4 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on 4/19/21

Spending up in any daily fantasy lineup is how to get the superstars and the highest upside players in your lineup. NHL DFS is different from NBA or NFL daily fantasy. Someone can be one of the highest-salaried players at his position and put up a total dud of a performance, and committing a ton of salary to him can be very costly. Let’s make sure we are going after the right high-salary players when building our lineups tonight.

Monday night features a surprising eight-game slate. Let's find some studs!

Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $9,000

Connor McDavid has moderate risk on this Monday night slate for the Edmonton Oilers going up against the Montreal Canadiens. Wait, what?

This sounds absolutely crazy but McDavid had two of his worst performances against Montreal recently -- totaling 1.6 and 0 points, respectively. Also, he has just two goals in his last 10 games and has had three ordinary performances by his standards in the last three games (just three assists in that span).

That includes two consecutive games where the Edmonton center had just a couple of scoring chances and one shot each. The potential reward is that McDavid can break out at any time as evidenced by his one-goal, three-assist outburst against the Ottawa Senators on April 7th. There are a few other studs as lower-salaried options on Monday night.

Elsewhere, Aleksander Barkov ($7,900) enjoys a prime matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Do not forget about Sebastian Aho ($7,700), who had a very good performance recently versus Tampa Bay.

Max Pacioretty, Wing, Vegas Golden Knights

FanDuel Salary: $8,000

Max Pacioretty enjoyed his miniseries versus the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings last week. He racked up seven real-world points including three goals on just 11 shots and nine scoring chances. The scary part is we said only 11 shots. Pacioretty has averaged around four shots a game this season and over three scoring chances a contest.

Next up is a meeting against the San Jose Sharks. Martin Jones expects to be in net and bad Jones is back -- allowing 16 goals over his previous four starts. Also, Jones has allowed six goals against Vegas on just 34 shots this season. In their last four games against, Pacioretty has seven real-world points and again three goals. This feels kind of like a broken but good record.

San Jose is 28th in goals allowed at 3.34 and has lost five straight games. The Vegas Golden Knights have won six straight and are fourth in the league with 3.34 goals per game.

Even Mark Stone ($7,300) could be paired with Pacioretty on Monday. Or, one could look at Chandler Stephenson. Other alternatives may include Patrick Kane ($7,700) or Alex DeBrincat ($7,200) against a Nashville team that allowed 40-plus shots on goal in consecutive games last week.

Roman Josi, Defenseman, Nashville Predators

FanDuel Salary: $6,300

Roman Josi goes up against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night, who allow the second-most shots per game at 33. Like Nashville, their penalty kill is 28th at just 74.8%. So, this game has potential for some stacking.

Josi had a goal with three shots and four blocked shots versus Carolina on Saturday night. This is a better matchup against a team that Nashville needs the two points against. Josi also has four real-world points in his last three games while averaging nearly three scoring chances a night.

Dougie Hamilton ($6,700) is always an option from Carolina because of how often he shoots the puck. Also, Shea Theodore ($6,400) is worth considering for the same exact reason against the Sharks on Monday night.

Juuse Saros, Goalie, Nashville Predators

FanDuel Salary: $8,000

Juuse Saros expects to start on Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks after stopping 45 of 47 shots against the Carolina Hurricanes in defeat on Saturday.

Saros has been incredible over the past month for Nashville and has won 9 of his last 12 starts. This is all while producing 20-plus FanDuel points in 10 of them. That is a mark of some solid consistency and the definition of a goaltending stud. With a lot of uncertainty tonight, the Nashville goaltender has the ability to face 30-plus shots in what should be a high-event game at home.

Does Andrei Vasilevskiy ($8,400) play well for Tampa Bay tonight? Better yet, does Robin Lehner make enough saves to warrant a play from Vegas? Those are other risks that can be taken.

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.