Hockey is basically back on schedule now as the NHL has gotten past the bulk of their rescheduled games, and that means getting all teams back into a regular rotation. Some teams played a lot more than others in February. Tonight, the slate gives nine games to make NHL DFS picks, and there is a bevy of top-end options to pick from. Awesemo’s premium tools will be the guide for these picks. Check out the NHL picks below for the best DraftKings and FanDuel fantasy hockey advice today, March 1.
NHL DFS Picks Today: Top Stacks & Lineup Optimizer Plays
Center
Steven Stamkos (TBL vs. OTT): DraftKings – $6,300 | FanDuel – $8,400
With Ottawa in town, it is a bit curious to see Steven Stamkos priced down where he is on DraftKings. While the Senators have improved in some regards, they are still missing some key players from the lineup and are allowing among the most expected goals against per 60 minutes over the last five weeks. The power play has been similarly bad, so a player on an 82-game pace for 40 goals and 90 points this year being priced where he is at home in this matchup should be noticed.
Anthony Cirelli was moved back to the line with Stamkos, which could work out very well for the team and these players. They control 54% of the expected goals when they are on the ice, scoring 3.2 goals per 60 minutes. There is not much for a matchup concern here, given the team coming into town and the injuries they have.
It is a matter of how to use Stamkos because the price of this line will make them very popular on DraftKings tonight. They are fine on all sites given this particular matchup, but Stamkos should be considered as a one-off in all formats. He is also fine in a line stack for tournaments.
Stamkos is listed as a winger on FanDuel. For a less-expensive pivot on that site, Patrice Bergeron (BOS – $6,800) should be considered with his team going into Anaheim.
Stamkos is no doubt a great NHL pick for tonight’s slate, which the NHL DFS lineup optimizer was verifying when running optimal lineups. The DraftKings NHL Cheat Sheet and FanDuel NHL Cheat Sheet have more free NHL DFS picks today. Be sure to check out all of our free picks when building your NHL lineups tonight.
Joel Eriksson Ek (MIN vs. CGY): DraftKings – $4,200 | FanDuel – $5,600
Due to his role as a shutdown center, Joel Eriksson Ek tends to play about a minute and a half more at home than he does on the road. That helps lead to more points and more shots, the latter coming in at nearly 3.4 per game. It should also be mentioned that the cheap price on DraftKings is a big reason why he is here. There are not many centers priced where he is that are averaging over three shots per game on the season.
The shutdown role will have him facing off against Calgary’s top line tonight. They are an incredibly talented top line and are not an easy matchup. They are allowing roughly 2.3 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 over the last month, which is roughly league average. They are generating considerably more for the Flames, which is what makes them so good offensively, but the defensive numbers are not beyond reproach. Again, there are a lot of minutes available for Eriksson Ek.
His move to the second power-play unit hurts his overall value but the price certainly reflects that reality. He is fine as a one-off here tonight in tournaments, or as part of a stack with his linemates, given his value by our projections grades as among the best for mid-priced centers tonight.
Winger
Teuvo Teravainen (CAR at DET): DraftKings – $6,700 | FanDuel – $7,000
It did not take long for all of the Carolina forwards assembled on their top line to skyrocket in price. There is a reason for that, as the trio is generating nearly 3.8 expected goals per 60 minutes in their time together. That just shows the high offensive upside they have.
Going into Detroit is not a very difficult matchup with this team in the bottom-10 for most expected goals against over the last six weeks. Some poor goaltending has led to them allowing the most actual goals against per 60 minutes over the last six weeks, something that will hopefully persist tonight. The penalty kill itself has been fine but again, the goaltending has not, and that is a big problem for Detroit against this high-flying Carolina offense.
The big question is how to use the Hurricanes tonight because they are very expensive, or at least the top line is. Teuvo Teravainen is more of a distributor than the other two, which makes him the cheaper option. Two-man stacking the top line is an option here because of the pricing, and Teravainen makes sense as one of the two given his prolificity of passing the puck.
Evander Kane (EDM at PHI): DraftKings – $5,400 | FanDuel – $6,600
Evander Kane has seen a bit of a cold stretch when it comes to shooting the puck with three shots in his last four games. It has been a tough stretch of games against some Cup contenders, though, and that is not the quality of the team facing the Oilers here tonight. It should be said that the Flyers have improved defensively of late, but that improvement has largely been at 5-on-5. The penalty kill has not been very good, coming in the bottom-5 by expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, and allowing the most actual goals against. They do not take a lot of penalties, but they struggle mightily killing the penalties they do take. That is important here because, with the injuries to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jesse Puljujarvi, Kane is now a fixture of the power play. That has pushed up his overall projection, making him one of the better values among mid-priced wingers tonight.
