NHL DFS Slate Summary: Thursday, November 16th
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 Thursday, November 16th
Today’s Games
Slate Overview
We’re about 15 games into the NHL season, which anecdotally seems like the range where we start to get a clearer picture of who teams/players are. Yes, there can still be plenty of noise in such a small sample size, but we now have enough trends to shift the emphasis more and more to the current season vs. almost solely relying on past season data before. One of those trends is that the Sharks are one of the worst teams we’ve seen in recent memory, although we knew that before any of the games had been played. The St. Louis Blues are the latest team to get to stat pad, although I will say that San Jose has been more competitive lately. Unfortunately DraftKings refuses to price up their opponents, so the Blues are cheap and should carry significant ownership.
On the top end, we have a rare sizable slate that is missing all of the top studs like McDavid, Matthews, MacKinnon, and Pastrnak. Yes, there is still plenty of talent with players like Kucherov, Pettersson, Crosby, and Eichel, but all are under the $9k threshold. The biggest injury news is related to Jack Hughes, who is eying a return from a shoulder injury that has kept him out for a few weeks. There are no other teams (besides the Sharks) that are significant favorites (-200 or greater), so we could see some spread out ownership outside of St. Louis. For contests, DK is rolling out their usual $555 on Thursday nights, which is a unique price point compared to any other night. If you like it, make sure to join and get it close to filling so they’ll continue running it. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Top Skaters
Connor Bedard
DraftKings $7,100
My favorite future bet during the offseason was Connor Bedard over 69.5 points. That number seems crazy high for just about any other player playing in their first season, but we don’t see talents like Bedard very often. Despite a tough schedule, he’s already ahead of schedule and is averaging a point per game. He’s exploded for six points over his last two games, including a four point game against this same Lightning squad. The Lightning have been leaking goals at an alarming rate and have allowed 14 goals in their last three games. As a fairly significant underdog with a low team total, I don’t expect he’ll garner crazy amounts of ownership, but he has GPP-winning upside.