The 2022-23 NHL season is finally here. Opening night kicks odd the season with a Global Series game between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators.
This is the only game on Friday, so there is a daily fantasy hockey Showdown slate with a Captain that anchors lineups at a 1.5x multiplier.
Let’s examine the best Captain and Flex plays for the season opener on the DraftKings and FanDuel NHL DFS slate today. Of course, you’ll want to check Stokastic’s NHL DFS rankings and NHL DFS projections.
NHL DFS Picks for DraftKings & FanDuel
Captain Plays
Juuse Saros: DraftKings – $15,600
Most DFS players know that it’s important to maximize value in lineups while also trying to generate a unique combination of players. Look at the top guys, who will also be the most owned, and either back or fade them depending on the situation.
For example, the highest-owned players for this Showdown slate will be Saros, Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier and Matt Duchene. The best path to success is by picking my spots for the given matchup, specifically by playing a couple of guys from the high-owned grouping and then filling out the bottom with valuable sleeper picks.
Saros will be one of, if not the highest owned captain play, but that’s okay. He is too strong of a pick to pass up.
For one, Saros has a strong defense in front of him. Nashville ranked 14th in the league in goals against (GA) and seventh in xGA at five-on-five last season. Their blue line should be even better this year with the addition of Ryan McDonagh.
Secondly, the Sharks offense is fade-worthy. Last season, they ranked last in the league in goals for (GF) and 27th in xGF at five-on-five. They have done nothing in the off-season to address their lack of scoring depth, an issue which should be illuminated in this contest.
Last season, Nashville went 3-0 against San Jose with a combined score of 12-1. In Saros’ last six starts against the Sharks, he is 5-0-1 with a .968 save percentage and 0.81 goals allowed.
Roman Josi: FanDuel – $14,500
It will undoubtably be either Josi or Forsberg that are the highest-owned players in this spot. However, the focus here is Josi on both FanDuel (captain) and DraftKings (flex – $10,600).
While Josi, Forsberg and Duchene should all put up points, the Predators offense really runs through their Norris-caliber defenseman. On breakouts and the rush, Nashville looks to send Josi up the middle and act as a secondary “center” on the play. More often than not they let him carry the puck into the zone and dictate the offense from there.
Nashville’s favorite play is for Josi’s partner to pinch and draw a defender onto him before the puck kicks out to Josi in the high slot. From there, Josi typically attempts to carry the puck into a high-danger area and either take a shot or make a pass to a forward underneath.
Those are just a few examples of how this offense tries to utilize Josi at all times, which they often do successfully. The star defenseman put up 96 points in 80 games last season.
Josi went against San Jose three times a year ago and across those three games, he logged six assists and 22 shots on goal.
Flex Plays
Erik Karlsson: DraftKings – $8,200 | FanDuel – $12,000
Like Nashville with Josi, San Jose loves to run its offense through Karlsson when he is on the ice. With David Quinn now at the helm as head coach, the Sharks’ offense could go a different direction. Nevertheless, he will lean on the veterans early on in the season until the team develops a new identity under his tutelage.
Karlsson is an insanely talented offensive-minded defenseman. He proved last year that he still has gas in the tank when he is healthy. Across the 50 games that he played, Karlsson registered 35 points.
Scoring against Saros will certainly be a challenge, but Karlsson provides value through shooting the puck and potentially contributing a point on the power play. Last season, Nashville finished 18th in PK%.
Meanwhile, Karlsson should be on the ice more than any other player for the Sharks as he is on the first pairing for defense, first power play unit and second penalty kill unit.
Luke Kunin: DraftKings – $6,200 | FanDuel – $7,000
The other San Jose skater to back in this Showdown is Luke Kunin. Kunin has had these two games circled all off-season as he gets a chance to prove to his former team why they should not have traded him.
Normal first-line winger Alexander Barabanov suffered a lower-body injury prior to the team’s trip and is not traveling with them. The Sharks appear to be bumping up Kunin to the first line to play alongside Timo Meier and Tomas Hertl.
Talk about an upgrade. Outside of those two skaters, San Jose is extremely thin in terms of offensive talent, which immediately boosts Kunin’s chances at generating shots on goal and points.
Meier and Hertl led the team in goals and points last season, and they were second and third in assists. Regardless of how Kunin plays individually, he automatically gets a shot at offensive production just by sharing a line with those two.
If he takes advantage of the situation, then he has a chance to be one of this slate’s highest-value plays at just $6,200/$7,000.
Mikael Granlund: DraftKings – $7,400 | FanDuel – $9,500
Centering a line between Nashville’s two best goal scorers, this is the guy to separate lineups from the masses. Granlund will still have relatively high ownership, but not nearly as high as Forsberg or Duchene.
While everyone will be focusing on the two wingers, gamers should take advantage of a guy who will also collect those points at a much cheaper price. This line logged 495 minutes last season over 62 games and was a massive problem for opposing teams.
Across that stretch, this line generated a 4.24 GF/60 and 3.13 xGF/60. All three of these skaters can score the puck, and while Forsberg and Duchene are certainly stronger snipers, Granlund at $7,400/$9,500 allows for throwing Josi and Karlsson into the lineup.
In 80 games played last season, Granlund generated 64 points. Over his three games against San Jose last season, Granlund produced two goals and five SOG.
Kiefer Sherwood: DraftKings – $2,000 | FanDuel – $6,000
Kiefer Sherwood is getting another shot at being an impactful player in this league after spending a couple of short seasons in Anaheim and Colorado.
While his NHL journey has been underwhelming thus far, this game presents a nice opportunity to buy low on Sherwood. Nashville is doing just that, bumping him up directly into the top-six to play alongside Niederreiter and Johansen.
The organization loves how Sherwood has looked at camp and are expected to give him a go on Friday’s debut ahead of Tomasino, who has not been skating with the first unit.
Plain and simple, if a top-six guy on a team is almost -200 on the moneyline at $2,000/$6,000, he is a blind play. That being said, Sherwood will have a fantastic opportunity to prove he belongs in the starting lineup by playing alongside Nino Niederreiter and Ryan Johansen, who both have strong playmaking abilities.
Keep an eye on this player for Showdown contests because it’s not inconceivable that he scratched on Friday morning for Tomasino, though that will not likely be the case.
Thanks for reading to the end of this article! If you appreciate this free content and want to see more of it every day, you can help us out by sharing this article on social media!
[NHLPAGE]
