NHL

3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on 3/26/21

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.

Friday night features four games in all. Let's take a look at some studs.

Mark Scheifele, Center, Winnipeg Jets

FanDuel Salary: $7,500

The Winnipeg Jets play the Calgary Flames on Friday night, and while Darryl Sutter has been hell-bent on slowing down teams, it has been a mixed bag of results. Mark Scheifele is one of the better centers on this small slate. He has a goal and an assist in the previous two games.

The nice part with Scheifele is he had six shots on goal on 10 attempts in this span along with four scoring chances. Jacob Markstrom looks to be the starter for Calgary and has allowed 12 goals in four meetings against Winnipeg this year. It has the potential to be a good matchup.

Also, with another Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens game postponed, center options are a bit more limited. Nicklas Backstrom ($6,800) could bounce back against the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.

Alex Ovechkin, Wing, Washington Capitals

FanDuel Salary: $8,400

The Washington Capitals' "Great Eight" is back to his normal goal-scoring tricks and is up to 15 on the season. He now has scored seven goals in his previous seven games. Ovechkin also has four-plus shots in five of those outings.

It is likely that Ovechkin could set up a few more times in "his office" on Friday night. New Jersey is a team that keeps allowing three-plus goals with ease against Washington. The biggest problems they have are often against the Ovechkin line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Washington's primary power-play unit.

Evander Kane ($7,400) can hit a shot volume on the equivalent of Ovechkin and plays the banged-up Arizona Coyotes tonight.

Jakob Chychrun, Defenseman, Arizona Coyotes

FanDuel Salary: $5,100

This short slate offers few defensive studs, but Jakob Chychrun is producing like a consistent top defenseman without the upper-tier salary. Chychrun has double-digit FanDuel points in each of his last four outings.

The Arizona defense has been literally Chychrun and whatever is by a committee of late. Chychrun had six combined shots and blocked shots or more in his last six appearances before the Tuesday game versus the Colorado Avalanche. He had three real-world points in that span, too.

Some complementary defensemen to consider on Friday may include John Carlson ($6,700) for the power-play advantage and Josh Morrissey ($4,500) as a higher-risk option from Winnipeg.


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.