NHL

4 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Tuesday 2/1/22

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 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.

Tuesday night comes in fast with 11 games on the schedule. Let's take a look at some studs.

Nazem Kadri, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $9,800

The Colorado Avalanche have an 18-game winning streak at home. They score more than four goals a game at home. Today they're at home versus an Arizona Coyotes team that allows the second-most FanDuel points to forwards.

Enter Nazem Kadri, who is challenging for the league lead in real-world points. His latest run of four games is impressive as he has three goals and five assists during that span.

How good has Kadri been? His shots are way up with 17 in the last four games, and he's generated 20 scoring chances in that time. While no one is saying, "Nathan MacKinnon who?" Kadri is playing on some colossal wave of confidence right now.

The Avalanche center is projected to score 18.2 DFS points, per our model. That ranks second among centers and is worthy of a stud designation.

Like their quick-strike capabilities suggest, Colorado could easily score four goals on Tuesday.

Max Pacioretty, Wing, Vegas Golden Knights

FanDuel Salary: $10,000

There is quite a risk with Max Pacioretty on Tuesday night.

He plays against the Buffalo Sabres, which is an excellent matchup. However, in the two games since returning from wrist surgery, Pacioretty has been tentative in taking shots. He has recorded just three shots in two games with only five scoring chances. That is below the usual standard we normally see from Pacioretty.

Overall on the season, Pacioretty has 12 goals and nine assists in 18 games. But he has no goals in his previous seven games.

The Vegas Golden Knights' winger might fly a bit under the radar tonight, and that is rare for a player of his caliber. Pacioretty can crush it in this matchup versus the Sabres.

Elsewhere, you can turn to Filip Forsberg against Vancouver as a potential alternative.

Morgan Rielly, Defenseman, Toronto Maple Leafs

FanDuel Salary: $6,500

The Toronto Maple Leafs rallied for four third period goals in the final stanza on Monday night versus the New Jersey Devils. Guess who they are playing again? The New Jersey Devils.

This time the game is in New Jersey but little of that matters between these two teams. Yes, New Jersey can score a few goals but Toronto has that feeling they can score any time and often against the Devils. That showed last night as when the Maple Leafs kicked in an extra gear, New Jersey could not keep up. Morgan Rielly benefitted the most with two assists, three shots on goal, and two blocked shots.

That is an output which is too hard to ignore against an opponent with well documented defensive lapses. This is one of those few cases where it may just be okay to shed a bit of salary to spend up later.

Darcy Kuemper, Goalie, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $8,700

The Colorado Avalanche goalie has the best chance of getting a win tonight as the Avalanche have a 78.5% chance of extending their home win streak tonight, according to our numbers.

There is a bit of risk selecting a goaltender with the odds this tilted (due to a potential lack of save volume), but Darcy Kuemper has posted four straight games of at least 20 FanDuel points. He has won all four of those starts and has allowed just seven goals in that span.

Colorado is projected to score 4.25, per our model, so Kuemper should be backed tonight and has a great shot at the W. Shot volume looks like the only question for Kuemper. He saw 20 just shots in his last start versus Arizona.



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.