NHL

3 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Wednesday 5/26/21

There are three games on Wednesday night all with the potential for elimination. Which studs can we trust in NHL DFS?

In any daily fantasy lineup, 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 grants us three more games on the NHL DFS playoff slate. Let's take a look at a few studs.

Sam Bennett, Center, Florida Panthers

FanDuel Salary: $5,100

It has been an interesting Round 1 for Sam Bennett and the Florida Panthers.

The Florida center is averaging 4.5 shots per game in his last 10 games. He seems to have become this mini version of Alex Ovechkin when it comes to shot volume. He has 15 real-world points in this time span as well. Did we mention that he has seven blocked shots in his last four appearances? We just did.

Tampa Bay has had a difficult time even trying to fully contain the forward. About the only way, Bennett is a liability to a DFS roster is if he gets suspended. Again, at his salary, Bennett is really a plug-and-play option.

Aleksander Barkov ($7,900) is the spend-up option from Florida along with Brayden Point ($7,400) as the "Battle Of Florida" expects to be high-scoring once more.

Mark Stone, Wing, Vegas Golden Knights

FanDuel Salary: $7,600

Mark Stone has now scored in three consecutive games. The reality is we may never see Max Pacioretty in this series. It feels like Pacioretty has been a game-time decision forever now.

That goal paved the way to a third straight 15+ point FanDuel night. If he keeps producing like this consistently, then the salary is worth it. Maybe Stone even fires several shots on net. As it is, he generates an average of 3.6 scoring chances per game in this series with Minnesota so far. This may also be an option for those that go too overloaded on Florida and Tampa Bay.

Nikita Kucherov ($8,200) does have to be included as an alternative. He has nine real-world points in five games in his series against the Panthers.

Alec Martinez, Defenseman, Vegas Golden Knights

FanDuel Salary: $4,800

The risk is very high with Kris Letang, Victor Hedman, and Alex Pietrangelo all available and we look at Alec Martinez?

There is zero doubt about how crazy this looks on the surface but the Vegas defenseman blocks a good number of shots and gets shots on net. He has a whopping 30 blocked shots in his last six games. Though he only has two real-world points in that span, Martinez and his floor can be easily rostered from a FanDuel point-per-dollar perspective. Then, one can spend up salary-wise elsewhere.

Victor Hedman ($6,600) should have the most DFS potential from the blueline on Wednesday but the problem is health. An intriguing choice may be Mackenzie Weegar in at just $4,400 from Florida.


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.