We have three games today with some high-flying offensive teams. New Jersey and Dallas are going to be popular, but can we find some value elsewhere? Will the Anaheim Ducks be able to generate any kind of offense? Can Kirill Kaprizov and Nikita Kucherov hit value? You can build daily fantasy hockey lineups on DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo Fantasy for Friday, December 16th, but before you build those NHL daily fantasy lineups, don’t forget to check out our NHL DFS projections, the NHL Value Finder, and the NHL DFS lineup generator. Let's now take a closer look at the daily fantasy hockey top plays for tonight's NHL DFS slate.

 


New Jersey Devils Vs. Detroit Red Wings


Players to target: Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier (if he plays), Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Dougie Hamilton, David Perron, Jake Walman, Moritz Seider.

The New Jersey Devils have the highest team total entering tonight, but Nico Hiscier and Tomas Tatar are questionable to play. If both don’t play, that would be a huge loss for New Jersey, but I still like them to score a few goals. Jack Hughes and Dawson Mercer skate together five on five and Mercer could join the top unit due to all the injuries. Hughes is a shooting machine and that trend shouldn’t stop tonight. His floor is very high for this slate. Dougie Hamilton is always a good option on the blue line, but his price tag is higher than I’d like to spend.

Detroit isn’t in a great spot here, but I do like Moritz Seider and our new favorite player Jake Walman to exceed value. Walman isn’t going to blow you away with his offensive numbers, but he’s very capable of blocking shots and New Jersey takes a ton of them. For $4100 on DraftKings, we can’t say no to him. If you want a piece of the offense, David Perron is the way to go.


Tampa Bay Lightning Vs. Minnesota Wild


Players to target: Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev, Sam Steel, Kirill Kaprizov, Filip Gustavsson.

This is a tough matchup to break down because both teams aren’t expected to score a ton of goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy should get the start in this one, while Filip Gustavsson is confirmed to start for Minnesota. Both teams have some elite goalscorers, but are they worth paying up for?

For Tampa Bay, I’ll limit my exposure to Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev. Kucherov is elite and can certainly find a way to get on the scoresheet, while Sergachev is going to get chances to shoot the puck and block shots. I could see an argument for playing someone like Victor Hedman or Steven Stamkos, but I just don’t feel comfortable spending up for them.

As for Minnesota, Kirill Kaprizov is always a good play because he loves to shoot the puck. He needs to score a goal to hit value, but if anyone can do it, it’s him. Sam Steel is my favourite cheap center option on the slate. He’s skating on the top line and has ten points in the last ten games. He doesn’t shoot the puck much, but you know he’s going to be dishing out the puck to his two elite wingers. 

Filip Gustavsson might feel like a downgrade from Marc-Andre Fleury, but he’s sporting a 2.34 GAA and a .920 SV% on the season, which is on par with what Vasilevskiy has done. He’s won four of his last five starts and has allowed just four goals in those wins. It’s not a great matchup on paper for him, but I do like his price tag and upside. 


Dallas Stars Vs. Anaheim Ducks


Players to target: Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski, Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Miro Heiskanen, Scott Wedgewood, Dmitry Kulikov

This is the game most DFS players will be targeting tonight. The Ducks are a terrible hockey team and they could easily get smashed tonight by a very good Dallas team. Anaheim is last in almost every important category and they don’t have their best goalie (Lukas Dostal, for those of you wondering) in goal.

For Dallas, any combination of their top six works for me, but Joe Pavelski, Jason Robertson, and Miro Heiskanen are my three favorites. All three play together on the top power-play unit, so that correlation is something to consider. 

If you need some cheaper options, Wyatt Johnston and Tyler Seguin play together on the second power-play unit and are relatively affordable on DK. There’s less upside with those two, but they may allow you to pay up for some of the more expensive players.

Jake Oettinger got the start yesterday against Los Angeles, so there’s a good chance we see Scott Wedgewood start this game. The Ducks don’t generate many score chances, so it’s going to be a challenge for Wedgewood to hit value. He’s still going to be very popular tonight because he has the best chance of picking up a ton.

As for the Ducks, there’s really nothing to love. Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry are both good players, but they won’t be able to hit value against an elite team like Dallas. The last time these two teams faced each other, the Stars came away with a 5-0 victory, and we could see a repeat of that here. If you want one player just to be different, Dmitry Kulikov has a good chance of picking up three blocked shots tonight and is only $3300. Everything else is just not worth it. 

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