Daily Fantasy Hockey Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings 12/22/16

Three days till Christmas! This means only two more nights of daily fantasy hockey before the break. Let's get to it!

Thursday brings us 10 games on the schedule with only the Philadelphia Flyers playing on a back to back. There are no heavy favorites at this point so choosing your cash game goalie could be tricky. Just kidding, Carey Price is playing at home. For tournaments though it will be nice as the ownership should be spread out quite a bit. Let's take a look at some of the top value plays from the projection system.

 

Hockey is back and with it come our NHL projections which help inform these picks every night. When you purchase a DFSR NHL subscription to our base hockey projections you also get access to our brand new NFL DFS suite of tools including full projections, optimal NFL lineups and our Player Lab, which includes filters to help you create NFL lineups for FanDuel and DraftKings for any format. It’s a set of tools well beyond anything we’ve ever had, and something we feel will help our users *ahem* tackle the NFL season.

If you want to see the numbers behind our projections, create linueps with a single click, or research as deeply as your heart desires, click the button below to test out yourself.

GOALIES

Carey Price FD - $10000 DK - $8100
Opponent - MIN
Proj Pts FD - 16.87 DK - 4.22

Well, I kinda gave away the top goalie fo the night in the opening but it was pretty much obvious already. After a brief stint where Price looked human he has returned to elite status over the last week. After losing last Friday night and allowing four goals he bounced back with a huge win over the Caps in Washington on Saturday night allowing just one goal. He then beat the Ducks on Tuesday, allowing just one goal. Price now sits with just one win less than league-leading Bobrovsky and sits third in GAA(1.87) and Save %(.936). The nice thing is the salary has dropped back down to Earth making him playable in all formats.

 
Frederik Andersen FD - $9000 DK - $7900
Opponent - COL
Proj Pts FD - 15.43 DK - 3.86

If you are looking to steer in a different direction in tournaments take a trip with the Leafs to Colorado. Look, I get that the Leafs are better at home but at his current salary on DraftKings he provides so much salary relief that can be used on elite plays at other positions. It isn't just the salary relief that makes Andersen a good play. Over his last 10 starts, he may not have seen the win totals(4-3-3) but has been stellar between the pipes keeping opponents to two goals or less in eight of those games for a .934 save percentage. HE should have no problem getting offense in front of hi tonight as the Leafs play the worst defensive team in the league that is allowing 3.16 goals per game. 

 

 

Also Consider: Andrei Vasilevskiy(TB)

 

 

CENTERS

Auston Matthews FD - $6800 DK - $7600
Opponent - COL
Proj Pts FD - 16.41 DK - 5.03

From an offensive standpoint, the Leafs have one of the best matchups on the slate tonight. They come in ranked 11th overall in offense and although they are better at home they get a meeting with the worst defensive team in the league. Like I mentioned above, the Avs sit in the basement of the league with 23 points and have been everyone else's punching bag this season. Tonight it's the Leafs turn. The salary is getting up there on Matthews on DraftKings but still in an elite spot on FanDuel. Either way, he is red hot coming off a eight shot, one goal game and has seven points in his last 10 games with 38 shot on goal. He is safe in all formats.

Stack With: Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Frederik Gauthier(PP), Nazem Kadri(PP)

 

 
Aleksander Barkov FD - $6600 DK - $6100
Opponent - BOS
Proj Pts FD - 14.93 DK - 4.57

From a PTS/$ standpoint, Barkov makes another excellent value play on both sites in the low-mid $6K range. He gets a much tougher matchup against the Bruins who rank in the Top 10 in defense but is too red hot to fade right now. Over his last 10 games, he has tallied 11 points, eight of which have come at 5 on 5. What makes him safe in all formats is the combination of his value price and his shot volume(38 shots in last 10 games).  

Stack with: Jaromir Jagr, Seth Griffith

 

 
Henrik Sedin FD - $5300 DK - $4400
Opponent - WPG
Proj Pts FD - 9.41 DK - 3.17

This is a weird one for me. Outside of the playoffs, I am not sure that I have ever seen a back to back game featuring the same two teams in the same arena. That is what we have tonight as the Jets will once again the play the Canucks in Vancouver after losing 4-1 there on Tuesday night. Henrik is no more than a salary relief, tournament play as his shot volume is horribly low(1.1 shots per game) but he has been hot lately. He picked up two assists vs. the Jets on Tuesday and has now tallied eight points over his last 10 games.  

