3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on 2/20/20
Spending up in any daily fantasy sport is how to get the superstars and the highest upside players in your lineup. In NHL DFS, it’s different than paying up in sports like NBA or NFL. Someone can be one of the highest-priced 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.
We have an eight-game slate on Thursday night, and some of the games are rematches from an exciting Tuesday night slate. Let's see what stars we want tonight.
Alex Ovechkin, Wing, Washington Capitals
FanDuel Salary: $8,800
Alex Ovechkin has failed to score in his past five games, but it hasn't been for a lack of trying. He has 27 shots on goal in those five games, with the last three being on the road. These have contributed to him leading the league with 276 shots on goal. His goals have tended to come in bunches this season, as he had 14 in seven games before this recent barren run. Tonight, he will return home looking for goal number 700.
The Washington Capitals will face off against the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal is coming off an embarrassing loss to the lowly Detroit Red Wings, and their playoff hopes are slipping away. The Capitals themselves have lost four out of five and will look to get back on track at home. A matchup they can exploit is on the power play, as Montreal's penalty kill is in the bottom half of the league, killing off under 80% of the times they've been shorthanded. Ovechkin is second in the league with 12 powerplay goals. Ovechkin has been all or nothing in the goals department of late, but how much he shoots gives him a solid floor in every game. He's worth spending up on in every format.
Brent Burns, Defenseman, San Jose Sharks
FanDuel Salary: $6,700
It seems like fantasy hockey has finally got the old Brent Burns back. He has nine points and 38 shots on goal in his last 10 games, the kind of stretch that we would see from him in the past few seasons. With Erik Karlsson out for the season, Burns is back to being the main man on defense for the San Jose Sharks. He's played over 27 minutes in the three games since Karlsson has been out. He should be around that mark again tonight, and he could easily add to his six-game point streak.
Burns and the Sharks will play the New Jersey Devils, who have already begun to sell off a lot of tradable assets ahead of next week's trade deadline. In their first game after making a few trades, they were trounced in the shot attempt battle, 56-36 to the Blues, per Natural Stat Trick. Burns himself has the fourth-highest shot attempt rate among defensemen this season, which is back up to where we were used to seeing it when he was one of the best fantasy assets in the NHL. Everything is coming together for Burns, and in this matchup, he is certainly worth paying up for tonight.
Jordan Binnington, Goalie, St. Louis Blues
FanDuel Salary: $8,400
After struggling for a little while, Jordan Binnington got on track with a shutout on Tuesday night. He gets another good matchup on Thursday as the St. Louis Blues will take on the Arizona Coyotes, who are on the second leg of a back to back. The Coyotes are also the seventh-worst team in the league in goals per game, so they don't offer much of a threat. They have an implied goal total of just 2.43, the lowest on tonight's slate. With the Blues being -175 favorites, Binnington is likely to get the win, and is a fairly safe bet to not get blown up. This gives him viability in cash games, and he is a reasonable spend in tournaments.
Nicholas Vazquez is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Nicholas Vazquez also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username hbyanksman. 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.
