Edmonton Oilers @ St. Louis Blues

The Oilers will see the return of Connor McDavid tonight, who missed their most recent game due to a slight illness. He is the most expensive player on both sites and in a fantastic spot tonight. Since we have only three games tonight, this could be the typical, “don’t get cute spot” and just do whatever you can to roster him. That is the plan I’m going with tonight and do my best to find the necessary value to fit him into lineups. Overall, the spot is fantastic for the Oilers, since they are up against the Blues, who are giving up 3.4 goals per game and have a 57 Corsi Against. Pairing him with his line mates is expensive, but oh boy, do they have multi-point upside in a spot like this. Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Alex Chiasson and Oscar Klefbom make up the first power-play unit, which should be a top option tonight. The secondary options for the Oilers are truly unreliable and bit thin, even on a three-game slate.

For the Blues, they have drastically changed up their forward lines drastically in the past few days, where we now see Vladimir Tarasenko on the third forward line and the first power-play. In all honesty, this team is a complete mess and with how jumbled things are, we could be seeing some in game changes to the lines, limiting the value they bring in DFS if we lose correlation. Even on a small three-game slate, I see little reason to have heavy exposure to the Blues outside of one or two players, simply for salary purposes or to fill out your lineup.

Chicago Blackhawks @ Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks come in as -140 favorites tonight and are riding a solid four-game win streak, which has helped turnaround their very average start to the season. The issue with the Ducks will never be their defense or their goaltending, since they are giving up under three goals per game. The issues is how bad their offense is at points this season, as they come in averaging under 2.5 goals per game. They simply don’t generate a ton of offense at any point and come in with an expected Corsi For sitting at 45.2, which is dead last on the slate. Despite the lower corsi numbers, the matchup is very solid since they are up against the Blackhawks, who are giving up over three goals per game this season and have a 57 Corsi Against. I’m never super excited to roster any of the Ducks skaters, since as I mentioned, they don’t generate enough offense, but we have a three game slate, so options are thin. Ryan Getzlaf, Rickard Rakell, Adam Henrique, Brandon Montour, and Jakob Silfverberg is where I would start Ducks stacks. 

For the Blackhawks, we all know they are struggling and come in with the second lowest implied goal total on the slate set at 2.56. They do come in with an expected Corsi For set at 48 tonight, which is second highest on the board, so we should be seeing some shots from them, but based on the Ducks being strong defensively, we probably won’t be seeing a ton of goals. I’d love to say that rostering Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad and Alex DeBrincat is a solid GPP stack, but the upside is significantly limited tonight with this tough matchup.

Carolina Hurricanes @ San Jose Sharks

The Hurricanes got off to a hot start, but have since cooled down and now face a Sharks team who is underperforming in their own right. Of all the games on the slate, this is the one where we could be seeing the most fantasy goodness, as the Hurricanes love to take a ton of shots, but also aren’t tough defensively. Along with the Sharks always being dangerous on offense, but also struggling on defense, giving up three or more goals in four of their last five games. Carolina has the highest expected Corsi For on the slate at 50.3 and have the highest Corsi For on the season at 69. But we have the Sharks with the second highest Corsi For on the season at 66. This sets up as a higher paced games, which is ideal for fantasy, but we could also be seeing the most ownership here, making it the overly chalky spot since we only have three game tonight.

Plenty of options on both teams, so here are a few you should be considering if you are playing cash games tonight, which I don’t recommend or GPPs. From the Hurricanes, Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal, Teuvo Teravainen, Andrei Svechnikov, Justin Faulk, Justin Williams, Dougie Hamilton, Jaccob Slavin, and Lucas Wallmark. On the Sharks side, Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton, Timo Meier, Evander Kane, Kevin Labanc, Erik Karlsson, and Brent Burns