This article is part of our DraftKings NHL series.
SLATE PREVIEW
It's a light day for the NHL on Monday, which is always tricky for daily fantasy purposes. Your options are sparse, as there are only two games on the slate. That being said, one of the teams involved is the Red Wings, by far the worst team in hockey. They are facing the Avalanche, so you may be looking to fill your DFS lineup with Colorado skaters -- and if you did that, who could blame you?
GOALIES
Just go with Pavel Francouz ($8,100). Obviously you don't want one of Detroit's goalies. The other game taking place Monday is Edmonton versus Nashville. Both Mike Smith and Juuse Saros have played well recently, but both of those teams also have solidly middle-of-the-pack offenses. Francouz has a 2.24 GAA and .929 save percentage. The Red Wings have only averaged 1.99 goals per game. Also, Francouz has won six straight starts, and Detroit basically never wins. The joys of tanking.
VALUE PLAYS/ONE-OFFS
There's no real room for any Red Wings here. I've got an Avalanche stack coming your way, but I have one more Colorado player to recommend. If Andre Burakovsky is still out Monday, Valeri Nichushkin ($3,600) will likely be on the Avalanche's top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog. He's never lived up to the hype, but being the third guy on that line could bode well for him. Plus, the Wings have a 3.78 GAA, by far the highest in the NHL. Like I said, an entire lineup of Colorado players would not be a bad idea.
I want to try and find one guy from the Oilers and the Predators just to give you some options. Juuse Saros had a 2.33 GAA and .930 save percentage in 11 games in February, but the Predators do have the 29th-ranked penalty kill on the season. As such, a guy who has had a ton of success on the power play could still be worth a look. Well Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ($5,900) has averaged 3:56 per game with the extra man and tallied 22 power-play points. That bodes well.
On the flip side, the Oilers have the second-ranked penalty kill. You don't want any Predators too reliant on the power play. Mikael Granlund ($4,500) could fit the bill. Also, he's basically the only Nashville forward that had any success in February. He has seven goals and four assists in his last 13 games.
STACKS
Avalanche vs. Red Wings
J.T. Compher (C - $4,300), Joonas Donskoi (W - $4,200), Tyson Jost (W - $3,300)
The Wings are so bad defensively I decided to skip Colorado's top line and recommending stacking the second line. Detroit has a 3.78 GAA and an .885 save percentage. It has to 30th-ranked penalty kill as well. Compher has been getting time on the Avalanche's top power-play unit with Mikko Rantanen injured, and Jost and Donskoi both get time on the second unit.
Compher's overall numbers aren't great, but he's only been centering Colorado's second line since Nazem Kadri's injury. Plus, he's averaged 5:14 per game with the extra man over his last four contests. Jost has four points and 13 shots on net over his last three games. Donskoi has had the best season of the three, as he has 15 goals on 103 shots in 59 games with 17 assists added on. Normally, these aren't the guys you would recommend for a stack. However, there are only two games taking place, and the Wings are an incredible matchup. For Monday, it makes sense.
DEFENSE
Let's start with Cale Makar ($5,700). He's started 62.6 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, highest on the Avalanche. He's also tallied 17 power-play points in 56 games. While his power-production has dropped a bit, he still had 10 points in February. A cheaper, but almost as good, option from Colorado is Samuel Girard ($4,000). He has 33 points in 64 games, including 12 with the extra man. The 21-year-old also has a three-game point streak.
For an option outside Colorado, should you need one, I might consider Ethan Bear ($4,200) from Edmonton. He has 20 points in 65 games, but he's also been spending time on the top power-play unit for the Oilers recently. That means skating with guys like Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. That has the potential to pay off, and Bear is cheap enough even one point on the score sheet would mean bang for your buck.
