3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 5/12/21

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.

Wednesday night brings us four games on the "MAIN" NHL DFS slate. Let's take a look at a few studs.

Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $8,800

Nathan MacKinnon loves Los Angeles. He has three goals and three assists against the Kings in just four meetings. Also, the Colorado Avalanche have something to play for. If they win out, and preferably in regulation, they can win the West Division and enjoy some home cooking. That is quite a reversal of fortune from last week.

MacKinnon should also be playing a Kings team that has a few more prospects sprinkled in the lineup as well. The unknown variable is whether Auston Matthews will be rested on Wednesday night. At the very least, his minutes may be curtailed a little. The Colorado center is not expected to have any such restrictions and should play his normal 20-plus minutes.

The goalie for Los Angeles does not matter so much. They allow over three goals a game on the road while Colorado scores more than 3.5 goals per contest at home. This game sets up well for Colorado but they do have to watch as the Kings can score a few goals of their own.

One simple alternative is going to be Tomas Hertl at $6,900. The San Jose Sharks forward has six goals and nine assists in his last 10 games.

Evander Kane, Wing, San Jose Sharks

FanDuel Salary: $7,400

The risk is lessened because of the prospect that Vegas may have fewer skaters than usual again on Wednesday night (15 on Monday). Considering the way the Golden Knights played on Monday versus the Avalanche, could they be a bit fatigued from that pace?

Evander Kane had five or more shots on goal in three of his previous four contests. Though Vegas is among the four of the five stingiest teams in the league in allowing shots, that may be different on Wednesday night. A little wrinkle to add is that the left-winger will block some shots too occasionally. He had three blocks against the Golden Knights in a previous meeting.

San Jose's top line is one of the hottest lines in the league. One can stack an Erik Karlsson ($5,100) for salary relief or even Mario Ferraro ($3,700) for a decent floor from the defenseman position.

See who plays from the Toronto Maple Leafs first and then look at Kirill Kaprizov ($6,900) who has 9 goals in 10 games. Kaprizov has an outside chance at a 30-goal season still.

Devon Toews, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

FanDuel Salary: $5,200

The Colorado defenseman has two goals and an assist versus Los Angeles in the last two games between these teams.

In reality, this can be a coin flip between Devon Toews and Cale Makar ($6,100). It is about sliding down a little in salary. The idea is that Toews can generate scoring chances and shots as well as Makar can, especially against the Kings.

Toews can always play a solid amount of minutes and in all situations. He has played 24-plus minutes in six consecutive games, which only increases his floor that much more. He has at least 1-2 blocks in each of those games and 15 shots on goal (12 scoring chances) in that span.

If one is hunting for alternatives, Alex Pietrangelo ($6,200) might play even more minutes from Vegas if Alec Martinez is held out again.

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.