NHL

​3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 1/26/22​

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Jan 26th, 2022
David Pastrnak has found his scoring touch again. Can he use it to help keep up with the red-hot Avalanche?

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.

Nazem Kadri, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $9,700

The Boston Bruins will attempt to get Linus Ullmark back in goal as they head to Colorado for a meeting with the white-hot Avs.

Nazem Kadri has 52 real-world points on the season which includes 17 on the man advantage. Further, the center has proven excellent correlation to players all over Colorado's top-six forwards because of their power play. That unit has scored on 24.8% of tries this season (ninth in the NHL).

Kadri has been relentless and will be a physical presence on Wednesday. Along with the 3.5 shots per game he averages, the center will likely throw several hits too.

The tiebreak for Kadri is the affordability of the correlated parts around him. Both Valeri Nichushkin and Andre Burakovsky are lower-salaried ways to access the best offense in hockey.

David Pastrnak, Wing, Boston Bruins

FanDuel Salary: $8,800

The bounce-back is real for David Pastrnak.

"Pasta" went from 8 goals on the season all the way to 20 very fast. The Bruins' winger has goals in three straight games and is still averaging more than 4.4 shots per contest.

After that, the numbers get even more enticing, Pastrnak has seven goals and three assists in his last half-dozen starts.

Chalk it up to positive regression. The forward is now right up there with Timo Meier and Alex Ovechkin among the top wingers to target on any slate.

One thing the Avs do not do well is killing penalties. They are just 27th in the league at 75% on the year. Pastrnak could do plenty of damage on the top power-play unit.

Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $7,600

The Cale Makar show continues on Wednesday night, but Makar has been a bit ordinary of late production-wise.

Makar has 16 goals on the season but none in his last seven games. He does have five assists, though. He also has just three shots on goal in the previous two contests. By his standards, the defenseman is slumping mightily.

That's dropped his salary facing a Boston team that actually shoots more than Colorado (35.5 per game; third in the NHL). That could add some blocked shots to Makar's tally tonight.

Devon Toews has a lower salary, but Makar should be relatively unpopular -- by his lofty standards. His known upside makes him worth a look in tournaments.


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.