NHL

3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on 3/12/21

Chris Wassel  —  @ChrisWasselDFS Mar 12th, 2021
Five games are on the NHL DFS slate on Friday night. Which high-salaried plays can you trust?

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 hammers in with five games on this slate. Let's look at a few studs.

Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $9,200

The Edmonton Oilers center could live off playing the Ottawa Senators alone as he again had four-plus shots on goal, four-plus scoring chances, and multiple real-world points. This was the third straight 25-plus FanDuel point night for the pivot. One of the biggest differences in Connor McDavid's game for DFS purposes this year is his ability to garner more point-potential each game.

Again, the Ottawa Senators allow the most goals per game in the league and have not been able to slow Edmonton's top-six or power-play at all. The only thing that has helped Ottawa is Edmonton's mistakes. Wednesday night could have easily been a 10-1 or 11-1 game. It was that much of a demolition executed by the Oilers and their offense taking advantage of a young, inexperienced Senators team.

Also, Nathan MacKinnon ($8,400) is primed as a lower-cost alternative on Friday night versus the Los Angeles Kings.

Max Pacioretty, Wing, Vegas Golden Knights

FanDuel Salary: $7,900

The good news is that Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone ($7,400) are away from facing the Minnesota Wild. Facing the erratic St. Louis Blues may prove to be a fantasy boon for the Vegas wingers on Friday night.

Vegas and their wingers should have opportunities against a St. Louis squad that allows over three goals a night and has a penalty kill of just 73% at home. Pacioretty enjoys full correlation with the top power-play unit as well. There should be plenty of scoring chances versus the Blues in what could very well be a wide-open game.

Leon Draisaitl ($8,300) is hard to look away from but Mikko Rantanen ($8,000) also becomes a viable choice again versus Los Angeles on Friday night.

Tyson Barrie, Defenseman, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $5,600

This choice must be hammered in. Tyson Barrie is in play again on Friday night. For the third game in a row, Barrie had four-plus shots and three or more scoring chances. Against Ottawa, a defenseman with an accurate shot is a godsend. Ottawa is among the worst teams in the league when it comes to unblocked shot attempts. Those Barrie blasts led to three Edmonton goals on Wednesday night.

The floor (shots plus blocked shots) keeps rising for Barrie with each game against the likes of the Senators. On a short slate, it may be difficult to completely stay away from Edmonton. However, there are always Plan B's.

Some other options may include Drew Doughty ($6,400) from Los Angeles and Jakob Chychrun ($4,400) once more from the Arizona Coyotes as his salary actually came down another $100.

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.