NHL DFS Slate Summary: Saturday, January 13th
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 Saturday, January 13th
Today’s Games
Slate Overview
For most of the sporting world, the priority for today will be the NFL Playoffs. Or NBA. Or MMA. Or even sweating their PGA lineups. Heck, I’ll be participating in some of that, especially the NFL and following along with my 6/6 golf lineup. But there’s also some puck to be had. Twelve games of it to be exact. In what feels like a strange week of NHL DFS full of difficult slates and decisions, this one seems as “normal” as we’ve had in a while, whatever that means.
There is a fantastic real-life matchup between the Avalanche and Maple Leafs. And while the teams should be evenly matched, we shouldn’t ignore it for fantasy due to the offensive firepower on both ends. The Stars, Oilers, and Lightning stand out in games with significant mismatches and all have implied team totals of 4+ goals. I’d guess these three will comprise a good bit of the ownership, especially the Oilers and Lightning.
Understandably, the contest selection on both sides is pretty limited due to the number of other sports going on. It also means that only the most hardcore of NHL players will be playing. Sometimes it’s difficult to predict exactly what that will do to ownership, but I’d guess it concentrates ownership even further towards the “optimal” (or at least highest projected raw points) plays.
Let’s break it down.
Top Skaters
Nikita Kucherov
DraftKings $9,800
While I (and maybe two others in the world) jokingly call myself the “goalie whisperer” at times, the reality is that I’m hit or miss on it and just overall have had some good luck this year compared to last. When it comes to Nikita Kucherov, however, the “Kuch Whisperer” is indeed very real. Heck, that’s what they called me in college…
Kucherov is in a smash spot against a bad (and injured) Ducks team who needs their goalie to stand on his head every night to avoid embarrassment. His prop to have over 1.5 points is -140, which is a crazy number, but arguably underpriced in my opinion. He has 21 multi-point games already this season, and he has 69 points in 42 games. What’s even better about Kucherov in tournaments is that when he goes off, he goes OFF. Nine of those 21 multi-point games are of the 3+ point variety, and he has several games of 4, 5, and even 6 points. He’ll be chalky, but I’ll be eating every bit of it.