Good day, all! We have an interesting slate on our hands tonight, I know this because this is one to where my notes have plenty of things jotted down with ample question marks, cross offs, and things underlined. Before we dive in though we have to address the Avalanche in the room…if you have a filler to play with Colorado, you got the green light from me. The spot is too good to completely overlook and have no issues with playing some sort of Avs stack.

Slate Preview

Tampa Bay Lightning

On Tuesday, Tampa did the annoying thing where they changed up their lines and wouldn't ya know it, they did it again! Only this time it's because of a trade and if the lines on my screen are accurate, then I have real interest in Tampa Bay tonight at home against a Sabres club that has given up four goals in each of their last four games. The nice thing about Tampa tonight is that we have options, and life is all about options. If you want to spend up to the top line, that's a-okay in my book spending right up to Nikita Kucherov ($8,800), Brayden Point ($6,700), and Jake Guentzel ($7K). They are my guess for the line that gets deployed against the middle six of Buffalo and they are going to skate together on the man advantage, with a Buffalo club that's towards the top in times shorthanded over the past month. If you don't have the salary to go all the way to Tampa Bay's top line, then I don't mind a secondary stack of Brandon Hagel ($6,500), Anthony Cirelli ($4,600) and newly acquired Oliver Bjorkstrand ($3,900). Hagel is back on the top power-play unit, so he now has some additional power-play value. I haven't built my lineup yet, but Tampa is on my list of clubs that I'm targeting tonight if I'm not seeing anything to pair with Colorado. That's going to be the theme here, you guys.

Nashville Predators

If you guys have been following along with me this season (and a million thanks if you have!), then you'll know my feelings towards this Nashville club and that's been, "let someone else play them, look elsewhere". Up until the prior game Steven Stamkos hadn't gotten on the board since it felt like Christmas, Roman Josi is hurt, and Juuse Saros in net is four goals on 28 shots. Still, hear me out, the spot tonight is good, and the Predators have decent shots-for and expected goals-for numbers at even strength going up against a Seattle Kraken team that has had two stinkers in a row. Believe me, I think I had Joey Daccord going in both of them. While Nashville hasn't been stellar on the man advantage the past month, I could see maybe (and I mean maybe), going with a Filip Forsberg ($7,800) one-off or pair him with Jonathan Marchessault at $6,100. I'm not head over heels on the Preds but the more passes I make through this slate I just keep stopping on this game and eyeing Nashville. With that, I don't think their yellow sweaters (mustard tigers?) will be in my single-entry, but in 3-max and above I'm at least giving this top line a serious look. Again, if no Colorado, then maybe Nashville?

Dallas Stars

The Stars haven't scored fewer than four goals in a game since before the Four Nations on February 4^th and will be going up against the club that has taken the most penalties over that time span. Throwing in a full-on power-play stack is something that I usually avoid but here if you were to build that way you would get Matt Duchene ($5,500, line two), Roope Hintz ($6K, line one), Jason Robertson ($7,100, line one), Wyatt Johnston ($6,400, line three) and Thomas Harley ($6K, top d-pair). That's decent exposure across most lines and you have full Stars power play with Calgary getting shown the door more than any other club over the past month and some change with Four Nations. If you wanted to leave Harley off and just go with the PP forwards, that's fine but I would avoid leaving off a forward if you're going full on power-play stack. Don't leave Nico Hischier on the bench as he goes off for a hat-trick…I come to you all with that first-hand experience. In my single-entry, I like the Stars tonight and can see one of two things happening. One is I can't figure out what to do with Colorado, say oh well, and play Dallas. The other, and more likely scenario, is work gets crazy, and I'm at the gym following a busy day when the notification comes through that I have a reserved lineup that hasn't been entered in lately. Oh shoot, uhh uhh, what to do let's see…oh I know, Dallas!

Defensemen

Cale Makar is top of the board at $8,200 because of course he is, but Zach Werenski is at $7,200. If anyone saw that goal he scored against Tampa Bay on Tuesday, that's exactly why we roster him. I like Moritz Seider at $5,400 as he'll get the ice-time for Detroit in a so-so matchup against the Utah Hockey Clubers. I can't let a slate go by without mentioning both Jake Walman ($5,200) and his teammate Mario Ferrao ($3,900), both of whom find themselves in my lineup frequently. Walman for the shooty puck, Ferraro for the stand in front of the shooty puck. Brady Skjei at $4,600 is fine as he'll play big time minutes tonight for the Preds with their recent moves along with Josi still on the shelf. Lane Hutson is a name that I often pass over, but I have interest in him tonight at $4,400 and at that same price I don't mind Mason Lohrei. Rasmus Ristolainen is a decent cheaper option at $3,700, and if you're stacking Dallas, a decent cheap defenseman to pair with them could be Cody Ceci at $3,200.

Goalies

Oh goaltenders. My ceiling tonight is Andrei Vasilevskiy at $8,100 and already super bummed that he's going to be too expensive for my lineup. Maybe if he was $4,100, we could make something work? Either Utah goaltender is alright at $7,600, my only worry there though is that Utah doesn't allow a ton of shots at 5v5, but the price is alright. I don't mind Sam Montembeault at $7,100…okay I lied, I'm hesitant, but don't mind him at that price and he has been good in his last four starts. If you're not playing Dallas then Dustin Wolf makes some sense here at $7K, as he'll see decent volume.

Good luck tonight everybody!  

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