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

Toronto Maple Leafs @ New York Islanders

 The Toronto Maple Leafs have had some success in the month of December, but they still remain a below-average hockey team, especially when Jonathan Bernier ($6700) is in net. He’s played better since his 10-day conditioning stint in the AHL, but I’m not ready to buy into this recent success just yet. The Leafs are a below-average scoring team on the road (21^st, 1.86 GF/60) and are about average in goals against (18^th, 2.17 GA/60). These numbers are much worse when Bernier is in net and tonight he will have the pleasure of facing John Tavares ($7800) and the New York Islanders.

Everyone will be on Tavares and his line mates Anders Lee ($4400) and Josh Bailey ($3900), except for me! Tavares doesn’t have a terrible price tag and his wingers are a bargain to say the least, but I would much rather the second line of Frans Nielsen ($5200), Ryan Strome ($3900) and Brock Nelson ($4500). As usual, DraftKings has all three listed at C, so you can’t stack them in a GPP, but I’m willing to burn two center sports to roster Nielsen/Strome as a mini-stack. Tavares and company should see a lot of Dion Phaneuf ($4100) tonight, meaning the Nielsen line should see more of Morgan Rielly and Frank Corrado, which is just perfect.

If you do decide to go with Nielsen-Strome as your mini-stack, toss Nick Leddy ($3700) in there for the power play stack. Leddy hasn’t scored a goal this season, but he’s averaging just over two FPPG over his last ten gams, which is acceptable.

Arizona Coyotes @ Colorado Avalanche

 There are three things guaranteed in life: death, taxes and this game hitting the over. The Avalanche are the worst puck possession team in the league and the Coyotes are playing their second game in as many nights. With Anders Lindback ($6200) expected to get the start, the Avalanche become the team you want to target. As bad as they may be at possessing the puck, they still rank 9^th in goals-per-sixty at home (2.45) while averaging 26.3 shots per game.

Colorado’s top line of Gabriel Landeskog ($6700),John Mitchell ($3100) and Matt Duchene ($6000) is the line I want to own. Even if they have to matchup against Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($5300) all night long, they still have an above-average matchup. There’s a good chance that Martin Hanzal doesn’t play again tonight, so the fear of the top line shutting down Mitchell and company is not as high. They are an expensive bunch to roster, so I’d probably go with Duchene-Landeskog as my mini-stack. You can pair Mitchell with Landeskog if you’d like, but Mitchell isn’t seeing any power play time, so he becomes very limited.

If you want to move off the top line, the second line of Alex Tanguay ($3400), Jarome Iginla ($4600) and Nathan MacKinnon ($6600) is the way to go. All three players are affordable to roster and Iginla & Tanguay both play on the second power play unit. Pair them with Nick Holden ($3100) and you have yourself the most affordable power play stack ever. If you decide to stick with the top line, Tyson Barrie ($5000) is the player I would go with for the top power play stack.

Edmonton Oilers @ Calgary Flames

 Here’s another game that should be a high scoring affair. The Flames are ranked 23^rd in CF% at home (48.7%), but are ranked 4^th in GF/60 (2.78). Basically the Flames are a lucky team, but I like their chances against an Edmonton team that played yesterday in Vancouver and didn’t look that great. The Oilers are ranked 29^th in GA/60 on the road (2.83) despite being ranked 16^th in CF% (48.3%). To make it a short story—Edmonton’s goaltending isn’t very good. There are definitely some Oiler players I would consider using in cash games and GPPs, but value wise, Calgary is the way to go.

If there’s one player you NEED to get into your lineup tonight, its Johnny Gaudreau ($6800). His home and away spits are back and white.

(NHL.com)

To say Gaudreau likes to play at home is an understatement. There’s no question he’s a great player, but away from Scotiabank Saddledome, he’s just not that good. Luckily for fantasy owners, the Flames are the home team tonight, so I expect Gaudreau to score some goals. Pairing Gaudreau with Sean Monahan ($5800) is the logical thing to do. If “Johnny Hockey” is going to score goals, Monahan is going to be setting him up. Pair them with Mark Giordano ($5900) and you have yourself a very good power play stack. If you can’t fit Giordano into your lineup, T.J Brodie ($4800) is a more affordable option to consider.

If you want to fade the top line because you don’t enjoy winning money, Sam Bennett ($3400) and Mikael Backlund ($3700) Is the only other option I would look at up front. They are both listed at C on DraftKings, so just make your life easy and go with Monahan-Gaudreau.

Player Rankings

 Ranking are price sensitive

 Forwards

1. Ryan Strome—New York Islanders–$3900
2. Leo Komarov—Toronto Maple Leafs–$3900
3. Leon Draisaitl—Edmonton Oilers–$4900
4. Frans Nielsen—New York Islanders–$5200
5. Sean Monahan—Calgary Flames–$5800
6. Nathan MacKinnon—Colorado Avalanche–$6600
7. John Tavares—New York Islanders–$7800
8. Patrice Bergeron—Boston Bruns–$7200
9. Matt Duchene—Colorado Avalanche–$6000

Wingers

1. Johnny Gaudreau—Calgary Flames–$6800
2. Blake Comeau—Colorado Avalanche–$3000
3. Josh Bailey—New York Islanders–$3900
4. Artemi Panarin—Chicago Blackhawks–$5600
5. Jarome Iginla—Colorado Avalanche–$4600
6. Brad Marchand—Boston Bruins–$6400
7. Taylor Hall—Edmonton Oilers–$7400
8. Gabriel Landeskog—Colorado Avalanche–$6700

Defenseman

1. Nick Holden—Colorado Avalanche–$3100
2. Nick Leddy—New York Islanders–$3700
3. Mark Giordano—Calgary Flames–$5900
4. Tyson Barrie—Colorado Avalanche–$5000
5. Aaron Ekblad—Florida Panthers–$4900
6. Oliver Ekman-Larsson—Arizona Coyotes–$5300
7. Dustin Byfuglien—Winnipeg Jets–$6300
8. Zdeno Chara—Boston Bruins–$5200

Goalie

1. Corey Crawford—Chicago Blackhawks–$8000
2. Michal Neuvirth—Philadelphia Flyers–$7100
3. Scott Darling—Chicago Blackhawks–$7500
4. Roberto Luongo—Florida Panthers–$8100
5. Connor Hellebuyck—Winnipeg Jets–$6600

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