Now that we’ve been served a taste of the 2019-2020 NHL season, it seems like a good time to start taking a look at the daily fantasy hockey platform. This evening, while the Sabres host the San Jose Sharks, there will also be nine other games played around the league. With players from 20 teams to choose from, it can be tough to narrow down where the best value lies. So, I’ll start with a few tips to drafting your lineup, followed by my player value rankings per position.
Tip 1 – Matchup is key, but not everything
It is imperative to look for good matchups in identifying good daily fantasy picks, but don’t get too caught up in the coloful matchup number rankings on your daily fantasy hockey app. What actually is more important is the percentage of a team’s primary points that a player accumulates for his team. Expected goals and primary points are the best predictors of future goals and assists, so keep in mind that someone like Jack Eichel, who controls most of the shot share for the Sabres, holds much more value than a more dependant player like Patrik Laine. Choosing a player like Eichel in a prime matchup is all the better.
Tip 2 – Quantity over quality
While a high shooting percentage is valuable for a team looking to capitalize on its scoring opportunities, daily fantasy hockey is a game that rewards high volume over efficiency. DraftKings now awards a bonus for five shots on goal or more, bringing added value to a guy such as Evander Kane, who is consistently near the top of the league in shots per game. Same goes for noted shot blockers, as a bonus is handed out for three or more blocked shots by a player. Keep this in mind if you need to identify a defenseman on a cheap salary (i.e. Jon Merrill, Travis Hamonic, etc.).
Tip 3 – Pick winning goaltending
Seems pretty obvious, right? Your daily fantasy lineup can live or die by your goaltending choice. On a day-to-day basis, it is harder to identify skaters’ individual performances than a team’s performance as a whole, so make sure you choose the goaltender that is most likely to win and collect the extra points associated with winning. When you are able to find value in lower salaried players, as my list below will help you with, then it is completely worth it to pony up for the goaltender with the best matchup.
Without further adu, here are today’s value rankings by position:
(These rankings are based off of DraftKings’ scoring and salaries for 10/22/19.)
Buffalo Sabres players in bold
San Jose Sharks players in italics
Centers
- Patrice Bergeron – 7000
- Auston Matthews – 7500
- Jack Eichel – 7200
- Sean Monahan – 6800
- Jonathan Toews – 4900
- Sidney Crosby – 7700
- Eric Staal – 4000
- Logan Couture – 5700
- Connor McDavid – 8200
- Aleksander Barkov – 5500
- William Karlsson – 5900
- Evgeny Kuznetsov – 5500
- Carl Soderberg – 3800
- Jared McCann – 4700
- Dylan Larkin – 6000
Top 5 under 3k – Jason Spezza, Teddy Blueger, Riley Sheahan, Frans Nielsen, Adam Lowry
Wingers
- Andreas Johnsson – 4700
- Dominik Kubalik – 4000
- Zach Parise – 4200
- Jake DeBrusk – 4200
- Viktor Arvidsson – 5500
- Jonathan Huberdeau – 5900
- Brad Marchand – 7100
- Victor Olofsson – 5300
- David Pastrnak – 8000
- Patric Hornqvist – 5700
- Rickard Rakell – 5800
- Jeff Skinner – 6300
- Elias Lindholm – 5100
- Timo Meier – 5300
- Brandon Pirri – 3600
Top 5 under 3k – Dominik Kahun, Nick Ritchie, Jimmy Vesey, Ryan Hartman, Jack Roslovic
Defensemen
- Mark Giordano – 6100
- Roman Josi – 6000
- Matt Dumba – 4700
- Kris Letang – 6500
- Morgan Rielly – 6000
- Rasmus Ristolainen – 4600
- Shea Theodore – 5000
- Brent Burns – 6900
- Alex Edler – 6200
- John Carlson – 7100
- Colin Miller – 3100
- Marcus Pettersson – 3500
- Torey Krug – 5600
- Tyler Myers – 3900
- Justin Schultz – 4800
Top 5 under 3k – Jon Merrill, Olli Maatta, Jake Bischoff, Jonas Siegenthaler, Ben Hutton
Goaltenders
- Matt Murray – 7700
- Carter Hutton – 7800
- Marc-Andre Fleury – 8000
- Darcy Kuemper – 7200
- Jacob Markstrom – 7300
- Pekka Rinne – 8400
- Tuukka Rask – 7900
- Connor Hellebuyck – 8300
- David Rittich – 8100
- John Gibson – 7000
- Robin Lehner – 7500
- Mike Smith – 7900
- Frederick Anderson – 7400
- Braden Holtby – 7600
- Jimmy Howard – 7900