The prices on the Oilers centers are expensive but the prices on the wingers are not. Kane has not been shooting as much, but he has also been over 20 minutes in each of his last two games as the injuries have piled up. This matchup is not as easy as it may have been two months ago, but Kane’s price is reasonable, and his ice time is high, which you can see in the Awesemo NHL projections today.
Evgeny Svechnikov (WPG vs. MTL): DraftKings – $2,500 | FanDuel – $3,600
Injuries to a couple of Winnipeg wingers have moved Evgeny Svechnikov back to his second-line role with the Winnipeg Jets. While that line has struggled at times this year, Svechnikov has helped stabilize it quite often when he is there, with 25% more expected goals generated and controlling a much higher percentage of the expected goal share.
Of course, it is the pricing that makes the difference here. He is min-price on one site and not far from it on the other. It helps keep the entire line’s average player cost in check and they are in a good home matchup against an improving, but still not good Montreal team. Though he is fine as a one-off for a punt in tournaments, he is best used in some sort of line stack.
Latest NHL DFS Content
Defensemen
Dougie Hamilton (NJD at CBJ): DraftKings – $5,800 | FanDuel – $7,000
One problem with Dougie Hamilton’s fantasy value is he has been moved to the second power-play unit upon his return from injury. This is not a team that splits the power play unit time evenly, either, so Hamilton is truly a second-unit defenseman in every sense of the phrase.
That does not mean he is not valuable for fantasy. There are a number of defensemen who do not get significant power play time but are valuable and Hamilton can do that as well, generating 3.6 shots and 1.6 blocks per game on the year. That is a good peripheral floor that may be a bit lower because of the lost power play time, but it is still high and he is an excellent puck-mover anyway. His reasonable price makes him a tournament target.
Devon Toews (COL vs. NYI): DraftKings – $4,600 | FanDuel – $6,400
Over the course of the season, the Islanders have improved in most respects, but improvement does not mean greatness, as they are still near the middle of the league by expected goal share over the last six weeks. To boot, Devon Toews is playing heavy minutes for the Avalanche, skating at least 23 minutes in five straight games and over 25 minutes a night in his last 10 games. He is averaging over two shots and over one block per game, which gives him a nice peripheral floor. That helps make his price palatable across all sites, in particular over on DraftKings, where he is one of the top values over $4,000.
The Avalanche are one of the top offensive teams in hockey and even without top power play minutes, Toews’ 82-game pace this year is for over 70 points. He is a wonderful talent skating a lot of minutes at a reasonable price tonight.
These two defensemen may be a bit over-priced on FanDuel, so someone like Charlie McAvoy (BOS – $5,300), who is running their team’s top power play unit, makes sense.
Goalie
Ilya Sorokin (NYI at COL): DraftKings – $6,900 | FanDuel – $7,400
On the flip side of that Colorado game where the Avs could generate a lot of shots is Ilya Sorokin. The Islanders netminder has a .923 save percentage on the year, wresting away the starters’ gig from what was a tandem situation. He is among the top-5 high-danger save percentages on the season and top-10 over his two seasons in the league. The Avalanche presents one of the toughest matchups for a goalie, but shot volume is king and if he does not get blown up, his price is cheap enough that a few goals against will not kill his value. He needs to be strongly considered for tournaments.
Top NHL DFS Stacks Today
EDMPP: McDavid-Draisaitl-Kane
As mentioned in the section on Kane, this is a very good power-play matchup for the top Edmonton stars. Once upon a time, the two Edmonton centers were astronomically high in price together, but that has been tempered over the last month or so. Since their new coach took over, the Oilers are sixth in expected goals on the power play and eighth in actual goals per 60 minutes. With all the third-wheel forwards across this lineup, focusing on the power play against this penalty kill is one way to approach the Oilers.
The Oilers come in third in the Awesemo NHL Top Stacks Tool today.
MIN2: Boldy-Fiala-Gaudreau
The way Minnesota runs their lines at home, this line should see a fair bit of Calgary’s bottom-6, which gets them away from that elite top-6 the team has. In a small sample, that third line for the Flames is allowing more scoring chances than they’re giving up. Meanwhile, this second line for Minnesota is controlling 56% of the scoring chances in their last 100 minutes of ice time and generating nearly 35 scoring chances per 60 minutes, well above average offensively. This stack at 2% ownership is definitely something you can target in tournaments tonight.
*Additional Data from Natural Stat Trick
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