Saturdays are usually a full day of NHL dfs, but with only one afternoon game we are going to focus solely on the main slate for tonight. Covid protocol has been making a strong onset through the NHL in the past month or so. Keeping an eye on news is imperative to succeeding at NHL DFS. Following my twitter beat writer lists is a huge advantage for getting last-minute news and scratches. 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 fantasy 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 Saturday, Feb. 19.
NHL DFS Picks, Top Stacks & Lineup Optimizer Plays
Center
Auston Matthews (TOR vs STL): DraftKings – $9,300 | FanDuel – $10,000
Matthews comes at an extremely high price tonight, but his production absolutely warrants the tag. The pivot has been nothing shorty of phenomenal, and is second in the league in scoring with 33 goals. He comes into tonight riding a nine game point streak, with seven of them being multi point efforts. As for the matchup with St Louis, Matthews should find plenty of chances to light the lamp. Over the last month the Blues are 25th in expected goals against, 27th in Corsi, 29th in scoring chances against, and 25th in high danger chances allowed at even strength. Furthermore, St. Louis has been taking more penalties over the last month and even though they have been decent at killing penalties, giving Matthews any amount of time on a power play is dangerous. Vegas opened up the lines today giving the Leaf’s the second highest team total on the slate, and I’m in agreeance.
Auston Matthews is the top center showing up in the Awesemo NHL lineup optimizer and fantasy hockey projections today. For all of our free NHL DFS picks tonight, check out the DraftKings fantasy hockey cheat sheet and FanDuel fantasy hockey cheat sheet.
Winger
Johnny Gaudreau (CGY vs SEA): DraftKings – $7,900 | FanDuel – $8,800
The Calgary Flames top line has been one of the best lines in hockey and it all starts with Gaudreau. The New Jersey native has been firing on all cylinders and leads the league in plus minus. That may not be a factor we use for dfs on sites such as DraftKings or FanDuel, but the Yahoo crowd is surely interested. Gaudreau leading the league and line mate Elias Lindholm is right behind him in second place. That means that the line has been scoring at a massive clip and they aren’t giving any goals up either. I guess its hard to give up goals when you play the majority of time in the offensive zone, to be fair. Gaudreau comes into tonight riding an eight game point streak and has a good chance to keep it alive tonight. Seattle has been a very boring team not giving up much on the defensive side, and they also struggle to score as well. The Flames are going to push the pace of this game tonight, and it also helps that Calgary is getting last change. They will use the Mikael Backlund line as the shutdown line, which in turn means Gaudreau and company will get all the positive depth matchups.
Viktor Arvidsson (LA @ ARI): DraftKings – $6,100 | FanDuel – $6,500
Arvidsson and the Kings will play for the second time in as many nights, which could limit some of the ownership tonight. The matchup couldn’t get much better as they will face off with Arizona, who is one of the worst teams in the league. The Coyotes rank 19th in expected goals against, 31st in Corsi, 28th in shots against, 29th in goals against, and 21st in high danger scoring chances against at five on five. The Kings have been one of the best possession teams in hockey as they rank inside the top five of every advanced metric offensively. Arvidsson has been a shot volume monster for most of his career and he comes into tonight averaging 4.5 shots on goal over the last ten games. Since coming to LA in the offseason and being inserted on a line with Phillip Danault, they have been possession monsters as well. The Kings second line carries a 61% Corsi rating with a 4.15 expected goals per 60 which is ridiculous in itself. Now you can start to get the picture of how the outcome should look on paper against the Coyotes with their numbers. Vegas is giving some prudence to the back to back as they are only slating the Kings team total at 3.3, but I will certainly have exposure tonight.
Taylor Hall (BOS @ OTT): DraftKings – $4,900 | FanDuel – $5,700
In the two games Taylor Hall has moved to the top line alongside Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, he has seven shots on goal and five shots on goal. He’s lit the lamp in his last game against the Islanders and there will certainly be more to come if he stays on that line. Brad Marchand still has two games left to serve on his suspension, so I would assume that Hall stays put. Playing alongside such elite automatically gives you a production bump, because Bergeron is one of the best two way playmakers in the league. Together since being installed, they have carried possession at a 65% clip, they are creating 3.73 expected goals per 60, 42 shots per 60, and over 16 high danger chances. They will likely matchup with the Connor Brown line, which has been the only real good line from Ottawa, but the Bruins top line is matchup proof for me tonight. As a team the Senators have struggled defensively. 26th in Corsi, 24th in expected goals against, 27th in shots against and 24th in high danger chances allowed. The Senators penalty kill has been decent, but they have taken a ton of penalties, and if you give the bruins top line any chances they are going to make you pay. Hall fully correlates with his even strength linemates on the top power play unit as well.
Latest NHL DFS Content
Defensemen
Drew Doughty (LAK @ ARI): DraftKings – $6,200 | FanDuel – $6,600
Drew Doughty has been in the league for what seems like an eternity, and he continues to produce at a very high clip. He’s logging a ton of ice time (27 toi/g) and he plays in every situation. The main benefactor tonight is the power play time. Arizona has taken a ton of penalties, and they have been awful at killing them off. The Yotes currently have the second worst penalty kill in the league, with just a 74% kill rate. As I previously mentioned, Doughty has been a consistent contributor on the blue line. Over the last ten games he’s averaged about five shots / blocks per game and with the added power play exposure, he’s one of the top defensemen on the night, despite the back to back.
Top NHL DFS Stack
TOR 1: Michael Bunting – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
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BOS 1: Taylor Hall – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak
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*Additional Data from Natural Stat Trick
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