Below I’ve got a discussion of the best matchups and potential stacks of the day followed by player rankings for Saturday’s 13-game evening slate of DraftKings contests. At the bottom of the post I’ve embedded my research chart for the day. Here is just a snippet of an old chart I’ll use to explain what you’re looking at.

First the colors. Purple/blue is amazeballs, green is great, yellow is good, orange is bad, red is awful and deep red is no effing way.

The first column that isn’t self-explanatory is the sixth one, the one that is titled ‘z’ to the right of salary. That is how far above or below average the player’s salary is compared to all other players in action today. ‘Proj.’ is a projection derived from numberfire.com’s preseason projections which I have cut down to a per-game basis and adjusted for quality of opponent.. The ‘z’ next to the projection is how far above or below average the projection is compared to all other players in action today. And then ‘Value’ is the projection z-score minus the player’s salary z-score.

Make sure to check Twitter for any injury news, and check LeftWingLock for starting goalies and line combos.

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Teams to Target

Pittsburgh. I was on the Pens on Thursday when they played in Dallas, but Antti Niemi stopped all 37 of Pittsburgh’s shots. The reason to pick on Dallas was because of their shaky goaltending, but for at least one night it was not so shaky. The good news for the Pens is that they generated a very healthy 37 shots. They should generate plenty of shots again tonight against Arizona who was bottom five last year in terms of Corsi events against per 60. Unless Mike Smith pulls a Niemi and plays much better than his .904 SV% from last year indicates that he will, the Pens should bounce back nicely.

You can honestly roster just about any Pen and you won’t get any disagreement from me. I’m going back to the well with the second line pairing of Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist because I think their prices are more appropriate. But feel free to roster Sidney Crosby if you like/can, or you can roster his line mates, Chris Kunitz and Phil Kessel, if you want exposure to Crosby without having to pay his price. On the blue line, Kris Letang is an option, as he so often is.

Speaking of teams I was on Thursday, I kind of have to go back to the Senators as a play tonight. They had a great matchup Thursday against Buffalo, and the matchup is good again tonight against Toronto. The Leafs were fourth worst in the league last year in both Corsi events against per 60 and save percentage, which makes for a good matchup for opposing skaters. Again, I like the top line centered by Kyle Turris. He can be paired with either or both of his wingers, Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman, with Stone perhaps being the better choice for a mini-stack as the pair plays together on the top power play unit.

Moving on to some new teams, I like Calgary against Vancouver and Detroit against Carolina. Both Carolina and Vancouver ranked bottom five in save percentage last year and Vancouver was also bottom 10 in terms of Corsi events allowed per 60. When talking Calgary you obviously want to go with their top line. I think Jiri Hudler is the best value of the day from that team, and he can be paired with Johnny Gaudreau if you want to go with a mini-stack. Using both wingers for a mini-stack could free you up to use a center in your UTIL spot. On the blue line, I’d lean toward newcomer Dougie Hamilton who joins the first line on the top power play unit. As for the Wings, I’m leaning toward the second line pair of Brad Richards and Tomas Tatar. That pair also plays on the second PP unit together, and they could also be stacked with defenseman Mike Green who joins them on that PP unit. If you’re looking for salary relief, Jakub Kindl is only $2,600 and seeing time on the top power play unit.

Player Rankings

Center

1. Evgeni Malkin – $7,000 – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Kyle Turris – $5,700 – Ottawa Senators
3. Derick Brassard – $4,900 – New York Rangers
4. Mika Zibanejad – $4,600 – Ottawa Senators
5. Sidney Crosby – $7,600 – Pittsburgh Penguins
6. Artem Anisimov – $3,500 – Chicago Blackhawks

Winger

1. Patric Hornqvist (RW) – $6,100 – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Jiri Hudler (RW) – $5,000 – Calgary Flames
3. Radim Vrbata (RW) – $6,00 – Vancouver Canucks
4. Tomas Tatar (LW) – $5,300 – Detroit Red Wings
5. Mark Stone (RW) – $5,300 – Ottawa Senators
6. Mike Hoffman (LW) – $4,900 – Ottawa Senators
7. Justin Abdelkader (LW) – $4,300 – Detroit Red Wings
8. Kris Versteeg (LW) – $4,200 – Carolina Hurricanes

Defensemen

1. Kris Letang – $6,000 – Pittsburgh Penguins
2. Dougie Hamilton – $4,700 – Calgary Flames
3. Jakub Kindl – $2,600 – Detroit Red Wings
4. Trevor Daley – $3,500 – Chicago Blackhawks
5. Kevin Shattenkirk – $5,000 – St. Louis Blues

Goalies

1. Petr Mrazek – $7,000 – Detroit Red Wings
2. Marc-Andre Fleury – $7,900 – Pittsburgh Penguins
3. Roberto Luongo – $7,000 – Florida Panthers
4. Steve Mason – $7,000 – Philadelphia Flyers

Goalies with an asterisk next to their name are not expected to start tonight but haven’t been ruled out, so don’t count on them playing. Any players in bold have been confirmed as the starter for the day. And players with a line through their name will not be starting tonight. Make sure you always check LeftWingLock for starting goalie updates in case I am unable to update the list throughout the day.

Research Chart

You can download the research chart from this Google Sheet page here.

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