NHL

3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on 2/19/21

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Feb 19th, 2021
There are four games on the Friday slate, including the Battle Of Alberta. Who can you trust in NHL DFS?

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.

Friday night brings us four contests. Let's take a look at what studs we may find.

Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $9,100

Connor McDavid cannot stop garnering helpers -- he has 16 in his last 10 contests. Overall, he has 20 real-world points in that span but weirdly has gone without a goal in five games. That is a bit of a surprise. This is in spite of the fact that he has five-plus shots on goal and four-plus scoring chances in each of the last three games.

The Calgary Flames cannot truly slow his line down or with their penalty kill. This all comes down to conversion for McDavid. Edmonton averages 3.5 goals per game and has a power play approaching a 25% conversion rate (11th in the NHL). Things are trending up for McDavid on Friday night.

Aleksander Barkov ($6,900) encounters one of the best special teams matchups against the Detroit Red Wings.

Nik Ehlers, Wing, Winnipeg Jets

FanDuel Salary: $6,900

Play Nikolaj Ehlers again on Friday night. He saw 18 minutes of ice time while generating eight shot attempts, five shots on goal, and four scoring chances on Wednesday night. He chipped in with an assist, as well, and even hit a crossbar. Going up against the 30th-ranked defense in the Vancouver Canucks presents another optimal matchup for the "second-line" winger.

Could Ehlers top five-plus shots again on Friday night? That is a possibility. Again, games in the North Division tend to favor offense more than any other. The scoring spread still hovers around one full goal a game combined compared to the other divisions. That is a huge difference. This comes down to talent, and Ehlers is an example of that younger talent.

Again, Patrick Kane is the highest-salaried option at the position, but Jonathan Huberdeau ($7,300) goes up against Detroit on Friday.

Tyson Barrie, Defenseman, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $5,500

The two highest producing defensemen in the North Division are still Quinn Hughes and Tyson Barrie.

Barrie endured some bad luck on Wednesday night, with several scoring chances that missed the mark and several more that wound up getting blocked. He played 27 minutes, though, and if he continues to see that high amount of ice time, there will be more opportunities. Do not be misled by the two shots on goal and one blocked shot on Wednesday. His salary dropped a few hundred dollars, which makes him even more attractive on Friday night.

Defensemen are still relatively cheap tonight. Quinn Hughes ($5,600) goes up against a bottom-ranked penalty kill in the Winnipeg Jets and Dougie Hamilton ($5,600) faces a defensively porous Chicago Blackhawks team.

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.