After a short break, MarmosDad is back for some DFS goodness ahead of this Saturday’s beefed up slate! Hopefully everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and are all geared up for a Happy New Year…or Happy New Shear-y if you’re one of Alex Ovechkin’s linemates in Washington.
Right out of the gate today, we’ll head to the nation’s capital for a value priced winger in Conor Sheary (DK: $4,100). Sheary’s Capitals host the Habs this afternoon and said winger brings a three game point streak into this one. While his more popular linemate has been chasing down history and passing some guy named Gordie Howe on the all-time goal scoring list, Sheary is just happy to be a part of it all. Skating on the wing with Ovechkin for both even strength and power play time has helped Sheary post his best point totals in 6 years (24 PTS in 38 GP). He still has more than half a season left to continue to add to his numbers while Ovechkin chases down Gretzky’s goal scoring record. Play this one with confidence today.
New Year’s Eve always means a lengthy list of games that fire early in the afternoon and keep on coming throughout the evening. Today’s slate starts at 1:00 PM ET with the Sabres in Boston and the Blackhawks at Columbus. We roll through the entire 12 game slate until the final two 10:00 PM ET starts of the evening (Vancouver at Calgary and Winnipeg at Edmonton).
Since there is a pretty balanced list of games throughout the day, we’ll look at names from any and all of the time slots just in case you want to piece together an afternoon lineup before the evening one.
Let’s get to it!
C – Bo Horvat, DK: $7,100 – Our Mark Scheifele pick two weeks ago turned out to be a pretty good one (not to mention his continued success this past week). Let’s go back to a goal scoring center that has some upside today with Bo Horvat. Horvat was held off the scoresheet in Thursday’s game against the Jets, but had identical 2G 2A games in his previous 2 GP. 26 goals in 35 games definitely qualifies Horvat as a scoring threat. As long as he’s seeing the lion’s share of time on both even strength and PP lines, he’s a no brainer play. He’s also a C that has a higher chance of pulling off a hat trick like our buddy Scheifele did Thursday night.
C – Sam Steel, DK: $3,700 – With apologies to Chuck D, Sam Steel in the hour of chaos has found himself in a very enviable position (literally) with the Minnesota Wild. Steel’s even strength assignment of centering Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov has provided a nice boost to his point totals lately. He has 3 multi-point games in his last six games, and averaged 17:46 TOI in his last two. As long as he’s splitting these two high profile wingers, he’s worth a shot as our 2C.
W – Jason Robertson, DK: $8,500 – This is our chalk winger of the day, and it doesn’t get much ‘chalkier’ than this guy right now. Robertson (AKA the ‘other’ Robertson in Toronto and nowhere else) has been lights out this entire season. 52 points in just 37 games should speak for itself, but Robertson is also riding a 6 game point streak. They’re in St. Louis today, so Robertson could get a shot at pumping up that point total against a banged up Blues…er…blue line.
W – Gabe Vilardi, DK: $3,900 – Similar to our Robertson pick, Vilardi is another guy that I wrote up early in the year. He’s still only getting third line minutes, so his regular TOI isn’t that impressive. But that sweet, sweet PP1 slot is where he’s been able to juice up his numbers. 25% of Vilardi’s goals have been scored with the man advantage, and he’s getting over 3 minutes of PP time per game. The Flyers are the 9th most penalized team in the league so far this season, so Vilardi and his Kings should see more than a couple of power plays in this one.
D – Josh Morrissey, DK: $5,600 – I had Jacob Chychrun lined up for our top D pick today but his price tag was just too high to fit in with some of our other plays, so the pivot is to Jets rearguard Josh Morrissey. I had Morrissey set to go as early as Wednesday morning, then he added a couple of assists to his top two (defenseman) point total Thursday night. Registering 42 points in 36 games certainly qualifies a D-man as a ‘top choice’ and Morrissey definitely brings top production at a less than top tier cost. Just be careful to check in before game time today as Morrissey is DTD with a ‘minor lower body injury’. He could be a gametime decision.
