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.

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 Ottawa Senators hosting the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are coming off an overtime win against Toronto on Thursday night, while Ottawa looks to get back into the win column after a 2-1 loss to the Capitals on Wednesday. Both teams have an above-average matchup in this game, but Ottawa’s CF% at home is ranked 28^th—ahead of only the Rangers and the Avalanche—so the edge in this game goes to San Jose.

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San Jose’s top line is always a great place to start. Joe Thornton ($4400) and Joe Pavelski ($7500) play together at even strength and on the power play, but as you probably already know, both are listed at C on DraftKings. If you want to move away from the top line, Patrick Marleau ($6000) and Melker Karlsson ($3600) play together on the second line but play on separate power play units. The advantage of playing Karlsson/Marleau is that you’ll be able to fit Chewbacca look alike Brent Burns ($7700) into your lineup.

As I said earlier, Ottawa also has a good matchup against San Jose. Their top line of Mika Zibanejad ($4500), Bobby Ryan ($5600) and Mike Hoffman ($5900) is the only line I would really consider using tonight. Zibanejad & Hoffman play together both five-on-five and on the power play, while Ryan plays on the top power play unit. If you want to move off the top line, Kyle Turris ($6200) and Mark Stone ($5400) is the second option I would look at. Turris has an above-average matchup, but the rest of his line is pretty basic. If I’m going to go with the Senators, I’ll stick with the top line and hope for the best.

My second favourite matchup of the night belongs to the Detroit Red Wings hosting the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver has been terrible over their last five games—posting a 0-4-1 record while allowing an average of over three goals per game. They’ve been a pretty good read team this season, allowing 1.77 GA/60, but due to their recent struggles being so bad, Detroit is the safer option to go with.

The good/bad thing about Detroit is their balanced scoring throughout their lineup. Any NHL coach would tell you that’s a great thing, but for fantasy purposes, it’s a real pain. The line with the most value has to be Detroit’s third line, specifically Gustav Nyquist ($5000) and Tomas Tatar ($5300). Both play together five-on-five, but Nyquist plays on the top power play unit while Tatar plays on the second unit. To make sure I get some exposure to the top line, Dylan Larkin ($5400) will probably be in every one of my lineups. The rookie is listed as a C on DraftKings (but plays the wing) and is on the top line with Henrik Zetterberg ($6100) and Justin Abdelkader ($4800). The combo of Larkin/Nyqust/Tatar is not only affordable, but also practical due to Larkin’s position eligibility.

On defense, there’s really only one option I like—Mike Green ($4500). Green is on the top paring with Niklas Kronwall ($3900), but plays on the second power play unit with Pavel Datsyuk ($5500) and company. If you add Green to the stack I mentioned above, you have exposure to both power play units and a ton of exposure five-on-five. It’s the perfect scenario.

My third favourite matchup of the night belongs to the Florida Panthers taking on the Carolina Hurricanes. The Panthers dominated the Devils yesterday—beating them 5-1 in Newark. Tonight, the Panthers will have the pleasure of taking on a Hurricanes team that has a great CF%, but can’t score goals.

Florida’s top line of Jonathan Huberdeau ($4800), Aleksander Barkov ($5200) and the ageless Jaromir Jagr ($5200) is the line I would look to stack in both cash games and GPPs. That line has been the go-to line for Florida all season long, and I expect them to lead the way for the Panthers tonight. If you don’t want to go with a full line stack, Barkov/Jagr is the mini stack I would go with, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use Huberdeau/Jagr either if you need some minor salary relief.

On the blue line, Aaron Ekblad ($4800) is an afford option for fantasy owners to consider. Both he and Dmitry Kulikov ($3200) play in the top power play unit with Barkov and company, but Ekblad’s upside is much greater than Kulikov.

It’s hard to recommend a goalie from this game because the Panthers played yesterday, but if Roberto Luongo ($7800) gets the start, he’s my top play of the night. His price tag isn’t pretty, but the fact that Carolina takes a ton of shots and can’t score is enough for me to roster Luongo. There is a possibility that Al Montoya ($6900) gets the start. If that were the case, I would still recommend him as a GPP play, but certainly not a cash game play.

Stats provided by stats.hockeyanalysis.com

Player Rankings

 Ranking are price sensitive

 Forwards

1. Dylan Larkin—Detroit Red Wings–$5400
2. Joe Thornton—San Jose Sharks–$4400
3. Melker Karlsson—San Jose Sharks–$3600
4. Aleksander Barkov—Florida Panthers–$5200
5. Mark Scheifele—Winnipeg Jets–$4800
6. Kyle Turris—Ottawa Senators–$6200
7. Evgeni Malkin—Pittsburgh Penguins–$7300
8. Joe Pavelski—San Jose Sharks–$7500

Wingers

1. Gustav Nyquist—Detroit Red Wings–$5000
2. Jaromir Jagr—Florida Panthers–$5200
3. Patrick Marleau—San Jose Sharks–$6000
4. Mike Hoffman—Ottawa Senators–$5900
5. Mats Zuccarello—New York Rangers–$5800
6. Tomas Tatar—Detroit Red Wings–$5300
7. Jonathan Huberdeau—Florida Panthers–$4800
8. Rick Nash—New York Rangers–$7100

Defenseman

1. Aaron Ekblad—Florida Panthers–$4800
2. Mike Green—Detroit Red Wings–$4500
3. Torey Krug—Boston Bruins–$5900
4. Brent Burns—San Jose Sharks–$7700
5. Dan Boyle—New York Rangers–$3500
6. Erik Karlsson—Ottawa Senators–$7400

 Goalie

1. Roberto Luongo—Florida Panthers–$7800
2. Tuukka Rask—Boston Bruins–$7900
3. Connor Hellebuyck—Winnipeg Jets–$6500 (GPP Only)
4. Jimmy Howard—Detroit Red Wings–$7300 (GPP Only)

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