The Spotlight Plays of the Day will feature a couple of Awesemo’s top plays of the day, followed by additional analysis from myself, Jake Hari, aka Tommienation1 on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Just five games to work with today, but there are quite a few individual skaters with juicy matchups at various price points. Dallas, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh skaters will (and should) be popular tonight, but here are the guys that are highly rated for their point projection and/or value.
Top-Tier
Taylor Hall ($7,300 DK/$8,100 FD)
“Hall is amongst the top skaters in terms of raw points projection tonight because of his time-on-ice and the fact that this game between the Devils and Penguins should be very up-tempo.”
Hall is one of the “A” points grade skaters on tonight’s slate, and while Awesemo doesn’t view him as a great individual value, he has a very solid floor for cash games, and a ton of upside in tournaments. The Penguins’ top line (which Hall should see a lot of) allows over 30 Scoring Chances Against per 60 minutes (SCA/60) and 15 High-Danger Chances Against per 60 minutes (HDCA/60) at even-strength. The ice time for Hall is key, as he should see around 20 minutes including top power-play time. If you’ve got some salary to work with, there are few better options than this Hart candidate.
Vladimir Tarasenko ($7,000 DK/$7,500 FD)
“Tarasenko’s Blues have the highest implied Vegas total of the night at almost 3.6 goals. As huge home favorites and getting top ice time, he’s another top raw points player and even provides some value on both sites, as he’s even a little underpriced.”
Vlad gets a cake matchup in his return to the Blues’ line against arguably the league’s worst team in the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks have allowed the 7th-most Scoring Chances Against per 60 minutes this month at even-strength, and that should be music to the ears of a player like Tarasenko. Over his last 8 games, he leads the team with 30 Scoring Chances, and he should see his fair share of them tonight, as the Canucks’ top-6 is poor defensively, and their penalty-kill is ranked 22nd on the year.
Values
Alex Steen ($5,100 DK/$5,300 FD)
“Steen may not be on the top line in the event of a Tarasenko return, but it’s hard not to take advantage of his price on both sites because of the Blues team total and his power play time.”
Steen will slot in on the Blues’ second line tonight, but he has been more aggressive lately, and we hope that continues. Over his last five games, he’s attempted 26 shots, created 12 individual Scoring Chances (iSCF), and 5 individual High-Danger Chances For (iHDSCF) in that time. Their should be scoring to go around for the Blues, and Steen could get on the scoresheet at even-strength with favorable matchups, or the top power-play unit.
Noah Juulsen (2,800 DK/$3,500)
“As a dirt-cheap punt on DraftKings, Juulsen provides some value, as he steadily has seen 18-19 minutes of ice time over his last 8 games, and his team’s implied total is well over their average monthly total tonight.”
Juulsen comes up as a “B” DraftKings value tonight, and you can see why at $2,800, where this aren’t many guys that see near 20 minutes. While he hasn’t shown high shot volume, he’s attempted 17 shots over his last five games, so he can provide a little of offense in a game where Montreal should be able to score. If need a deep punt, you could do much worse than Juulsen tonight on DraftKings.
