4 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Monday 5/10/21

Spending up in any daily fantasy lineup is how to get the superstars and the highest upside players in your lineup. NHL DFS is different from NBA or NFL daily fantasy. Someone can be one of the highest-salaried players at his position and put up a total dud of a performance, and committing a ton of salary to him can be very costly. Let’s make sure we are going after the right high-salary players when building our lineups tonight.

Monday night features a nine-game slate. Let's find some of those studs!

Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $9,400

Connor McDavid probably should carry a $10,000 salary at this point. He has 100 real-world points in 53 games. He faces a Montreal Canadiens team that has several players banged up.

Montreal normally has kept McDavid mostly in check during the season by his standards. In this latest scoring run, McDavid has 4 goals and 12 assists in his last five games. The center has three or more shots on goal in four of his last five games along with nearly five scoring chances per game.

This is an almost perfect time for Edmonton to face Montreal. The last two meetings between the two teams saw McDavid tally two goals and four assists. Both games were without Brendan Gallagher. It is an open invitation to roster him given the Canadiens' injury situation.

There are studs out there even without Nathan MacKinnon. Sean Couturier ($7,400) is one option to consider from Philadelphia and Patrice Bergeron ($7,600) may be worth a shot from Boston on Monday night.

Alex DeBrincat, Wing, Chicago Blackhawks

FanDuel Salary: $7,700

Some had asked when Alex DeBrincat would reach Patrick Kane's salary level. The answer is now. Both are $7,700 but the goal-scoring option in DeBrincat is hard to pass up against a Dallas Stars team that also has zero to play for. Furthermore, both teams played "pond hockey" on Sunday night. Expect little difference from that tonight.

The Chicago Blackhawks' winger is on a six-game goal-scoring streak (eight goals) while firing 20 shots on net and attempting 36 shots. Dallas is not expected to slow down pace-wise in the least.

An option to consider to stack may just be Pius Suter ($4,600), who should center the DeBrincat line again. He has real-world points in consecutive games and offers a little bit of salary relief as a bonus.

Filip Forsberg ($7,300) is a solid alternative against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, but again, watch for load management. Brad Marchand ($7,800) could prove an even better option with Boston still having seeding concerns.

Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $5,900

With Nathan MacKinnon and Max Pacioretty both potentially out for Monday night's clash between Vegas and Colorado, expect the unexpected. Cale Makar has stepped up with MacKinnon out of the lineup to not only quarterback the power play but rush more up the ice than usual. He has a goal and assist each in two games with 11 shots on goal and 8 scoring chances created.

Now, the slightly lower salary of Makar makes him more attractive compared to Roman Josi ($6,800) or even Dougie Hamilton ($6,500). Makar may not block as many shots as he averages about a blocked shot a game over his last 15 contests. It is the offense that he provides which makes him the best stud option in a game that is very important for both teams.

Darnell Nurse ($5,900) has a plus-matchup against a bruised and battered Montreal team and Ivan Provorov ($5,500) is a viable choice against the worst penalty-kill in hockey in the New Jersey Devils.

Tuukka Rask, Goalie, Boston Bruins

FanDuel Salary: $7,900

Most will look away from Boston after allowing four goals to the New York Rangers of all teams over the weekend. It was a weird sort of fluke and Tuukka Rask is still a solid start against the New York Islanders at home tonight.

A huge reason for that is Rask yielding five goals on 23 shots. Rask had won three straight games before that stopping 74 of 77 shots including a shutout against New Jersey. His lower salary helps tonight with several teams facing uncertain goalie and "resting" situations.

Does Andrei Vasilevskiy ($8,500) play against the Florida Panthers tonight? Do the Tampa Bay Lightning even risk it for potential home-ice advantage? Maybe Petr Mrazek ($8,500) plays against Nashville. Monitor all goalie situations on this last large slate of the regular season.

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.