Daily Fantasy GPP Stacks: 01-24-18
The NHL decided to give me a light Wednesday before everyone but the Los Angeles Kings play tomorrow (15 games). Tonight the Kings will travel to Calgary on the second-half of a back-to-back to play their final game before the All-Star break. And in the early game the Chicago Blackhawks will welcome the Toronto Maple Leafs as a part of NBC’s “Rivalry Night” but we all know damn well that that’s no rivalry.
With just two games on the slate there are not many daily fantasy options, but we don’t take any days off so let’s take a look at some of the best targets tonight.
Gaudreau ($7,300) – Monahan ($6,500) – Ferland ($5,100)
The Flames top-line has been one of the better lines in hockey for the better part of one month and they are a big driving force behind the Flames’ nine-game point streak (7-0-2) and they draw a great matchup tonight.
They are on home-ice so the Gaudreau-Monahan-Ferland line will avoid the Anze Kopitar line. The Kings come in having lost seven of their last eight games and on no rest. This line has a 52.79 CorsiFor with a solid 30.05 Scoring Chances For/60 and the Kings’ second line is one of the more generous units on the slate.
All three of these players are averaging over 3.5 DraftKings points per game over the last month (Gaudreau-4.2, Ferland + Monahan-3.6) and are the safest option on the slate.
On a short-slate you might want to consider stacking four-plus Flames together. Matthew Tkachuk ($5,400) and Mikael Backlund ($5,400) are both solid options because of their PP1 time with Gaudreau and Monahan. Tkachuk has eight goals, five assists (13 points) and 36 shots (2.57 S/PG) in his last 14. Backlund hasn’t been quite as productive, scoring two goals with eight assists (10 points) in his last 13.
Sharp ($3,900) – Schmaltz ($5,600) – Kane ($7,500)
These three haven’t been together a lot this season, playing just 21:07 TOI at 5v5 together. During that small sample size they’ve been a defensive liability but have strong at the other end (39.75 SCF/60).
Kane provides a safe floor with some of the highest upside on the slate. Sharp is a really nice value option on a slate without a lot of value picks. His sub-$4,000 salary makes him a low-risk/high-upside pick. He had five shots vs. the Lighting on Monday and his top-PP usage with Schmaltz and Kane makes him a strong one-off play if you prefer to target the Flames tonight.
When going with CHI2, Erik Gustafsson ($3,600) is the best defenseman to use. Gustafsson was recently called up to help out the Blackhawks’ 30th ranked PP. The 25-year-old had 17 points (3G / 14A) in 25 games at the time of his call-up and in two games with Chicago he has played 20-plus minutes in each contest and has one goal, one assist, seven shots and three blocks.
Marleau ($5,000) – Kadri ($4,900) – Marner ($4,800)
Mike Babcock finally released Kadri and Marleau from their anchor (Leo Komarov)—at least for now. In 326:31 TOI with Komarov, the trio has a 47.78 CF% but in 44:06 TOI without him, Marleau and Kadri see a 16.74 CF% boost (64.52 CF%). They go from Uncle Leo to Marner, who is one of the Maple Leafs’ most gifted forwards. They haven’t played together a lot but getting rid of Komarov and adding Marner is enough for me to take a chance on them with Jeff Glass in net.
They correlate with both James van Riemsdyk ($5,900) and Jake Gardiner ($4,600) on the power-play, so you can easily add both of them to the stack. van Riemsdyk is one of the best in front of the net and is averaging 4.3 shots per game in his last seven games—giving him a stable floor. Gardiner has been rock solid since Morgan Rielly (upper-body) went down, so you could expect him to continue to ride that wave tonight.