NHL

5 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Monday 5/3/21

There is an immense 14-game schedule of NHL games on Monday night. So, let's see who can you trust among the NHL studs.

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.

Monday night brings us a mammoth 14-game NHL DFS slate. Let's take a look at which studs you should build around.

Connor McDavid, Center, Edmonton Oilers

FanDuel Salary: $9,300

Connor McDavid continues his quest to get to 100 real-world points during the shortened 2021 season. Could he rack up 13 more points in seven games? Absolutely. Tonight, McDavid has the best matchup among centers against the Vancouver Canucks.

After coming up empty on the scorecard against Calgary last Thursday, McDavid scored on the power-play and added two more assists on Saturday against those very same Flames. He did that on three shots and a blocked shot. The center has three or more shots and six or more shot attempts in five consecutive games. McDavid also had four scoring chances over the weekend. Vancouver is 30th in penalty minutes via minors at 9.6 per game, 29th in shots allowed at 33.2 per contest, and allow 3.24 goals per game.

Nathan MacKinnon ($9,000) goes up against the San Jose Sharks. Also, there is Auston Matthews ($8,800) with another plus matchup versus the Montreal Canadiens.

Brad Marchand, Wing, Boston Bruins

FanDuel Salary: $7,800

The Boston Bruins face the New Jersey Devils on Monday night in what could be a bit of a test for Brad Marchand. However, the last meeting saw a breakthrough as the winger totaled just over 25 FanDuel points. He had a goal, an assist, and three shots on goal in the win.

The expectations are that of a higher-scoring game than usual on Monday. Scoring chances should be high on the Boston side along with shots on goal. In three of the previous four meetings, the top line was able to combine for 10 or more shots on goal. For New Jersey's part, they were able to score three or more goals in their final three games against Philadelphia. Finally, Marchand will be facing the league-worst penalty kill while Boston ranks 12th on the power play at 21.2%.

Jake Guentzel ($7,400) may be worth a look against those same Flyers on Monday night as the Philadelphia defense may be even worse than feared.

Artemi Panarin, Wing, New York Rangers

FanDuel Salary: $8,200

The New York Islanders have had Artemi Panarin's number, particularly in the last three matchups. He had two scoring chances and no shots on goal. The New York Rangers' winger should not have that problem against the Washington Capitals tonight. Washington is banged up and maybe without Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson once more.

Yes, there was one silver lining from the weekend as Panarin was at one point rested during Saturday night's game. He played just 16 minutes overall. Expect that number to go up a good deal on Monday night. Washington is now up to 2.94 goals allowed per game. Also, led by Panarin, the Rangers are shooting a fourth-best 10.9% in the league. It is hard to keep a good offense down especially with Washington, not at full strength.

Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad are good stacking options here but among alternative wingers, Tyler Toffoli ($6,800) has goals in consecutive games for Montreal.

Dougie Hamilton, Defenseman, Carolina Hurricanes

FanDuel Salary: $6,600

The Chicago Blackhawks are playing out the string against the Carolina Hurricanes, who are battling for the Presidents' Trophy.

These last five games have been a bit of a roller coaster for Dougie Hamilton but he does have three goals during that span. He does have 20 shots on goal in that span with an impressive 36 shot attempts. Chicago allows the second-most shots per game at 33.3 and their penalty kill ranks 27th at just 76.6%. Led by Hamilton at the point, Carolina tops the league with a man advantage converting 27% of the time.

Kris Letang ($6,100) and Ivan Provorov ($5,700) both must be pondered as they face off against each other in the "Battle Of Pennsylvania" on Monday night.

Philipp Grubauer, Goalie, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $8,500

The Colorado Avalanche goalie came back from COVID and promptly shut out the San Jose Sharks last week stopping all 21 shots. He is projected to face the Sharks again after getting the night off on Saturday.

The goaltender should face a few more shots on Monday night as San Jose typically averages 29.9 shots per contest. However, Colorado defensively yields just 25.5 shots on average per game. If Grubauer can see even 25 shots, that would be a boost. The only risk is those lingering long-term effects from COVID but so far, the Avalanche goaltender has not shown any of those symptoms at all.

See who starts for the Carolina Hurricanes tonight in goal first. With so many prime matchups, even Jack Campbell ($8,100) might be an intriguing lower-owned look as Toronto plays in Montreal tonight.


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.