4 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 3/24/22
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.
Thursday night brings us ten games on the slate. Let's take a look at some studs.
Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers
FanDuel Salary: $10,000
The Edmonton Oilers are like a beautiful masterpiece with a maestro that keeps on producing.
Connor McDavid is averaging nearly four shots a game this season. This uptick started last season when he surpassed the 3.5 shots per game threshold. His scoring chances last year went up by nearly a scoring chance per night.
Some pundits argued it was a blip. It is not. McDavid is on another one of his typical runs where he has six goals and eight assists over his past seven games. Furthermore, one tries to argue about regression. That is also wrong in the sense that the center still has not reached his peak. No one knows the when there. What we do know? Significant production.
The Oilers' center is projected to only score 18,9 FanDuel points, which tops all skaters. With the San Jose Sharks not having the most mobile team defense, this is a spot to attack and diversify.
Jonathan Huberdeau, Wing, Florida Panthers
FanDuel Salary: $9,000
The wing position gets a bit cluttered on Thursday night. Naturally, we look at the game up in Montreal.
So, the Florida Panthers, fresh off the trade for Claude Giroux face the Canadiens on Thursday night.
Huberdeau has just three goals and seven assists in his previous seven contests. The scary part is, with a little luck, the league's assist leader (65) would have a few more. So, a 10th-ranked power-play (23.7%) that only improved versus a penalty kill that ranks 28th at 74.5% is a good matchup. Also, the Canadians take the sixth-most penalty minutes per game in the league at 10.2.
Florida also averages a league-high 36.7 shots per game and 4.06 goals a contest. Montreal will try to play at a high-pace. Huberdeau will get plenty of opportunities on Thursday night.
For alternatives, there are Kyle Connor (a free square at his $3,600 salary) and Kirill Kaprizov, who faces an unrested Vancouver team.
Noah Dobson, Defenseman, New York Islanders
FanDuel Salary: $6,200
The New York Islanders are going to have to lean even more on their young defenseman. If reports are true, Scott Mayfield may be out a good while due to an injury.
Noah Dobson has proven to hurdle over every obstacle thrown at him so far this season. After a home dud versus Ottawa, a slightly more wide-open contest is likely versus the Detroit Red Wings.
Dobson enjoys a nice floor. He is approaching 2.75 shots per game on the season and is exceeding two blocked shots per game since January 1st. New York has won six of seven games as their bounce-back second half continues.
Detroit allows 3.7 goals per game and has the 29th ranked penalty kill currently (74.3%). Expect a little more flow to play on Thursday night which expects to allow Dobson to thrive.
Yes, Roman Josi is the obvious option here, but why settle for the obvious? Precisely.
Ilya Sorokin, Goalie, New York Islanders
Wait, so a goaltender is slotted in a value salary that is a stud? It is true. That is the case for Ilya Sorokin as he projects to start versus Detroit on Thursday.
With four wins in his last five starts and all five games featuring quality starts, Sorokin should be getting more eyes looking his way. His high-danger save percentage of .873 remains one of the best in the NHL. When things get chaotic, the young Russian goaltender has been a rock.
After a rough first-half in terms of wins, Sorokin is now up to 21 wins on the season -- which means 30-plus is very much in reach.
The Islanders goaltender has six clean sheets on the season, and Detroit is the lowest, according to our model, when it comes to projected goals for (2.21).
Simply, Sorokin is a stud at any salary.
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.
