There are plenty of individual skaters that we can use on this 6-game slate, lead by players in Toronto and Minnesota (for cash-games especially). After you choose your favorite stacks in the Stacks article, see if you can fit some of the guys below for a well-rounded lineup. Awesemo will give us a nugget on each player, and then I (Tommienation1) will follow up with some additional analysis.
Value
Will Nylander ($6,000 DK/$5,600 FD)
“The Leafs have a massive implied total that is near 4 tonight and Nylander has as good of a chance as anyone to get in on the scoring tonight.”
A lot of Nylander’s value comes from the fact that he skates with Auston Matthews essentially the whole game, as they are on the same even-strength line and power-play unit. In their last meeting against the Sabres a couple weeks ago, Nylander saw the third line for the Sabres, meaning he avoided Ryan O’Reilly and Jack Eichel. Assuming they do that again tonight, Nylander has a chance to run wild against the Awful Buffalo depth lines and makes for a great play on both sites.
Jason Zucker ($6,200 DK/$6,100 FD)
“Zucker plays on a great line with Eric Staal and Nino Niederreiter, and they should feast on the second and third lines for the Oilers, who allow a ton of chances.”
The Ryan Strome line (Who Zucker’s line will face a lot) allows 12.3 High-Danger Chances Against per 60 minutes, and Zucker’s specialty is creating these types of chances. Over the last 10 games, Zucker (A points grade) leads the Wild in individual High-Danger Chances as well as shot attempts. The Oilers as a team have allowed the most High-Danger Chances Against per 60 minutes since March 1, so this shapes up to be a great matchup for Zucker to get on the scoresheet even before you take his power-play time into account.
Top-Tier
Justin Williams ($4,400 DK/$4,800 FD)
“Williams has been getting top line minutes lately, and he has a sneaky-good matchup and a decent road team total (2.6) tonight in Florida.”
Justin Williams is fitting in nicely with Jordan Staal, and they should matchup against Vincent Trocheck’s line, which has struggled defensively with Jamie McGinn on it. The Florida second line has allowed 38.8 Scoring Chances Against per 60 minutes and 20.3 High-Danger Chances Against per 60 minutes so far, so Williams could see a bunch of scoring chances here. Over his last five games he’s been pretty solid despite uninspiring results, posting 23 shot attempts, 13 scoring chances, and 7 high-danger chances. As a tournament one-off, he makes for a decent value on both sites.
Jonas Brodin ($3,200 DK/$3,600 FD)
“Brodin should slot onto the top pairing with Ryan Suter out tonight for the Wild. He should see a lot of time trying to limit the Oilers’ top line, as well as power-play time on the second unit.”
Brodin could see 25+ minutes tonight as the Wild’s minutes leader, Ryan Suter is out for the next few weeks with a broken leg. He’s no high-volume shooter, but Brodin is a guy that is going to eat up a lot of minutes and correlates well to some other guys we like on the Wild such as Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund. At $3,200, he’s one of the best punt defensemen on the night and gets an A DK and FanDuel value in Awesemo’s rankings.
