After a wild Wednesday night NHL DFS slate, there is a jam-packed 10 game slate tonight. Boston and Dallas are both playing on the second of a back-to-back. This Power Play article will use Awesemo’s Premium NHL Tools to help dole out the NHL DFS advice to help with building lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel tonight. The Awesemo NHL projections and ownership projections are two of the best tools to utilize when constructing stacks and making the optimal NHL DFS picks. Let us go position by position and pinpoint some of the top plays and stacks for Thursday, Dec. 9.
NHL DFS Picks, Tops Stacks & Lineup Optimizer Plays
Center
Auston Matthews (TOR vs. TB): DraftKings – $9,300 | FanDuel – $10,300
Matthews has been on an absolute heater with multiple points in four of the last seven games. Coming off a two-goal game, he is averaging the shot-on-goal bonus over the last 10 games while playing with varying linemates. Matthews will be tested with the Lightning coming to town, but they are also still short-handed, missing Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. The chemistry between Matthews and Michael Bunting has been very good. Together they have 3.38 expected goals per 60 at five-on-five while creating over 17 high-danger chances.
Matthews is one of the top options popping up in the Awesemo NHL lineup optimizer. For all of our free NHL DFS picks tonight, check out the DraftKings NHL cheat sheet and FanDuel NHL cheat sheet.
Trevor Zegras (ANH at CBJ): DraftKings – $6,100 | FanDuel – $6,400
The Ducks top line has been one of the better stories of the year for NHL DFS, led by Trevor Zegras. Zegras is averaging just under a point per game while also averaging four shots per game over the last eight games. The shot volume should continue tonight against the Jackets, who are giving up the second-most shots, scoring chances and high-danger chances. Zegras and the Ducks top line as a whole check all the boxes for tonight, and their ownership should be held at bay with all the other great matchups.
Winger
Patrick Kane (CHI vs. MTL): DraftKings – $7,800 | FanDuel – $8,100
Kane will likely go somewhat overlooked tonight, being priced as the third-highest forward. Despite the Blackhawks dealing with off-ice issues and going through a coaching change, Kane continues to produce at a point-per-game pace. His shot volume has been down a little, but tonight is a great spot to get the volume back up. Montreal has seemingly quit playing any kind of defense. Over the last 10 games they rank dead last in Corsi, expected goals against shots against, scoring chances against and high-danger chances against. Both sides of this game have some appeal, but the Blackhawks are ripe for the picking. The Canadiens also have a pretty awful penalty kill, with a 72% kill rate.
Kyle Connor (WPG at SEA): DraftKings – $7,700 | FanDuel – $8,500
Connor has been a volume shooter for a couple of years. He is a nightly contender for the shot bonus on DraftKings. Seattle has been a pretty decent team defensively. That being said, the Jets top line will likely get the better matchup against the Alex Wennberg line, which is allowing over three expected goals per 60 at five-on-five. Awesemo has the Jets top line as the second-best stack on the night, with a 13.2% chance of being a top-two stack. Pricing is a key factor in the building process, so stay away from the Blues, as they will be at almost 40% ownership for the top two lines.
Vladimir Tarasenko (STL vs. DET): DraftKings – $5,400 | FanDuel – $7,100
The Blues entire team seems to be underpriced tonight. Despite Tarasenko tallying points in three of the last eight games, he is still averaging three shots on net per game over the last 10. He has 21 points in 25 games and a deflated 9% shooting percentage. He is getting older, but he has averaged 13% shooting on his career, and he will definitely regress towards his mean. With the Blues getting last change at home, the Ryan O’Reilly line will match up with the Dylan Larkin line for most of the night. That frees up the Tarasenko line to match up with the depth lines, giving him positive matchups. Detroit has struggled a ton with puck possession (45.9% Corsi-for).
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Defensemen
Seth Jones (CHI vs. MTL): DraftKings – $7,300 | FanDuel – $6,900
Jones is the primary pay-up option tonight. He has logged at least 28 minutes of ice time in five of the last six games and is a nightly contender for the block bonus while averaging over 4.5 shots/blocks per game. Playing on the top power play also brings more focus towards Jones, as the Canadiens have been absent on the defensive front. The penalty kill is also abysmal, at just 72%
Erik Karlsson (SJ vs. MIN): DraftKings – $4,700 | FanDuel – $5,400
Karlsson has found his Senators form, with points in six of the last eight games. His shot volume has been elevated, rifling off at least three shots in four of the last five games, to go along with a couple blocks. Minnesota will surely bring pressure, giving more added block opportunities as well. The Sharks play with a ton of pace, and if Karlsson can get involved early, he should not have a problem paying off that tag.
Top NHL DFS Stacks
STL2: Tarasenko – Schenn – Kyrou
The Blues are flat out mispriced on tonight’s slate. That means their ownership is going to be extremely heavy. According to Awesemo, the Blues top two lines will be almost 40% owned tonight. They are a great play in their own right, and there is a reason they will be popular. But St Louis is also not playing with a full allotment of forwards. That means lines get shifted and changed throughout the game. Which in turn makes stacking multiple line guys together a better leverage. Using a power play stack or even a stack such as Tarasenko, O’Reilly, Torey Krug and Pavel Buchnevich will certainly make builds different than people just hammering the full-line correlation play.
*Additional Data from Natural Stat Trick
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