Daily Fantasy Saturday: Put Your Money Down on Blackhawks

Stephen Dotzel

2021-02-27

It's been another relatively quiet week on the Covid front, which has led to a hearty week of fantasy. Each day Monday through Thursday featured at least six games with Friday adding another three. The train keeps rolling with a whopping 14 games on tap for Saturday and then another six on Sunday. Let's hope for more of the same going forward.

Of those 14 games, ten fall on the main slate giving us one of the most robust Saturday slates of the year so far. In addition to the fantasy impacts, there's some great storylines to follow as well. Leading the way of course is the matchup with the league's top goal scorer – Auston Matthews – against the league's top point scorer – Connor McDavid. At least we hope that's the matchup, more on that below. In fact, four of the top five point scorers in the league will be on the ice in this one when you include Leon Draisaitl and Mitch Marner as well. Oh, and these two teams are also first and second in the North Division. Plenty at stake here.

In addition to Oilers/Leafs, we also have a rematch of the most recent Stanley Cup Final, as well as new Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme looking for his first win. It should be a great day of hockey.

As for the fantasy main slate, here are some suggestions on how I'm handling tonight's action for tournaments. All players and prices are from DraftKings Main Slate (7 pm EST).

Top Options

With the hefty ten game slate I mentioned above, there are tons of options here. Add to that the Toronto-Edmonton game which will put some of the typically highest owned players against each other, and I don't think we are going to see ownership get out of hand anywhere on this slate. It's not something I'm really factoring into my lineups tonight.

TOR – Auston Matthews ($9,300), Mitch Marner ($7,900), Joe Thornton ($3,000)

There is a lot of uncertainty around this line as of my writing but as long as we stay on top of the news Saturday there shouldn't be a problem. Matthews missed practice on Friday due to some wrist discomfort, which was a carryover from Thursday's game where Sheldon Keefe stated this was something Matthews has been dealing with all season. He also added this was nothing new, so I'm going to take Friday's absence as more of a precautionary measure and that Matthews will be good to go on Saturday. Assuming he is, he will enter tonight's game without having scored a goal in each of the past two games. A scoreless drought of three games is something he has yet to experience this season so by all accounts, he is due.

Matthews has scored in all three games he's played against Edmonton this year and racked up over 15 DraftKings points in each. In the four games before the Calgary series Matthews was likely the hottest he has been all season (which is saying something) with seven goals and an average of 30.7 DraftKings points. The other bit of uncertainty here is who will join Matthews and Marner on this line, but that is shaping up to be Joe Thornton, who is set to return from an injury of his own. Pairing Thornton with Matthews is an affordable way to stack this and you can add Marner for the full line stack if you have the space. If Matthews were to miss this game, John Tavares ($6,400) becomes a top option as he likely slides up onto this line.  

CHI – Patrick Kane ($8,300), Alex DeBrincat ($7,600), Adam Boqvist ($3,000)

The Blackhawks, despite missing some key pieces like Jonathan Toews and Kirby Dach for all of the season, are one of the surprises of the year and come into tonight having won eight of their last ten. Two of those wins came at the hands of the Red Wings which is who they will see tonight. On the season Chicago is 4-0 against Detroit outscoring them 15-5. It comes as no surprise, but leading the way is Kane who is up to 31 points on the year in 21 games. That puts him behind only the Oilers duo of McDavid and Draisaitl in terms of total points.

At Kane's side is DeBrincat who has a point in 11 of the last 13 games himself. DeBrincat has put up 20 or more DraftKings points four times in the past ten games, one less than Kane who has done it five times. This duo makes a great stack and you don't have to include their center Pius Suter ($4,600), as he is often an afterthought and a bit overpriced for his production. Instead, I like the idea of adding defenseman Boqvist, who is much cheaper and joins Kane and DeBrincat on the power play. Sticking with the power play theme, Carl Soderberg should also be on that unit and is another cheap option at just $3,300.

VGK – Max Pacioretty ($8,100), Cody Glass ($3,600), Reilly Smith ($3,300), Shea Theodore ($6,600)

Vegas did some line shuffling last game looking for an offensive spark which included splitting up the duo of Stone and Pacioretty. The end result had Alex Tuch ($4,000) alongside Stone instead and the move paid off as Tuch scored twice in Vegas's 3-0 win over Colorado. I don't mind going back to that line in this one, but I prefer targeting Pacioretty's instead. With his average of 4.1 shots per game, he is always in play for the five shot bonus giving him a safe floor. With Glass at center and Smith on the wing, this line forced six scoring chances last game but just couldn't connect on a goal.

The duo of Glass and Pacioretty also share top power-play time, and Glass's cheap salary makes them somewhat easy to stack. I don't mind leaving Smith off the stack, but at just $3,300 he is a really good value here. If I were to leave him off it would be for a defenseman like Theodore, who while he has been eerily quiet since his return from an upper-body injury, also joins Pacioretty on the power play and can contribute offense on his own. The Ducks have allowed 19 goals across the last five games including blowing back-to-back three goal leads and I like the thought of jumping on them while they're still down.

