Daily Fantasy Hockey Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings 1/4/17

Happy Hump Day DSFR friends! We have a nice six-game slate tonight with al six home teams coming in as favorites. A lot of that has to do with there being three road teams(WOG, MON, NYR) playing on a back to back. Let's not waste any more time and get into the picks!

Hockey is back and with it come our NHL projections which help inform these picks every night. When you purchase a DFSR NHL subscription to our base hockey projections you also get access to our brand new NFL DFS suite of tools including full projections, optimal NFL lineups and our Player Lab, which includes filters to help you create NFL lineups for FanDuel and DraftKings for any format. It’s a set of tools well beyond anything we’ve ever had, and something we feel will help our users *ahem* tackle the NFL season.

If you want to see the numbers behind our projections, create linueps with a single click, or research as deeply as your heart desires, click the button below to test out yourself.

GOALIES

Ryan Miller FD - $8100 DK - $8000
Opponent - ARI
Proj Pts FD - 15.73 DK - 3.93

This is a tough position today but I believe after digging a little deeper that I have found a couple decent plays at the position. Basically, we are just going to pick on a couple of terrible offenses. Miller and the Canucks welcome the Coyotes and their 2nd worst offense to town and Vancouver has actually been playing some good hockey lately. The former Sabres star netminder has won his last three starts while giving up only five goals in that span. Arizona is simply a bad team and because the Canucks have been good lately I'm seriously considering Miller in cash games, and he makes a great play in GPP's today.

 

 

Brian Elliott FD - $7700 DK - $8100
Opponent - COL
Proj Pts FD - 16.49 DK - 4.12

Holy mackerel I didn't realize that Elliot and the Flames have been playing well until I started writing this piece. Elliot has won his last four starts and today he gets to face Colorado and their league-worst offense in his home barn. He's not a great goalie and not even much better than average, but the Flames are currently -190 favorites according to Las Vegas and because of the uncertainty he looks like he could be a decent play in all formats, but I said decent so don't be too upset if he puts up a stinker today because he is Brian Elliot, not Ken Dryden.

 

 

Also Consider: Nobody, (lol, ok maybe John Gibson)

 

 

CENTERS

Ryan Kesler FD - $7100 DK - $6800
Opponent - DET
Proj Pts FD - 12.19 DK - 4.08

Oh my goodness did this guy ever help some people strike fantasy gold on New Years Day. I received a few personal messages notifying me on how he fattened a few people's wallets. It was his first hat-trick since 2011 and it wouldn't surprise me if he does it again sometime this year. Let's not get carried away, though, he's not that good, he's just having a great season. He's a grinder who plays a ton of minutes on the Duck's top scoring line, #1 PP unit with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, and both penalty kill units. In his last three games, Kesler has three goals, two assists, and eight shots on goal while averaging an incredible 25 minutes of ice time. Detroit is not good a good defensive team as evident by their 21st ranked defense, and the Ducks are ranked third in the league on the power-play so Kesler makes a great play in all formats.

Stack With: Andrew Cogliano, Jakob Silfverberg

 

 

 

Brandon Sutter FD - $4700 DK - $4700
Opponent - ARI
Proj Pts FD - 10.03 DK - 3.24

The system loves this guy from a PTS/$ perspective today and I can understand why. He's been starting to show the Canucks that he is a good fit on their team. This position is extremely tough today so we need a guy like Sutter to save us some money so that we can spend up at the Winger position. He's not flashy and he won't wow you with his stats, but he got an assist in his last game and he plays on the #2 line and the #1 PP unit with the Sedin brothers. In his last two games, he has an assist, six shots on goal and four blocked shots. He should exceed his value today against an awful Arizona team and their 29th ranked defense.