D – Hampus Lindholm, DK: $5,100 – I had Filip Hronek all set to run out there today as our bargain-ish defenseman. Then I took a closer look at his last 10 games (1G, 2A). Woof. I’m tempted to swing over to the Leafs’ newest injury return in Morgan Reilly, but there’s no doubt he’ll be a pricey one too. Let’s pivot to the underrated Christmas Krampus…oops, I mean Hampus Lindholm in Boston. There was a lot of chatter that Lindholm was just keeping Charlie McAvoy’s PP1 spot warm until the latter returned from a shoulder injury, but Lindholm has seen time on PP1 with that crazy skilled group of forwards and it’s helping his point totals. He has 9 assists in his last 6 games and is a moderately priced top dog to go after today.
*EDIT : Some DraftKings salaries were pretty shocking when they posted last night. The biggest surprise was Morgan Reilly. He’s a cool $4,300 at Colorado today. If you want to slide him in to save some bucks on the back end, I wouldn’t blame you at this price.
G – Linus Ullmark, DK: $8,400 – This one could put us over the cap, but we’ll deal with that at the end. I don’t know how I can recommend anyone other than the starting goalie for the best team in the league. Throw in the fact that the Bruins are at home, where they still haven’t lost in regulation, and it’s a pretty big slam dunk with Ullmark in our lineups today. A 20-1 goalie with a 1.90 GAA and a .938 SV% is as good as it gets. If the Bruins go to Swayman it would actually work out better for our salary cap needs, but either way this is the play today.
UTIL – Nick Foligno, DK: $2,500 – I worked it out to where we had roughly $3000 to throw at a UTIL guy, but I think with our pivots to a couple of other names we might have trouble staying under the cap. If you told me two years ago that I would be writing this, I’d have coughed up a lung from the excessive and aggressive laughter…but in our final spot, let’s go with Boston Bruins’ winger Nick Foligno. There’s a lot to be said about this guy and his resurgence while wearing the spoked B. We don’t get FPTS for guys being ‘great in the locker room’ or glue/rah-rah guys that help hold a team together, but Foligno has been getting PP2 time and has looked very involved during his limited 4th line even strength minutes. There are worse budget plays than this one today.
As I said, I was a bit worried we would be over the cap with this list but apparently that was all for naught. This lineup comes in $1,100 under the $50K cap, so feel free to go a bit heavier at UTIL. If you wanted cheaper options at W or C similar to those that I mentioned a few weeks ago – top 6 forwards with highly productive and offensively strong squads – some good names to check in on would be Jake DeBrusk, William Nylander, Jeff Skinner/Alex Tuch, and Roope Hintz.
Here are the three moneyline picks for the week too…
The Sea Bass : (Favorite)
Let’s stick with those league leading Bruins for our favorite today. They come in at (-245) at home against the Sabres. Although I really like that up and coming Buffalo core, I think their goaltending makes this one a cake walk for the B’s this afternoon.
The Happy Gilmore : (Underdog)
Ottawa (+100) is in Detroit today and although they’re not underdogs by much, I think they’ve got a pretty solid chance of upsetting the Red Wings. The Sens are 6-2-2 in their last 10 and just beat the Bruins on Tuesday (in a shootout) and the Capitals in Washington in OT on Thursday night. Detroit is 3-5-2 in their last 10.
The Claude Lemieux : (Turtle/Flop)
This one is a tough one to call because a lot of the favorites are heavy favorites in their games. The one I’d be cautious about is Calgary (-205) at home to Vancouver. Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said in a TSN article this week that his club “is starting to believe in themselves a little bit”. They look like they’ve turned the corner from a horrendous start. Either way, I’d rather roll the dice on a different favorite than the Flames tonight.
That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below or give me a shout @MarmosDad.