TB – Brayden Point ($6,700), Ondrej Palat ($5,200), Blake Coleman ($4,400)

Another team doing some line shuffling of late is Tampa Bay, giving us a first line we're not used to seeing. But given the fact they're 2-0 since rolling this out, I'd imagine it sticks for another game. The obvious missing piece is Steven Stamkos ($7,400) but the addition of Coleman in his spot makes this line very affordable. Coleman doesn't share top power-play time with Point and Palat, but he is someone who likes to shoot, as he's averaged just under three shots per game dating back to last season. For under $4.5K if he can get those three shots and pick up a point, that's really all you need.

Of course playing on the top line, there is potential for much more, and Coleman does have a goal in one of those two games. The Stars are coming off three games with the Panthers where they allowed an average of over 43 shots per game. Some stellar goaltending kept those games close, but if that doesn't continue, I think the Lightning can take advantage in this Stanley Cup rematch.

Quick Hitters

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CAR2 – Carolina is coming off three tough losses at the hands of the Lightning but prior to that, the second line of Vincent Trocheck ($5,800), Martin Necas ($4,000), and Nino Niederreiter ($4,800) had been on a bit of a tear with 13 points in four games. They come in with a collectively affordable price tag that allows them to be stacked with some of the other top options. Feel free to add in Dougie Hamilton ($6,000) as well who is now up to 56 shots and only one goal. Goals are coming, I promise. I'm going to keep rostering him until they do or I go broke.

MIN2 – In the four games since returning from injury and being put on the second line, Mats Zuccarello ($4,400) has scored three goals and added six assists. His line mates of Kirill Kaprizov ($4,300) and Victor Rask ($3,400) have chipped in for another 12 points of their own. That's 21 points between three guys in just four games and none of their price tags are over $4,400. This is another great stack you can mix in with some of the more expensive top stacks.

NYI1 – The Penguins have been playing a little better defensively as they've been getting healthier on the blue line, but they still rank bottom five in the league in goals allowed per game. Jordan Eberle ($5,400) was recently united with Mathew Barzal ($6,500) and Anders Lee ($6,300) on the top line and it immediately paid dividends with each player recording two points on Thursday. The trio also skates together on the power play which gives you full correlation between them.

STL1 – The Blues really struggled this week scoring against the Kings, but a matchup against the Sharks who they were able to score against seven times last weekend could be just what they need to get rolling again. What would help even more is the potential return of Vladimir Tarasenko ($2,500), who skated with Brayden Schenn ($6,200) and David Perron ($6,400) in practice on Friday. It's unclear if he's ready to return for Saturday, but if he does, he is minimum price on DraftKings and would instantly become a top play. With any luck we will get confirmation either way during the day on Saturday. If he isn't quite ready then I like targeting the second line of Schenn, Mike Hoffman ($5,800), and Jordan Kyrou ($4,600).

Top Value Options for Filling Out Lineups

C – Brock Nelson ($4,100), Paul Stastny ($3,900), Gabriel Vilardi ($3,300)

W – Jonathan Drouin ($3,300), Anthony Beauvillier ($3,200), Zach Sanford ($3,000), Alex Chiasson ($2,700)

D – Noah Dobson ($3,700), Samuel Girard ($3,600), Vince Dunn ($3,400), Alexander Romanov ($2,800)

Goalie Picks

Semyon Varlamov ($7,800)

Kaapo Kahkonen ($8,100)

Jordan Binnington ($8,000)

Connor Hellebuyck ($7,400)

Anton Khudobin ($6,900)

Be sure to double check your lineups before lock for any last-minute scratches or goalie changes, especially this year with the Covid protocols. If you follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel you can subscribe to my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of several team beat writers tweeting the most recent news in real-time. You can also reach out to me on Twitter and I'll do my best to answer any questions I can. Hope to see you on top of the leaderboards!

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UPCOMING GAMES

Mar 19 - 19:03 DET vs CBJ
Mar 19 - 19:03 N.J vs PIT
Mar 19 - 19:03 PHI vs TOR
Mar 19 - 19:03 NYR vs WPG
Mar 19 - 19:03 BOS vs OTT
Mar 19 - 19:03 NYI vs CAR
Mar 19 - 20:03 NSH vs S.J
Mar 19 - 20:03 STL vs COL
Mar 19 - 21:03 EDM vs MTL
Mar 19 - 22:03 VGK vs T.B
Mar 19 - 22:03 L.A vs CHI
Mar 19 - 22:03 VAN vs BUF
Mar 19 - 22:03 ANA vs MIN

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
DANIIL MIROMANOV CGY
CONNOR MCMICHAEL WSH
CONNOR BEDARD CHI
EVGENY KUZNETSOV CAR
YEGOR SHARANGOVICH CGY

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  Players Team
DUSTIN WOLF CGY
CHARLIE LINDGREN WSH
DANIIL TARASOV CBJ
JOEY DACCORD SEA
DEVIN COOLEY S.J

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency PIT Players
26.3 BRYAN RUST DREW O'CONNOR SIDNEY CROSBY
19.1 RICKARD RAKELL EVGENI MALKIN MICHAEL BUNTING
17.5 JEFF CARTER EMIL BEMSTROM NOEL ACCIARI

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