NHL DFS Picks & Stacks for DraftKings & FanDuel Lineups | Edmonton Oilers and William Nylander 12/7/21

Tonight is another night chock full of NHL action, and some of the top stars like Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews will be taking the ice again. This Power Play article will use Awesemo’s Premium NHL Tools to help dole out the NHL DFS advice to help with building lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel tonight. The Awesemo NHL projections and ownership projections are two of the best tools to utilize when constructing stacks and making the optimal NHL DFS picks. Let’s go position by position and pinpoint some of the top plays and stacks for Tuesday, Dec. 7.

NHL DFS Picks, Tops Stacks & Lineup Optimizer Plays

Centers

Connor McDavid (EDM vs. MIN): DraftKings – $9,600 | FanDuel – $10,400

While Minnesota has a reputation as a great defensive team, they do have a fatal flaw, and it is their discipline. On the season, they are short-handed the second-most of any team in the league, at nearly 3.5 times per game. Edmonton’s power play has not been as prolific of late, but a big issue is just shooting percentage, coming in under 10% over their last three weeks. But they are still top three in generating chances on the power play, so it is not something that is likely to sustain. Against a poorly disciplined Minnesota team, they should get lots of chances to score tonight.

There is a large slate of games tonight, but Connor McDavid will carry a lot of ownership regardless. But his team does have one of the higher implied goal totals on the slate and this is a great power-play matchup for McDavid and company.

The question is how to use him at such high ownership. By Awesemo’s Top Stacks Tool, Edmonton should be highly owned but there are ways to be a bit different with the lineup. Given the power-play advantage they should have, it makes sense to include players like Zach Hyman or Leon Draisaitl in a stack for tournaments. He is certainly viable by himself in any format as he leads Awesemo’s projections tonight regardless of position.

McDavid once again was leading the Awesemo NHL DFS lineup optimizer when running optimals today. Check out who else was popping as great plays in Awesemo’s DraftKings NHL cheat sheet and FanDuel NHL cheat sheet.

Jonathan Toews: DraftKings – $4,000 | FanDuel – $4,500

Chicago has struggled a lot as a team this year, but they have managed to find themselves a top line that can hold itself, at least so far. Jonathan Toews’s line, in nearly 60 minutes together, is controlling 54.5% of the shot attempts and 52% of the scoring chances at five-on-five. Not elite, but good for this team, and certainly good enough for this matchup tonight.

That matchup is a big factor here. The Rangers are in town, and they will be without superstar goalie Igor Shesterkin. Over the last two seasons, Shesterkin’s high-danger save percentage (one statistical marker for goalie proficiency) is near the top of the league at .867. Conversely, tonight’s starter Alexandar Georgiev is over 100 points lower at .766. Georgiev is not awful, but he is not Shesterkin, and that is important.

A big appeal tonight is Toews’s price and ice time. For that time on ice, he has skated at least 18 minutes in five straight games. As for the price, line mate Patrick Kane is expensive, but other line mate Brandon Hagel is not, so that makes the trio affordable in a good home matchup. Toews can certainly be considered by himself but makes more sense as part of a duo or trio in tournaments given the line is nearly a top-10 stack tonight by Awesemo’s Top Stacks Tool.

Wingers

William Nylander (TOR vs. CBJ): DraftKings – $6,700 | FanDuel – $8,100

It has been a good start for William Nylander, who has 10 goals and 24 points in 26 games, averaging roughly four shots on goal every 60 minutes. That works out to nearly four every 20 minutes, which is roughly what he should play with Mitch Marner out of the lineup (19:40 over the last two games without him). That shot rate is a big reason why he is priced where he is despite not even being a point-per-game winger: He has 10 DraftKings shot bonuses in 26 games. With Columbus in town, Toronto gets a team that is allowing the fifth-most shot attempts per 60 minutes over the last month. A high-paced game for Nylander plays into that shot rate for fantasy users tonight.

Along with line mate John Tavares, Nylander is one of the primary shooters on Toronto’s power play. He even exceeds Auston Matthews in shot rate and quality over the last month. Columbus’s penalty kill is good, but Toronto’s power play is great, and Nylander has a wonderful matchup at five-on-five. He has some cash-game consideration but should be given stronger consideration for tournaments. With his shot rate, there is a lot of upside here.

Pavel Buchnevich (STL vs. FLA): DraftKings – $4,500 | FanDuel – $5,900

Pavel Buchnevich has just picked up where he left off last year with 9 goals and 18 points in 22 games, averaging over three shots per game. The issue with him has been his bouncing around the lineup, leading to inconsistent ice time. That is not an issue of late, having skated at least 18 minutes in each of his last five games, and he is lining up on the top line with Ryan O’Reilly tonight. The Blues have a couple injuries on the wing, so that should assure us his ice time, and some shots on goal as well. All those are reasons why he has the third-highest projection for any winger under $5,000 on DraftKings tonight.

