NHL

​3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Friday 3/25/22​

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Mar 25th, 2022
Nazem Kadri is a way to be different with the Avalanche likely to be overwhelmingly popular on Friday's short slate. Who else stands out at the top?

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.

Friday night brings us five games on the schedule. Here are a few studs.

Nazem Kadri, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $8,500

The Colorado Avalanche center is once again a nice way to slide back and save a bit of salary on Friday.

Nazem Kadri -- not Nathan MacKinnon --looked like the center of attention once more against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday. He posted a goal, six shots, and seven scoring chances. He arguably faces an even better matchup against a Philadelphia Flyers team that gives up 36 shots per 60 minutes on the road. The Flyers come in unrested as well.

Kadri has two goals in his past five games after a bit of a goal-scoring slump. Goals may not be too hard to come by on Friday.

The Avalanche are projected to score a slate-high 3.64 goals on Friday, per our model, and that feels low. Kadri should be able to pad his totals.

Johnny Gaudreau, Wing, Calgary Flames

FanDuel Salary: $9,000

Johnny Gaudreau is just one of those players that keeps rolling for the Calgary Flames.

The matchup versus the Arizona Coyotes is hard to pass up. Calgary enjoys an implied 75.7% chance of winning on Friday night. One of the biggest reasons for that is the play of Gaudreau and the top line.

Projections suggest 3.58 goals for Calgary on Friday, which puts four goals very much in play. That is more than enough for the winger to have a very good night. After all, Gaudreau does have six goals and two assists in his previous seven games.

Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm make for excellent options. They can even be paired with Noah Hanifin on this shorter slate.

Adam Fox, Defenseman, New York Rangers

FanDuel Salary: $6,400

The starting point for the New York Rangers at home may just be with Adam Fox.

Fox has 54 assists on the season to go along with double-digit goals. His last game against Pittsburgh left a painful taste in his mouth. He had six blocked shots but just one shot on goal.

This is a tough matchup against a fine Penguins defense, but Fox has three goals and six assists in his last seven games alone. After a brief slump, the blueliner back in better form.

Pairing Fox with some of New York's middle-six talent is a rare way to be different on the short slate.


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.