Stack with: Daniel Sedin, Brandon Sutter(PP)

 

 

 

 

 

WINGERS

Jakub Voracek FD - $7400 DK - $7100
Opponent - NJ
Proj Pts FD - 15.84 DK - 4.99As most of yo know, 

As most of yo know, I am a Flyer homer but I really try not to let my favorite team bias come into play with my daily fantasy. The last few weeks has been a blast watching the Flyers FINALLY put together a streak of good play. Voracek has been one of the most consistent offensive players on the team with 13 points over his last nine games while adding a whopping 39 shots on goal. He skates on the top line with Claude Giroux and the two pair up wit Simmonds and Schenn on the league's ninth best powerplay unit. Despite the price above $7K on both sites, he is inplay in all formats with his play this season.

Stack with: Claude Giroux, Michael Raffl, Wayne Simonds(PP), Brayden Schenn(PP)

 

 
Jeff Skinner FD - $6900 DK - $6900
Opponent - BUF
Proj Pts FD - 13.54 DK - 4.12

Skinner comes at a great mid-tier price for the level of production he has been providing fantasy owners this season. His biggest asset so far has been his shot volume as he is averaging 3.8 shots on goal per game. This gives us a high floor to bank on from a game to game basis and he also provides upside with 26 points through 30 games which is very impressive considering the Canes are a 16th ranked offense. With the Canes coming in as road dogs tonight you can bet that Skinner will be a low owned option in tournaments.

Stack with: Victor Rask, Derek Ryan

 

 
Sam Gagner FD - $4800 DK - $5400
Opponent - PIT
Proj Pts FD - 12.06 DK - 3.72

I just don't get how the sites don't have him priced in the $6K range. I mean, I am definitely not complaining it just doesn't make complete sense. It must be a line/ice time multiplier or something as he skates on the third and fourth line at even strength and gets udner 15 minutes of ice time per game. While that would be scary with almost any other player it doesn't concern me with Gagner who also skates on teh top powerplay unit where he has done a ton of damage this season. He has tallied 11 of his 23 points with the man advantage and has six in his last 10 games. Even in a tough matchup he will be hard to fade.

PP Stack with: Cam Atkinson, Alexander Wennberg, Nick Foligno

 

 

 

DEFENSEMEN
Erik Karlsson FD - $7400 DK - $7200
Opponent - ANA
Proj Pts FD - 15.76 DK - 4.96

If you are paying up for one player on the point tonight make it Karlsson. His price is at one of its lowest points of the season and he is red hot right now. Over his last 10 games he has tallied 12 points, including seven on the powerplay. The floor is always high with Karlsson which give us some safety for cash games. On the season he is averaging close to three blocks per game. 

 

 
Ivan Provorov FD - $4200 DK - $4700
Opponent - NJ
Proj Pts FD - 9.88 DK - 2.95

That's right, the Flyers homerism(made up word) comes into play again. Well not really actually. From a PTS/$ standpoint, Provorov has been a n elite fantasy play for awhile now. The 19 year old rookie is really coming into his own in the NHL and becoming an all around player. He provides a nice floor for cash games with a combination of shots and blocks and has shown his offensive upside with 15 points in 30 games this season. Until the salary gets over $5K I will use him almost every game. 

 

 

 

Also Consider: Michael Matheson(FLA)

 

 

 

 

Hockey is back and with it comes our NHL projections which help inform these picks every night. When you purchase a DFSR NHL subscription to our base hockey projections you also get access to our brand new NFL DFS suite of tools including full projections, optimal NFL lineups and our Player Lab, which includes filters to help you create NFL lineups for FanDuel and DraftKings for any format. It’s a set of tools well beyond anything we’ve ever had, and something we feel will help our users *ahem* tackle the NFL season.

If you want to see the numbers behind our projections, create linueps with a single click, or research as deeply as your heart desires, click the button below to test out yourself.