NHL

NHL Daily Fantasy Helper: Friday 8/14/20

This will have to be quick as there are five games on the slate with a 2:00 pm ET lock. Can we trust the Colorado Avalanche's Nathan MacKinnon tonight? Let's take a look.

A good chunk of you played daily fantasy football this year, and I'd be willing to bet a significant portion of you 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.

Our analysis and projections can help you win. To help, let's take a look at a goalie, some high-priced skaters, and lower-priced players to target for today's slate.

Goalie to Target

Carter Hart ($8,600): The Philadelphia Flyers will start the young goaltender on Friday versus the Montreal Canadiens. His first postseason game went exceedingly well as Hart stopped all but one shot. His "home" dominance has been well documented but Hart started to play better on the road before the pause (winning five of seven). Then Philadelphia swept the round-robin format to garner the number one seed as well. The Flyers were second in the league allowing 28.7 shots per game during the season and naturally yielded just 28 in Game 1. Carey Price ($7,600) is the cheap venue priced alternative.

High-Priced Skaters

Nathan MacKinnon ($8,600): MacKinnon was unusually quiet by his own standards in Game 1. Though he had two assists, the center created just one scoring chance and NO shots on goal. It is the latter fact that shocked many people. The Arizona Coyotes will give up a lot of shots this series and Colorado was right near 40. And yet...nothing. Do not expect that for Game 2 as MacKinnon takes these types of things personally and will try to fire more pucks on Darcy Kuemper. Elias Pettersson ($6,700) is another center from the Vancouver Canucks which could be viable.

Alex Ovechkin ($8,200): Ovechkin had ten shot attempts in Game 1 and six went on net. He also had two blocks that aid his value in Game 2. After no points in Game 1, many are expecting a goal in Game 2. It is hard to believe Ovechkin would go pointless in consecutive games and given the New York Islanders' lack of discipline at times, Ovechkin is even more of a threat on Friday. T.J. Oshie ($6,800), his Washington teammate, is still gaining value as well.

Value Skaters

Corey Perry ($3,700): Perry found a way to turn back the clock on Thursday as he played 16 of his best minutes of the season -- racking up a goal, assist, and four shots on net. This Is the Perry that the Dallas Stars need. Much like Milan Lucic for the Calgary Flames, these third-line players often play hero during the postseason at one point or the other. They may not be the players they once were but these are choices that could save some money and even one's lineups.

Shayne Gostisbehere ($3,900): The Philadelphia defenseman is a high-risk pick on Friday night but going in a different direction could pay dividends as Gostisbehere seeing any power-play time against a bottom-third ranked penalty kill in the Montreal Canadiens could be beneficial. Gostisbehere still has that hard shot and can hit the net. His ice time maybe only 16-18 minutes a night at this stage but his ownership will be ridiculously low (less than 5%). Ryan Graves ($3,800) remains another possibility from Colorado.


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 personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.