4 NHL FanDuel Studs to Target on Thursday 12/2/21
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.
Thursday night gives us ten more games. Let's see what studs are out there.
Nathan MacKinnon, Center, Colorado Avalanche
FanDuel Salary: $8,900
The Colorado Avalanche center has just one goal on the season. Nathan MacKinnon's shooting percentage has dipped below 4%. He has not posted a shooting percentage below 9.7% since 2016-17.
Thursday night may offer a beacon to the center. The Montreal Canadiens, at the least, have allowed a ton of shots in the last two starts of Jake Allen (92 shots). There is a reason why Montreal has been a DFS haven for centers and forwards (second-most FanDuel points allowed per game).
For a free-skating team like Colorado, this game should feature a bevy of scoring chances. Honestly, MacKinnon should be pretty ticked after Colorado allowed eight goals on Wednesday night in Toronto, so if you like narratives, there's that, too.
Alex Ovechkin, Wing, Washington Capitals
FanDuel Salary: $9,900
Alex Ovechkin is approaching the $10,000 plateau on FanDuel. Simply, that deserves a wow. Last time out against the Florida Panthers, the left-winger had three shots on goal and five scoring chances in the Washington road victory.
Ovi enjoys a great matchup today against a Chicago Blackhawks team more willing to trade scoring chances than most opposing teams are. Chicago has played better defensively under new coach Derek King, but Washington is projected to score 3.39 goals -- per our model -- and has a 63.8% win probability. Ovechkin has 19 goals in 23 games and is already on the verge of eclipsing 100 shots on the season.
The Caps should offer plenty of stacking options, but Ilya Samsonov would be a unique choice to look at if he starts.
Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche
FanDuel Salary: $7,200
Cale Makar had an immense dud on Wednesday night. Maybe the Canadiens will provide some refuge for the defenseman from a DFS standpoint.
On Wednesday night, it went about as poorly as it could. Makar had just one shot on goal as Toronto scored eight times against Colorado while limiting the talented Avalanche blueliner. It is safe to say Montreal does not have the same caliber of team defense. Makar should have more opportunities with Montreal allowing 31 high-danger chances in their last two games.
Makar is in a prime position on Thursday to get back on the scoresheet while padding his shot and blocked shot totals.
Sergei Bobrovsky, Goalie, Florida Panthers
Sergei Bobrovsky is coming off one of the weirdest home-and-home matchups against the Capitals. He split the two games while allowing seven goals on just 49 shots. Fortunately, Florida plays at home against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
Buffalo's offense isn't bad, but Florida enjoys a 78% win probability on the night, according to our numbers, the highest on Thursday's 10-game slate. There is a projected goal differential of 1.7, as well, which offers a cushion for Bobrovsky. He should be the projected starter and will enjoy a good chance of adding to his win column on Thursday.
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.
