NHL DFS Playbook January 5th: Top DraftKings and FanDuel Picks

Published: Jan 05, 2024
Friday's 3-game NHL slate is loaded with top-tier scorers featuring some really great matchups! We should expect lots of tight games with some great matchups out there, but expect some of the top scorers to shine through still. So, be sure to check in with our NHL DFS Tools, with the daily NHL projections, and our NHL lineup generator when building those lineups today to help you decide which players you should be targeting!
NHL DFS Playbook January 5th
Recommended DFS Starting Goalies,
Top Options for Saves
Darcy Kuemper vs Carolina Hurricanes
Arvid Soderblom vs New Jersey Devils
Best Odds for a Win
Vitek Vanecek vs Chicago Blackhawks
Laurent Brossoit vs Anaheim Ducks
Pyotr Kochetkov vs Washington Capitals
Favorite Goalies to Use for DFS Lineups
Pyotr Kochetkov, G, Carolina Hurricanes
The Capitals have played a lot of hockey lately and for a team like them its not a good thing. They've scored just 2.8 goals at home over the past 30 days and the Hurricanes have snapped back into the contending team we thought they would be all season. Koch is a steady goaltender with a 2.53 GAA and a good game script I think he pays off tonight.
John Gibson, G, Anaheim Ducks
With a slate this small you need to be different and I don't know many DFS players that will have some Ducks exposure tonight. Its a risk but the Jets played last night and the Jets are scoring just 2.9 goals on the road over the past month compared to their 32.2 shots on goal. Opportunity of a slate breaking outing from Gibson tonight.
Recommended DFS Skaters
Highest Expected Goal Totals
New Jersey Devils vs Chicago Blackhawks (3.86)
Winnipeg Jets vs Anaheim Ducks (3.48)
Carolina Hurricanes vs Washington Capitals (3.41)
Favorite Skaters to Use for DFS Lineups
Jack Hughes, C, New Jersey Devils
He's going to be mega chalk tonight but with the matchup against the Blackhawks who allow 5.4 goals per game on the road over the last month its hard to fade him. May just need to eat the massive ownership to keep pace with everyone else's lineups.
Nikolaj Ehlers, W, Winnipeg Jets
This is a great matchup for Ehlers, who gets the Ducks tonight who allow a ton of shots. Ehlers has a good floor with 15 shots on goal over the past 4 games and may just score a goal tonight.
Seth Jarvis, W, Carolina Hurricanes
Cheaper than some other options at winger tonight and a decent matchup against a Capitals team that is kind of falling apart right now. Jarvis has 13 shots over the last 3 games and 27 total points on the season to this point. Gets good minutes and is likely to record some points tonight.
Luke Hughes, D, New Jersey Devils
The little Hughes has been putting up big numbers lately for the Devils with 6 points over the past 4 games! The matchup is great against a Chicago team on a back to back and the top powerplay unit minutes matter so much for blue liners, plug him into your lineups.
Player Pool
$ Tier | C | W | D |
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Stacks
Devils | Jack Hughes | Luke Hughes | Jesper Bratt |
![]() | 7700 | - | 5300 |
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Devils | Jack Hughes | Luke Hughes | Jesper Bratt |
![]() | 7700 | - | 5300 |
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Player News
Sonny Gray will start on Tuesday against the Nationals.
The Cardinals are altering their rotation plans this week to get Gray an extra start before the All-Star break instead of giving Andre Pallante the ball for Sunday’s first-half finale against Atlanta. It’s a nice break for fantasy managers as Gray ends up with a two-start week instead of just one outing prior to the Midsummer Classic.
Bobby Witt Jr. went 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBI in the Royals’ 9-3 rout of the Pirates on Monday.
Witt has hit in 11 straight games after slumping during the middle of June. He’s back up to .296/.346/.503 for the season now. He also scored twice tonight, making this just the third time all year that he’s had multiple runs and multiple RBI in the same game for a cruddy Royals offense. He had 11 such games last year.
Noah Cameron limited the Pirates to two runs and three hits over seven innings in a victory Monday.
The Royals had lost Cameron’s previous six starts, though that says a lot more about their offense than his pitching; he threw scoreless ball in three of those games. Cameron got to face a Royals-like offense tonight, as the Pirates had Ke’Bryan Hayes batting fifth and Jared Triolo starting at first base. Cameron wound up striking out seven and walking one while completing seven innings for the first time. He’s 3-4 with a 2.56 ERA, and he’s set to get the Mets on the final day before the break.
Andrew Heaney was pulled after allowing four runs in three innings Monday against the Royals.
Heaney’s velocity has been down all year, but at least he’s been consistent; he’d averaged in between 89.8 and 90.5 mph with his fastball every start until tonight, when he was down to 89.5 mph despite not pitching very deep into the game. His slider was actually down 1.8 mph from his season average. It seems like bad news for a pitcher the Pirates are certainly planning to trade later this month. Heaney dropped to 4-8 with a 4.41 ERA. He’ll likely face the Twins on Sunday.
Salvador Perez contributed a homer and an RBI double Monday in the win over the Pirates.
Perez also homered Sunday against the D-backs. He’s batting .263 with seven homers and 23 RBI in his last 26 games, taking his OPS from .608 to .686. That .686 is the highest he’s been since the fifth game of the season.
Ketel Marte was scratched from Monday’s lineup with right groin tightness.
It sounds like a precautionary decision since Marte was in Arizona’s original lineup for Monday’s series opener against the Padres. The 31-year-old All-Star second baseman is day-to-day for now. It’ll be Blaze Alexander taking over at the keystone on Monday night in his absence. It doesn’t sound like a massive concern, but fantasy managers should keep a close eye on his status over the remainder of the week.