slate.
Regression isn't really coming for Kreider's production, either. His shooting percentage of 20% is just a tick higher than the 19.6% he set last year in 50 games.
Expect the New York Rangers' forward to enjoy some more prime chances against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who allow 32.2 shots per game on the road.
Adam Fox, Defenseman, New York Rangers
FanDuel Salary: $6,500
The coin flip at defense between Adam Fox and Cale Makar is well documented. Makar has higher goal potential in a vacuum, but a home matchup for Fox is worth exploring, too.
Fox now has eight assists in his last seven games. Though the defenseman does not shoot like a Makar, he blocks around two shots per game. That has to be considered.
He is facing a Toronto squad that ranks among the top-five in goals per game allowed, BUT they have given up 13 goals in their previous four contests.
Devon Toews is $200 higher in salary for a lesser role, which sounds hard to believe, but it is true. Fox's blue-chip role at a slight salary discount is a great one.
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.
