Saturday Night Special April 22nd                 

Top Budget Plays

Centers

Mark Letestu $3400 – The center is a punt play at the least. However, playing against San Jose may set up very good as the center will get depth match-ups mostly. He had eight shots in his last three games and is seeing about 15-16 minutes a night. The San Jose penalty kill has to be considered a concern, and Letestu definitely has power play point potential even on the road.

Wingers

Erik Haula $3500 – There is just a theme here that we must go completely crazy. Haula returns after missing a few games, and Minnesota could use the depth scoring threat. He is averaging a couple shots a game lately. Scoring chances have been there for the speedy winger. With Minnesota maybe starting to solve Jake Allen a bit, Haula may be a worthwhile play on Saturday.

Defensemen

David Schlemko $3300 – Hey, why not? Schlemko does have five points in his last nine games. He does not play a ton of ice time compared to most defensemen, but he sure is effective at times. The defenseman has goals in two straight contests and will be a well-used threat for salary relief on Saturday. San Jose’s power play is expected to be a threat and sometimes taking a deeper look helps.                  

Goalie

Henrik Lundqvist $7600 – This is a dangerous GPP play, but Lundqvist is cheap enough to make this worth something at least in some lineups. His numbers have been decent enough and the goalie is rested. He has quality starts in three of his last four outings and two wins in a row. It could be the final game of the series and Lundqvist historically has played very well in these situations.                  

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.

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Centers

Mika Zibanejad $5200 – People will run to this as it will be a point chasing scenario. That just means this will be a dangerous pick. Connor McDavid will be the obvious chalk, but his price is so much higher than the next tier. That is the product of a short slate and pricing structure. The center has seven points in his last nine games on 26 shots. The best bet here is to be mindful that this is a moderate risk.

Wingers

Max Pacioretty $6600 – Though we may be going hard on the risks, Pacioretty has just one goal on his last 39 shots. That is an obscenely low shooting percentage, and at some point, the chances will find the back of the net. This is the going thought as the winger has had just about everything go wrong that possibly could. New York allows a lot of DFS points to top line wingers (4th most), and at some point, that has to translate too. Pacioretty makes a high-priced contrarian pick.                  

Defenseman

Brent Burns $8000 – Again this is super chalky, but that is on the slate more than anything else. Burns is averaging over four shots a game like he usually does but just has one goal in his last 11 games. He was shooting close to 10 percent most of the year and regression had to come. However, this latest stretch is a bit extreme. Shots and chances are still finding their way through which always helps his point potential.

Goalie

Devan Dubnyk $7800 – The choices out there may appear to be better but this has potential to work well. He has only allowed six goals in four starts this series. That is it! This includes a shutout in Game 4 in St. Louis. There is zero margin for error here but Minnesota is alive and at home where they have been so good all season. Jake Allen showed some vulnerability and maybe the tide is turning ever so slightly in this series.

Chris Wassel has been playing DFS for the past couple years and has played Fantasy Hockey for over two decades. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisWasselDFS. We are targeting the three game slate to give readers more of a range on what to go on. Finally, please note that Saturday’s slate has a couple options. Thanks for reading and enjoy the slate daily fantasy hockey fans!