NHL

​3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Monday 2/14/22​

Is it wise to pivot to Auston Matthews instead of the Oilers' centers on Monday night?

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.

Monday night features four games on the schedule. Here are a few studs.

Auston Matthews, Center, Toronto Maple Leafs

FanDuel Salary: $10,200

With Auston Matthews still finding ways to manufacture DFS points, he gets a favorable matchup against the Seattle Kraken on Monday.

Matthews has cranked out 20-plus FanDuel Points in seven straight contests. Win or lose, the Toronto Maple Leafs' center is on an amazing run that would seem closer at first glance to Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl than Matthews' general production.

The Toronto center has five or more shots and six or more scoring chances in five of these seven games. Overall, he has seven assists to go with seven goals during this span.

Matthews is fourth among skaters in projections at 17.7 points. Don't be surprised if his total is higher on Monday night.

Kyle Connor, Wing, Winnipeg Jets

FanDuel Salary: $9,800

The Winnipeg Jets' winger just keeps shooting, shooting, and shooting.9

Despite only having 26 goals and 24 assists, Connor averages 19.07 FanDuel Points per game. That's because he shoots 4.57 times per game. He has more than 200 shots on the season already (and over 200 scoring chances).

Usually, cold teams can be a concern in DFS, but Connor's shot is too lethal of a weapon to ignore. The matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks is even more reason to consider the winger on Monday.

There may be a few options at or near his level on Monday, but Chicago allows 3.35 goals per game with a road penalty kill of just 73%.

Give Connor the green light with that one-timer of his.

Morgan Rielly, Defenseman, Toronto Maple Leafs

FanDuel Salary: $6,600

Morgan Rielly does not score a ton of goals and only has five on the season. Who cares, honestly?

The Toronto defenseman has 35 assists on the season, and lately, he has been shooting the puck more. He hit the net eight times on Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks with six scoring chances in all. Three of those were high-danger opportunities.

The Maple Leafs may be struggling from a wins-and-losses standpoint -- but not from a DFS viewpoint. Rielly has seven assists in the last seven games.

Seattle allows the least amount of shots in the league at 28.2, but they are 27th in goals allowed at 3.46 per game. Combine Seattle's 25th-ranked penalty kill into the mix, and one can see why Rielly is another piece to consider on Monday.

With Toronto looking for a bounce-back win, Seattle better watch out.



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.