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

 Calgary Flames @ Winnipeg Jets

Let’s start with my favourite matchup of the night—the Calgary Flames hosting the Winnipeg Jets. If you’re a betting man, the over in this game should hit midway through the second period. The Flames may be a terrible puck-possession team, but the Jets are allowing 2.73 GA/60 on the road so far this season. Couple that with the fact that Calgary is 4^th in GF/60 at home (2.78), and you’re looking at a high scoring game. So which team do you pick on? I’d say the Jets, but I wouldn’t argue if you decided to go with the Flames.

For the Jets, the top line is always a great place to start. Andrew Ladd ($5200), Blake Wheeler ($7000) and Bryan Little ($5400) are an excellent stack, but neither one individually has much value. If you want to go with just a mini stack, Wheeler/Little would be the way to go. The line that offers the most value is Winnipeg’s second line of Mark Scheifele ($5100), Mathieu Perreault ($4100) and Drew Stafford ($4200). Scheifele & Stafford also play together on the second power play unit, making them a great mini stack to consider. If you want to get exposure to both lines, Perreault plays on the top power play unit, so you can pair him with Wheeler and throw in Dustin Byfuglien ($6600) for a power play stack.

Speak of defenseman, Jacob Trouba ($3900) and Tyler Myers ($3900) are two affordable options I wouldn’t mind using tonight. Both play on the second power play unit, but Trouba plays on the top pairing with Byfuglien, while Myers plays on the second pairing with Tobias Enstrom ($3200). If I had to pick just one, I would go with Trouba.

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Arizona Coyotes

Don’t look now, but Jonathan Bernier has won two games in a row for the Leafs. Toronto demolished the Avalanche in Colorado yesterday 7-4, but don’t expect them to repeat that result tonight. The Coyotes are a better puck-possession team at home than Colorado and back-to-back games are never favourable for the road team. On top of all that, Arizona is ranked 3^rd in GF/60 at home (2.79), making them an excellent team to stack.

Let’s start with Arizona’s second line of Max Domi ($5000), Antoine Vermette ($3200) and Mikkel Boedker ($4700). Vermette has the most value of the three because of his price tag, but he hasn’t done much in terms of scoring this season, average just 1.9 FPPG. Domi/Boedker is a mini stack I would consider, but both play on separate power play units. Despite that, they are still the pair I would go with, but I wouldn’t argue if someone went Vermette/Domi. If you want to stack the top line, Martin Hanzal ($4200) and Tobias Rieder ($3900) make for an excellent mini-stack. Pair them with stud defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($5300) and you have yourself a very nice power play stack as well.

I know I’m going to regret this, but if you want to punt the goaltending position (which is never a great idea), Louis Domingue ($6100) is an option. Even though the Leafs scored seven goals yesterday, they don’t have much success scoring goals away from Air Canada Center (21^st, 1.89 GF/60). In order for Domingue to hit his value, he would need to score 4.2 DKFP (DraftKings fantasy points), which is very possible. He’s a GPP option for sure, but if you want to roll with him in cash games, I wouldn’t call you crazy. GPP

Montreal Canadiens @ Minnesota Wild

 My poor Montreal Canadiens have been terrible over the course of the last two weeks—dropping eight of nine games while averaging just over 1.5G/GP. Things don’t get easier tonight as they travel to Minnesota to take on the Wild. Montreal has been one of the better teams at scoring goals on the road—averaging 2.81 G/60—the best of any team in the league, but since the loss of Brendan Gallagher and Carey Price, the Habs just haven’t been the same team. Two games into an eight game road trip, Montreal is 0-2 and has given up 11 goals in those games. Minnesota comes into tonight-ranked 10^th in GF/60 at home (2.44) and 18^th in CF% (50.0). Not extraordinary numbers, but as long as Price remains out of the lineup, Montreal will continue to give up goals in bunches.

Let’s start with Minnesota’s top line of Zach Parise ($7700), Jason Pominville ($5100) and Mikael Granlund ($4000). Obviously they are a great line to stack, but Parise’s price tag is way too high and Pominville’s value just isn’t that great. The line with the most value is Minnesota’s second line of Mikko Koivu ($4900), Thomas Vanek ($5100) and Jason Zucker ($4800). Montreal’s top line should see a lot of Ryan Suter ($5900) and Minnesota’s top line, so Koivu and company should see Montreal’s second line, which is a good thing. Alex Galchenyuk ($4500) is back at center and his line mates for tonight’s game are Lars Eller and Daniel Carr. Eller/Galchenyuk don’t have great CF% numbers, so they are the line to target. If I had to pick just two plays to mini-stack, Koivu/Zucker would provide the best value, but I wouldn’t argue if you went Koivu/Vanek.

Darcy Kuemper ($7200) is confirmed to get the start tonight. He’s 3-0-4 with a 2.26 G.A.A so far this season, and despite his price tag being a tad high for my liking, he’s still worth using in both cash games and GPPs.

Stats provided by stats.hockeyanalysis.com

Player Rankings

 Ranking are price sensitive

 Forwards

1. Mark Scheifele—Winnipeg Jets–$5100
2. Bryan Little—Winnipeg Jets–$5400
3. Antoine Vermette—Arizona Coyotes–$3200
4. Leo Komarov—Toronto Maple Leafs–$4000
5. Jeff Carter—Los Angeles Kings–$6400
6. Mikko Koivu—Minnesota Wild–$4900
7. Steven Stamkos—Tampa Bay Lightning–$7400

Wingers

1. Tobias Rieder—Arizona Coyotes–$3900
2. Drew Stafford—Winnipeg Jets–$4200
3. Jason Zucker—Minnesota Wild–$4800
4. Tyler Toffoli—Los Angeles Kings–$5700
5. Johnny Gaudreau—Calgary Flames–$6500
6. Blake Wheeler—Winnipeg Jets–$7000
7. Rick Nash—New York Rangers–$6900
8. Max Domi—Arizona Coyotes–$5000

Defenseman

1. Stefan Elliot—Arizona Coyotes–$2900
2. Jacob Trouba—Winnipeg Jets–$3900
3. Dion Phaneuf—Toronto Maple Leafs–$4100
4. Oliver Ekman-Larsson—Arizona Coyotes–$5300
5. Dustin Byfuglien—Winnipeg Jets–$6400
6. Duncan Keith—Chicago Blackhawks–$5600
7. Mark Giordano—Calgary Flames–$5800

Goalie

1. Henrik Lundqvist—New York Rangers–$7800
2. Ben Bishop—Tampa Bay Lightning–$7400
3. Louis Domingue—Arizona Coyotes–$6100
4. Darcy Kuemper—Minnesota Wild–$7200

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