The best options for Daily Fantasy Hockey this Saturday, October 10th.
Top Budget Plays
Centers
Mattias Janmark $3,000 – Values are all over the place on Saturday with the huge slate but Janmark is playing with Ales Hemsky, who looks rejuvenated this year for the Dallas Stars. These two players showed solid chemistry on Thursday and they will continue to see a pretty good amount of ice time together. If Hemsky keeps making plays, Janmark will keep finishing them. Colorado could have some significant problems against this young and emerging forward. Do not be surprised if he sees the scoresheet once more.
Wingers
Sergei Plotnikov $3,000 – With lots of value risks across the board, Plotnikov dropped a little on quite a few depth charts after an underwhelming performance on Thursday night. He actually looked a little lost for the first time in his NHL career. These things do tend to happen but the Penguins get an Arizona team on the back end of back to back games. That should yield some fruit here as the Evgeni Malkin line may be one to keep an eye on. They were considerably snake bitten against Dallas.
Defensemen
Paul Martin $3,000 – There is a lot of risk here but Martin looked like a much different defenseman in the Peter DeBoer system. He even provided a little offensive upside to boot along with the usual blocked shot potential. Martin looked very much at peace playing with Brent Burns. Game number two is going to be a steep test against the Anaheim Ducks. The defenseman is also seeing power play time and that is encouraging at the least. It is a low risk, moderate reward type of pick so roll the dice here and see what may happen.
Goalie
Devan Dubnyk $7,200 – Alas it did not start well for Dubnyk as he gave up four goals on his first 17 shots faced against Colorado. For perspective, he only allowed that many goals once last year in Minnesota. Once! In the end, the goaltender righted the ship and stopped everything else the Avalanche threw at him. That is the key when you look at this. Dubnyk will face a tough St. Louis team on Saturday night but he will be equally determined to atone for his poor performance on Thursday night.
Since we saved some money on the budget plays let’s look at the few of the pricey options that are worth paying up for today.
Centers
Tyler Seguin $8,000– You just have to chalk up game number one to a little bit of bad bounces and fluky plays. He still had an assist and had several scoring chances. The match-up against Colorado seems tailored made for more plentiful opportunities. Keep an eye position wise on Seguin as well since he is seeing some right wing play. The only weakness Dallas had last year was that power play. With their newfound balance, Seguin should benefit considerably on Saturday.
Wingers
Jamie Benn $7,300 – This was not a surprise and an expensive mini stack with high reward potential. Yes, we could have gone with Alex Ovechkin but that might have been too obvious of a pick. Benn did tally a nice goal against Marc-Andre Fleury and the Penguins on Thursday. The winger had zero goals against the Avalanche last year and he clearly wants to change that. Colorado can give up goals in bunches with their high risk/high reward style. That feeds right into what Seguin and Benn like to do.
Defensemen
Erik Karlsson $6,900 – Oh yes even in a rivalry game, Toronto has become a bit of a team to pick on early in the year. Karlsson was held pointless against Buffalo but he has a tendency to come up with some scintillating performances on Saturday nights. His price is rather reasonable at this stage so why not roll the dice here on the best offensive defenseman in the game. He could easily exceed five daily fantasy points in this tilt.
Goalie
Braden Holtby $8,300 – Consider that the Washington Capitals are well rested as their home opener is also their season opener. Last year, Holtby started 70+ games and had 40+ wins. He plays a team in New Jersey coming off a 3-1 home loss to Winnipeg on Friday night where they struggled to even generate shots. Many are picking the goaltender to be one of the best in the league this year and better than even a certain New York Rangers goalie. This is a pretty safe start if you have the funds.
Chris Wassel has been playing DFS for the last year and has played Fantasy Hockey for over two decades. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisWasselDFS. Please note the expansive entries on a big Saturday slate. We are targeting the thirteen game night slate, we will have day game breakdowns on Twitter.
