NHL DFS Slate Summary: Monday, November 20th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders NHL DFS Slate Summary. In this article, we’ll concentrate on the key elements of DFS success while delivering analysis on the upcoming slate of NHL games for DraftKings and FanDuel. We’ll discuss today’s NHL DFS player projections, player correlations and NHL stacking, NHL starting lineups, differentiation tactics using NHL projected ownership, and recommendations on ways to create lineup diversity if entering multiple lineups using LineupHQ.
NHL DFS Picks: Slate Summary for Monday, November 20th
Today’s Games
Slate Overview
Thanksgiving has thrown the schedule off for this week, making Monday and Friday the biggest slates of the week as opposed to the usual Tuesday and Thursday. After a quick look at the schedule, two things stand out. One, there are some excellent games. Oiler-Panthers, Bruins-Lightning, and Rangers-Stars are all battles between teams with Stanley Cup aspirations. Second, the Canucks are playing the Sharks… I think we can all remember what happened when these two teams played just a few weeks ago. It was the first of back-to-back games where the Sharks gave up 10 goals. Everyone had success, but none more than Quinn Hughes five points. In fairness to the Sharks, they have been much better since then by winning three of their six games. Still, with that fresh in everyone’s memories, the Canucks will be by far the highest owned team of the night. There isn’t a ton to monitor from an injury news perspective, so hopefully we’ll be able to set our lineups and relax (and potentially enjoy an excellent MNF game too!). Let’s take a look at the slate.
Top Skaters
I’ll state the obvious here. The Canucks are in a great spot from a raw projections standpoint. Their implied team total of 4.4 is not on the highest on the slate, but one of the highest of the season. I’m not going to feature them here just because I want to give some alternatives to those not looking to play into their ridiculously high ownership.
Mikko Rantanen
DraftKings $8,700
Every night when the Avalanche are playing, the game locks and I take a look at the ownership numbers. Almost every slate it shows the same trend: Nathan MacKinnon is a solid 5% to 10% higher owned than Mikko Rantanen. This is despite being $1k+ more expensive the entire season, sometimes significantly more. But is that warranted? Rantanen is actually outscoring MacKinnon both in fantasy points per game and actual points (23 vs. 20). I do think eventually MacKinnon will overtake Rantanen in points in the long-term, but in the short-term, I’m fine giving him a slight priority over MacKinnon, especially if salary is a major concern. Rantanen has owned tonight’s opponent, the Predators, throughout his career. In his last four games against Nashville, he has eight points and is averaging over five shots on goal per game. Due to the Canucks expensive pieces, I don’t think his ownership will be too crazy.