Christopher Morais

Welcome to The Fantasy Fix daily fantasy hockey strategy. Below you will find rankings and projections for tonight’s NHL action. Building a winning lineup isn’t easy, so we’ll do our best to guide you in the right direction and help you win some serious cash. With that, let’s take a look at some matchups you should be targeting tonight.

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As always, make sure to check out LeftWingLock for goalie confirmations.

Teams To Target

Let’s start with my favourite matchup of the night—the Dallas Stars hosting the Philadelphia Flyers. The Stars are a goal-scoring machine that just can’t be stopped. They are averaging 2.61 GF/60 at home (ZS Adj.) and are averaging 33 SF/60. The Flyers are a decent team when it comes to playing on the road, allowing 2.00 GA/60 (13^th) with a CF% of 51.7% (7^th). So why pick on Philly tonight? Simple. The Flyers bottom six is nowhere near as good as their top six, and with this game being in Dallas, the Stars will be able to get Tyler Seguin ($8800) and company away from Philly’s top line.

If you decide you want to roster Seguin and Jamie Benn ($8400), it’s going to cost you a pretty penny. They are two of the best players in the NHL, but I’m not ready to spend most of my budget on two players. If you want to offset the cost of owning either one, Valeri Nichushkin ($3500) is on the top line and offers great value at his price.

If the top line isn’t where you want to spend your money, the third line of Cody Eakin ($4000), Patrick Sharp ($6400) and Antoine Roussel ($2800) is an option to consider. Eakin and Sharp are both on the second power play unit together and both should see a favourable matchup against the Flyers bottom six, who just aren’t that good. Sharp’s price isn’t very friendly, but Eakin’s value is reasonable and both together will only cost you $10,500.

On defense, John Klingberg ($6000) is always a player to be considered when Dallas is in action. It’ll be a challenge to fit him into your lineup, but if you can find a way to sneak him in there, he’s worth the price. If you can’t, Alex Goligoski ($4300) becomes the second-best option. He plays on the second p0wer play unit with Eakin/Sharp and on the top line pairing with Klingberg, so he may be the best value of the night.

My second favourite matchup of the night belongs to the Anaheim Ducks hosting the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina is a team to target every time they’re in action. They sit 23^rd in GA/60 (2.49) despite having the best SA/60 (25.4). Their CF% on the road is 54.8%, second to only the Los Angeles Kings, but average just 1.82 G/60. What does all this mean? It means the Hurricanes aren’t a terrible team, but they have below-average goaltending and are just not putting the puck in the net. For those reasons alone, I’m all over the Ducks tonight.

Let’s start with Anaheim’s two studs—Corey Perry ($6800) and Ryan Getzlaf ($6200). The duo will have most likely see Carolina’s top shut down pair of Justin Faulk ($6100) and Ron Hainsey ($3500), which isn’t even really a shut down pair when you think about it. If you want to stack the entire line, Rickard Rakell ($3700) is listed as a C on DraftKings, so that will take up the utility spot, but his value and salary relief make him very appealing.

On the blue line, Sami Vatanen ($4900) and Cam Fowler ($4000) are the two options I would consider tonight. They both play on the top power play unit, but Vatanen plays on the third pairing with Clayton Stoner ($3000), giving Vatanen a favourable matchup. If you’re up against the cap, Fowler is the cheaper play and is still a good option tonight. If you want to get the most out of Anaheim tonight, stacking both defenseman with Perry-Getzlaf is an option I’d look at.

In goal, John Gibson ($6500) is the play of the night. Nothing screams fantasy value like a goalie playing against a team that takes a ton of shots but can’t score. He’s definitely the chalk play of the night, so his ownership will be pretty high. There are some other good goalies who I like for tonight, but none offer the same value as Gibson does. I’d make life simple and roll with Gibson tonight.

My third favourtie matchup of the night belongs to the Arizona Coyotes hosting the Minnesota Wild. Everyone will be on Minnesota tonight, except for me. It’s no secret that the Wild are a good team when it comes to scoring goals on the road (7^th, 2.51 GF/60), but the Coyotes are SECOND in GF/60 at home (3.06), which is truly remarkable considering how average this team is. Their CF% isn’t that great (22^nd, 49.1%), but Minnesota’s road CF% is only 20^th in the league (47.8%). In short, if I had to pick a top line to stack tonight from this game, it would be Arizona. Not necessarily because they’re a better team, but because the value is just so much better.

As for deciding which line is the first line, that’s another story. Martin Hanzal ($4400) is listed as day-to-day, so Antione Vermette ($3200) is expected to center the “top line” with Anthony Duclair ($3900) and Tobias Rieder ($3800). Not one of those forwards is listed over 4K, so if you want to stack the entire line, go for it. The “second line” of Max Domi ($5100), Mikkel Boedker ($4600) and Viktor Tikhonov ($2500) is a bit more expensive, but in my mind, they’re the true top line on this team. The price difference between the two lines is just over $1000, so if I had to pick just one line to stack, it would be the Tikhonov line. The problem with that line is all three players are listed as wingers. If I had to pick a mini stack, Domi-Tikhonov would be my top choice, if you’re worried about Ryan Suter ($5700) and which line will matchup against him, don’t. He plays close to 30 minutes a night, so trying to avoid him is probably impossible.

On the back end, Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($5300) and Michael Stone ($3700) are the two defensemen I would consider using. They both play together on the top pairing and on the top power play unit. If you want to save some salary, Stone is the option to go with, but if you’re stacking the top line, you probably have some salary left to spend, so Ekman-Larsson would be your best bet.

Stats provided by stats.hockeyanalysis.com

Player Rankings

 Ranking are price sensitive

 Forwards

1. Cody Eakin—Dallas Stars–$4000
2. Antoine Vermette—Arizona Coyotes–$3200
3. Leon Draisaitl—Edmonton Oilers–$4600
4. Ryan Getzlaf—Anaheim Ducks–$6200
5. Artem Anisimov—Chicago Blackhawks–$4500
6. Tyler Seguin—Dallas stars–$8800
7. Oscar Lindberg—New York Rangers–$4000

 Wingers

1. Mats Zuccarello—RW—New York Rangers–$5600
2. Viktor Tikhonov—RW—Arizona Coyotes–$2500
3. Artemi Panarin—LW—Chicago Blackhawks–$5900
4. Max Domi—LW—Arizona Coyotes–$5100
5. Corey Perry—RW—Anaheim Ducks–$6800
6. Rick Nash—LW—New York Rangers–$7000
7. Patrick Kane—RW—Chicago Blackhawks–$8700
8. Jamie Benn—LW—Dallas Stars–$8400

Defenseman

1. Oliver Ekman-Larsson—Arizona Coyotes–$5300
2. Ryan McDonagh—New York Rangers–$4800
3. Alex Goligoski—Dallas stars–$4300
4. Sami Vatanen—Anaheim Ducks–$4900
5. Michael Stone—Arizona Coyotes–$3700
6. Shayne Gostisbehere—Philadelphia Flyers–$3800
7. Dan Boyle—New York Rangers–$3300

Goalie

1. John Gibson—Anaheim Ducks–$6500
2. Antti Niemi—Dallas Stars–$7000
3. Henrik Lundqvist—New York Rangers–$8100
4. Jonathan Quick—Los Angeles Kings–$7700

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