FanDuel NHL: Saturday Targets

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Published on April 27, 2024

There are four NHL games on Saturday, with the first starting at 2 p.m. EDT. The Hurricanes and Panthers could sweep their opponents. Will it happen? More importantly, will you have a piece of the action with some NHL DFS contests? Here are my recommendations.

SLATE PREVIEW

The Islanders have said they're going with Semyon Varlamov as their starting goalie. I also get the feeling the Bruins may move away from the rigid goaltending rotation. When a head coach suggests a netminder is in the heads of the opponent - which is exactly what Jim Montgomery said about Jeremy Swayman - I start to think that's the one who'll be in net.

GOALIE

Frederik Andersen, CAR at NYI ($8,300): Whether or not Swayman is in Toronto's collective heads, Andersen is the goalie to choose. The Hurricanes have won all three games this series, with the Danish netminder posting a 2.01 GAA and .922 save percentage. This season, Carolina ranked first in shots allowed and penalty-kill percentage. So even on the road, this is still Saturday's toughest defense.

VALUE PLAY/ONE-OFF

Anton Lundell, FLA at TAM ($5,200): Sam Bennett is out for Game 4 for the Panthers. Lundell is the player who's seen an uptick in ice time and has registered an assist in each of his last two outings. Andrei Vasilevskiy's numbers have gotten worse over this series, so I'll note he also posted a .900 save percentage this season.

FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER

Hurricanes at Islanders

Sebastian Aho (C - $8,600), Jake Guentzel (W - $9,300), Andrei Svechnikov (W - $7,100)

The Islanders maintained the league's worst penalty kill this year. Two of the players listed here have been on the top power play during the postseason, and all three have been quite productive. There's obviously a lot of talent in the playoffs, so low-salary stacks aren't common. As such, it can really be about finding the best ones regardless of salary and then working around that.

Aho has potted a goal in each of his last two games to continue his best regular season where he found the back of the net 36 times with a career-high 89 points, including 32 on the man-advantage. Since Guentzel joined the Hurricanes, he's been on fire with 25 points across 17 appearances - including nine on the power play - while adding three more during the playoffs. Svechnikov has been moved down to the second PP unit, but he's still producing as he ended the regular season on a four-game point streak and has recorded two assists in each of his last two outings.

DEFENSEMAN

Charlie McAvoy, BOS at TOR ($5,600): McAvoy logged a lot of minutes in the regular season. But in the postseason, you rely on your stars even more and he's so far averaged 25:40 while picking up three points and six shots. Ilya Samsonov hasn't found his playoff mojo after a regular season where he struggled to an .890 save percentage, so the Leafs may be in trouble.

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire. Chris Morgan plays in daily fantasy contests using the following accounts: FanDuel: cmorgan3, DraftKings: cmorgan3.