While they are hosting a very good Florida team, Florida does like to trade chances back and forth. Even Aleksander Barkov’s on-ice expected goals against rate is about league average. Florida and St. Louis have similar goals against rates at five-on-five over the last month, as well. All this is to say, there could be some goals on both sides here, and Buchnevich is in a good spot to reap the rewards.

At his price, where he may play a different power-play unit from O’Reilly, Buchnevich can be used as a one-off. Of course, a line stack here is fine as they should play heavy minutes with the lineup missing a couple key players.

Eeli Tolvanen (NSH at DET): DraftKings – $2,900 | FanDuel – $4,200

It has been a brutally unlucky season for Eeli Tolvanen, who is shooting 3% on the season. That is not a typo, as he has two goals on 66 shots. While not a concrete sample, he shot 17.1% over his first 47 games. Even half that would be a marked improvement at this point in time. When looking at this five-on-five shot locations via the third-party website HockeyViz, he is getting a lot of his shots from the slot, so it does seem a run of very bad luck. That shooting percentage should only rise. Regardless, he shoots often enough that he has four shot bonuses on DraftKings already this season, so he can bring value even if he does not score. His second issue is ice time, as he could play 11 minutes or 17 minutes and anywhere in between. That volatility makes him unreliable for cash games.

Tolvanen will avoid the shutdown line from Detroit, their scoring lines play at a higher pace, and they will be weaker without Tyler Bertuzzi in the lineup. Tolvanen is priced at a perfect spot for a one-off in tournaments, given his shot volume and volatile ice time. While fine in a stack as well with his line mates, his center Ryan Johansen plays a different power-play unit. It is possible for one (Tolvanen) to have a good night without the other (Johansen) also going off.


Latest NHL DFS Content


Defensemen

Nate Schmidt (WPG vs. CAR): DraftKings – $4,600 | FanDuel – $4,000

With Neal Pionk suspended, someone has to step up and run the top power-play unit for Winnipeg. While there is no official confirmation here, Nate Schmidt did run the top power-play unit earlier in the season before ceding way to Pionk the last few weeks. It would stand to reason that Schmidt is first in line for those very valuable minutes, and his price obviously does not reflect what is likely to be his new situation. With all the top-end options on the slate tonight, savings are important, and there are not many defensemen in this range at this price that will skate the minutes he will. Schmidt is fine in all formats.

Noah Dobson (NYI at OTT): DraftKings – $4,000 | FanDuel – $4,200

A big problem with Noah Dobson’s fantasy profile in the past was a lack of peripherals. That has changed this year as the team has struggled offensively and given up a lot more shots than usual. Dobson has been left with a larger offensive role and more shots to block in return. For the first time in his career, he is averaging at least two shots per game, and he is over two blocks per game as well, reaching the bonus eight times in 18 games this season on DraftKings. He is on the road, but Dobson gets a very weak Ottawa team, making it one of the rare occasions that the Islanders are in a positive matchup. He is one of the best defense values at $4,000 or less on DraftKings tonight.

Goalie

Connor Hellebuyck (WPG vs. CAR): DraftKings – $7,700 | FanDuel – $7,200

Over the last month, the Carolina Hurricanes are second by shot attempts taken per 60 minutes. Conversely, Winnipeg is in the middle of the league in shot attempts allowed in that span. That is a good combination for Connor Hellebuyck, who should see a fair number of pucks tonight, which is good for a goalie that is in the 75th percentile for high-danger save percentage. Ownership is not a concern here.

Top NHL DFS Stacks

EDM PP: McDavid – Draisaitl – Hyman

The section on McDavid discussed all the penalties that Minnesota takes and that is what makes this power play the focus here. The question is how to use them because Edmonton plays both McDavid and Draisaitl on both halves of the power play. That means that they have correlation with a lot of different wingers and defensemen. Hyman skates often with McDavid at even strength, so he is listed here, but there are a number of options for fantasy owners to choose from.

NYR1: Kreider – Zibanejad – Kakko

Earlier in discussing Toews, it was mentioned how the Blackhawks have struggled otherwise than the Toews line. That line is not the shutdown line for Chicago, so that leaves the Mika Zibanejad line in a good spot here on the road. While Zibanejad has struggled this year, since adding Kaapo Kakko to his wing, that line is generating 30 scoring chances per 60 minutes with just 18 against. Facing a poor defensive Chicago team, this is a line that should at least be considered, especially given their low ownership rate by Awesemo’s Top Stacks tool.

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Michael has been writing about fantasy hockey for over a decade, and has been playing Daily Fantasy for just as long. He has contributed to both the Chicago Tribune and the Boston Herald, has worked for Rogers Sportsnet in Canada and is now in his fifth season with Stokastic. He lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, and can be reached on Twitter @SlimCliffy.

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