Stack with: (PP) Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin

 

 

Also Consider: Tyler Seguin

 

 

 

WINGERS

Johnny Gaudreau FD - $7500 DK - $7300
Opponent - COL
Proj Pts FD - 15.02 DK - 4.76

As I'm writing this I'm coming to a conclusion that it's a tough day at every position, but we just need to grind it out and dig a little deeper to try and find some good plays. Johnny hockey put up a goose egg last game, yep that means zero fantasy points. But today a terrible team that call themselves the Avalanche come crawling into Calgary with their league-worst defense and their 24th ranked power-play. Gaudreau plays on the Flames' top line and their #1 PP unit. In the two games before his goose egg, he had two goals and an assist with 10 shots on goal, and he is one of the most talented players in the entire NHL. He's not the safest play but I think he makes a great GPP play stacked with his power-play line-mates.

Stack with: (PP) Alex Chiasson, Sean Monahan, Kris Versteeg

 

 

 

Wayne Simmonds FD - $7200 DK - $6600
Opponent - NYR
Proj Pts FD - 13.04 DK - 4.37

At first glance, you would think that this is not a good scenario for Philly today because the Rangers are ranked 9th in the league on defense. Then we notice on second glance that New York lost to Buffalo 4-1 last night, and now they travel to Philly on very little rest. They have actually given up nine goals in their last three games, and the Flyers own the 11th ranked offense in the league so there should be some goals scored in this game. Simmonds plays on the second line and the #1 PP unit and has two assists and ten shots on goal in his last two games. Because of his shot volume, he makes a decent play in cash games, and always has upside playing on the #1 PP unit.

Stack with: Brayden Schenn, Travis Konecny

 

 

 

Anthony Mantha FD - $5300 DK - $5200
Opponent - ANA
Proj Pts FD - 11.52 DK - 3.39

Here's a nice value play today and may actually be my favorite all around player from a value and opportunity standpoint. When we think of Anaheim we usually think of a strong defense but that's not the case this year as they are ranked 16th in the league in that category. Mantha is on a six-game point streak and during that streak, he has five goals and four assists and 19 shots on goal. He plays on the #1 line and #1 PP in Detroit. Wow, enough said. He is a must play in all formats today. Fade at your own risk.

Stack with: Henrik Zetterberg, Thomas Tatar

 

 

 

 

DEFENSEMEN

Jeff Petry FD - $5000 DK - $4900
Opponent - DAL
Proj Pts FD - 12.71 DK - 3.84

The Defense position actually looks pretty good today and we will make this short and sweet. Here we have the top play from a PTS/$ perspective and he's right up there in the raw points category as well. Petry plays on the #1 PP unit and him and the Habs travel to Dallas who is ranked 26th on defense. In his last two games, he has a whopping 14 shots on goal and four blocked shots in his last two games, and a few games back he had a three-game goal streak happening. He is a must play in cash games and offers enough upside to consider in tournaments as well.

 

 

 

Ryan McDonagh FD - $5600 DK - $5400
Opponent - PHI
Proj Pts FD - 14.19 DK - 4.41

And here we have the second best points per dollar play today. and with good reason as the Rangers play Philly and their lousy 25th ranked defense. McDonagh plays on the #1 PP unit in New York and he has two goals and 27 assists already this year to go along with 80 shots on goal and an incredible 81 blocked shots. He isn't a great play in tournaments as he only has two goals this year and he hasn't been shooting the puck on net with enough consistency lately, but with his awesome peripheral stats he is a must play in cash games today.

 

 

 

 

 

Hockey is back and with it come our NHL projections which help inform these picks every night. When you purchase a DFSR NHL subscription to our base hockey projections you also get accessto our brand new NFL DFS suite of tools including full projections, optimal NFL lineups and our Player Lab, which includes filters to help you create NFL lineups for FanDuel and DraftKings for any format. It’s a set of tools well beyond anything we’ve ever had, and something we feel will help our users *ahem* tackle the NFL season.

If you want to see the numbers behind our projections, create linueps with a single click, or research as deeply as your heart desires, click the button below to test out yourself.

MAKE NHL and NFL LINEUPS NOW!

image sources

• Claude_Giroux_2012-04-13: By Pens Through My Lens (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons