NHL Daily Fantasy Helper: Wednesday 10/9/19
A good chunk of you played daily fantasy football this year, and I'd be willing to bet a significant portion have also tried out daily fantasy basketball and baseball. But hockey? Hockey?
It's time to give it a try over on FanDuel because it's a ton of fun.
And our analysis and projections can help you win. To help, let's take a look at some goalies, high-priced skaters, and lower-priced players to target for today's slate.
Goalie to Target
Jacob Markstrom ($8,500): Markstrom comes in as the largest home-favorite on the slate, naturally making him a goalie to target tonight. The win equity for a goalie is significant in NHL DFS, since they get so many fantasy points from that, which can often make up for the lack of potential saves. He has seen under 30 shots in each of his first two starts, which from a real-life hockey perspective can be good, but in DFS, that will limit his upside. He simply doesn't have a ton of chances to rack up points from saves, which is why getting the win with him is very important tonight.
Those 30 or fewer shots per game line up with the fact the Canucks are allowing a 50 Corsi Against to start the season, the fifth-best in the league. Their defense limits the opposing offense from generating a ton of chances, which should keep him out of danger, for the most part, tonight, and help him secure the win.
High-Priced Skaters
Jack Eichel ($7,800): The Buffalo Sabres are home favorites, have the highest implied team total of the night -- 3.11 -- which makes targeting their top-line center a no-brainer. That center is Jack Eichel, who is off to a good start this season with three points in three games, but a rather low eight shots. The points are nice, but we would rather see a higher volume of shots from him, which would help raise his floor of points.
The extra shots should be there for him tonight since he is up against the Montreal Canadiens, who are top-five in both Corsi For and Corsi Against. They take a ton of shots along with giving up a ton of shots, which should cause this game to have a very fast pace. This presents Eichel with a chance to reach for those extra shots we want, along with providing him with upside if the scoring gets going on both sides.
Claude Giroux ($7,500): The Philadelphia Flyers had a successful start to the season when they grabbed the win against the Chicago Blackhawks last week in Prague. They are back home and looking to take on the New Jersey Devils in a game where the over/under is set at 6.0. Despite the victory for the Flyers, Broad Street's captain was held to only three shots, along with no points. That is not the level of production we expect from the multi-time All-Star.
The Flyers have a 3.10 implied team total -- the second-highest on the slate -- which has a solid chance of going over that since the Devils are allowing 9.47 High Danger Scoring Chances per 60 minutes, the 12th-worst in the league. The Devils are certainly improved since last season, but they are still weaker on defense and a team worth attacking. Giroux should have ample opportunities to pile up fantasy points tonight, since he is on the first forward line and the first power-play unit.
Value Skaters
J.T. Miller ($4,700): Miller and the Vancouver Canucks come in as the largest home-favorite of the night -- -165 -- which should give us a safe option to target for DFS. Miller is now up on the first forward line and the first power-play unit, which makes him an automatic target tonight. It's not often we have a player who is under $5K and seeing that role within the offense, so we want to jump on it before his price rises.
He only has three shots and one point through the first two games this season but has played 19 minutes in each game. The ice time and opportunities are there for him -- it really comes down to him seizing the new role and putting some points on the board.
Nikita Gusev ($4,300): Gusev made his NHL debut last week and was able to find the back of the net in that first game. This is his first season in the NHL, but he is 27 years old, technically not making him a rookie due to his time in the KHL. Regardless of that minor detail, he is now up on the top line for the New Jersey Devils after a bit of lineup shuffling over the first few games. He is also on the second power-play unit, which much like Miller above, is a good spot for a player who is under $5K.
He is up against the Philadelphia Flyers, who aren't particularly strong on defense and have all three of their pairings rated 24th or worse. With his solid six shots through the first two games, plus the new role on the team and a weaker opponent, Gusev and the Devils have the chance to pick up their first win of the season tonight.
