Scouting NHL DFS: Thu, 2/8

Thursday, February 8th – Nine game slate in the NHL tonight

UPDATE – Clarification on the Wild stack.  Spurgeon will be on the Top PP with Koivu/Granlund/Zucker….   But I still am rolling with the Staal-Niederreiter combo with Spurgeon as the third guy in the stack

STACKS OF THE NIGHT

Buffalo Sabres … Eichel-Reinhart-Ristolainen

By now you know the drill, the Islanders are among the leagues worst defensive teams over the past 1-2 months and Buffalo’s scoring often comes from their best player Jack Eichel.  Jack together with Reinhart had a good game two nights ago and I want to go right back to them tonight.   My personal plan with this game is to either game-stack it anticipating a back and forth game or pick just Reinhart or Bailey as one offs from both sides.

Minnesota Wild… Staal-Niederreiter-Spurgeon (Power Play)

Scott Wedgewood is in goal for the Coyotes tonight and although the Coyotes offense burned some people when they lit up Helleybuck the other night, they remain a poor puck possession team and should have problems going up against Minnesota tonight.  Staal grades out very well for me in this spot and I love the Wild top power play with him, Nino (Nemo!) and Spurgeron (or Suter) as your third members of the stack.   This is a lower owned stack that is good for bigger tournaments tonight and I would correlate them with Dubnyk.

OTHER STACKS I LIKE

Philadelphia Flyers … Sean Couturier-Claude Girioux-Travis Konecny

New Jersey Devils … Nico Hischier-Taylor Hall-Jesper Bratt

Tampa Bay Lightning … Steven Stamkos-Nikita Kucherov-Vlad Namestnikov

C&W COMBOS (Mini Stacks)

• Eric Staal & Nino Niedereiter (Wild)
• Jack Eichel & Sam Reinhart (Sabres)
• Brayden Schenn & Vlad Tarasenko (Blues)
• Matt Duchene & Mike Hoffman (Senators)
• John Tavares & Josh Bailey (Islanders)

Bargain / Second Tier

• Mathew Barzal & Jordan Eberle (Isles)
• Brayden Point & Yannie Gourde (Lightning)
• Mikael Backlund & Michael Frolik (Flames)
• Jonathan Toews & Anthony Duclair (Blackhawks)

CENTERS

1. Eric Staal – MIN
2. Steven Stamkos – TB
3. Jack Eichel – BUF
4. Brayden Schenn – STL
5. Matt Duchene – OTT

WINGS

1. Nikita Kucherov – TB … Fine as a one off tonight
2. Taylor Hall – NJD … Favorite lock pick
3. Patrick Kane – CHI … Would play him with Schmaltz
4. Sam Reinhart – BUF … Fine as a one off or with Jack
5. Vlad Tarasenko – STL … Full stack
6. Nino Niederreiter – MIN … Full stack
7. Mike Hoffman – OTT … With Duchene
8. Claude Girioux – PHI … One off
9. Travis Konecny – PHI … One off
10. Johnny Gaudreau – CGY … One off

DEFENSEMEN

1. Erik Karlsson – OTT
2. Ryan Ellis – NSH
3. Jared Spurgeon – MIN – Lock for me in all formats.
4. Brent Burns – SJ
5. Alex Pietrangelo – STL
6. Ivan Provorov – PHI
7. Rasmus Ristolainen – BUF
8. Nick Leddy – NYI

GOALIES

1. Andrei Vasilevsky (FD: 9200, DK: 8400) … Best play on the board tonight, home against Vancouver.
2. Craig Anderson (FD: 7600, DK: 6900) … Confirmed starting against Juuse Saros tonight.  The Predators are on a B2B and 3 in 4 nights so I like the Sens to pull off an upset against a red hot Predators team tonight.  Dont play Anderson without stacking Duchene-Hoffman-EK65 with him because that’s my stack correlation and you’ll want to only have him with a win.
3. Devan Dubnyk (FD: 8700, DK: 8500) .. Better salary relief than paying all the way up for Vasilevsky on FD.  I prefer Vas on DK but Dubnyk should win tonight at home vs the Coyotes and will be a popular play on FD.

LINE LOCK:        Eric Staal – Nino Niederreiter – Jared Spurgeon (Wild Power Play)

STUD WINGERS:      Taylor Hall (Devils) & Nikita Kucherov (Lightning)

VALUE WINGER:     Travis Konecny (Flyers)

TOP DEFENSEMAN    Jared Spurgeon (Wild)