This article is part of our FanDuel NHL series.
It is Tuesday, and with no holidays, the NHL has returned to some normalcy. That means a heavy slate of games on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, with a lighter slate on the other days (though there are seven games on Wednesday and Sunday). It also means another bargain bin column to use on FanDuel.
As usual, there will be one skater listed per position, and all the skaters will be at a price of $4,000 or less as we sit at time of writing (Monday night). At the end of the article, there will be a couple of goalies to use as well.
Centre
Jared McCann (Vancouver) - $3,900
The Vancouver rookie started the season fairly strong with five goals in his first nine games, but has managed just one goal and two assists in the 13 games since. He has shown signs of busting out of that slump, though, as despite getting just 12-13 minutes a game, he has managed at least three shots on goal in five of his last 10 contests.
McCann has found himself back in the top-six forward mix for the Canucks as well, centering the second line with Chris Higgins and Radim Vrbata flanking him. Both are proven goal scorers, though both have had their struggles so far this year.
Vancouver has games Thursday and Saturday at home, squaring off against Stars and Bruins, respectively. While they are both high-scoring teams, the McCann line should avoid the top offensive players from both teams. That's good for plus/minus, and good for potential production in GPPs at a cheap price.
Left Wing
Frank Vatrano (Boston) - $3,100
While he is sitting with zero assists on the season, Vatrano does have 24 shots on goal in eight games. Assuming he can maintain a three shots-per-game pace, at his price of $3,100, he can recoup about three-quarters of his value through shooting alone. That is a very solid floor, especially for a player in the bargain bin neighbourhood. The cheap players typically don't have a solid floor, which is part of the reason they're so cheap.
A big reason to like him this week is it appears Vatrano is slated to play alongside Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. Over the previous two seasons, the combination of Bergeron/Marchand have accounted for four of the 16 instances of players being on the ice for 32.75 scoring chances per 60 minutes at five-on-five or better. To be blunt, they're one of the best duos in the league at consistently generating chances, and are great defensively as well (which helps for plus/minus concerns). They are getting expensive on FanDuel, but Vatrano is not, and is a great way to get cheap exposure to that line.
Right Wing
Lee Stempniak (New Jersey) - $3,400
Fairly quietly, Stempniak has put together a very good season to date, totalling 18 points in 23 games. Contrast that with the fact that he had just 28 points in 71 games last year, and it's clear the veteran is enjoying his new role on the top line for the New Jersey Devils.
The new role is a key to all of this. Stempniak is averaging over 19 minutes of ice time per game so far this year, which represents a career-high. With that much ice time, even on a slow-paced team, he can't help but produce: over the last two seasons, there have been 80 instances of a player reaching at least 1500 minutes of ice time (about 19 minutes a game for 80 games), and only Sean Couturier has failed to crack the 40-point mark while 65 of them cracked 50 points.
This week, the Devils get a home game against Colorado on Tuesday, with the Avalanche in a back-to-back, and in fact have four good matchups in total this week. The game against Colorado, in particular, is a great matchup, but Stempniak is good salary relief in any kind of game this week.
Defenceman
Marco Scandella (Minnesota) - $3,600
The young defenseman was off to a nice start to his season with six points in 15 games for the Minnesota Wild before being sidelined with a lower-body injury. It appears as though Scandella is set to return to the lineup Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. If there is any rust on his game, that is a good game in which to shake it off and a game to avoid him on FanDuel regardless of the return.
The rest of the week is shaping up nicely for Minnesota, and for Scandella. On Thursday, the Maple Leafs are in town, with Colorado coming through on Saturday. While each team sports a fairly potent top line – Colorado especially – Scandella shouldn't see much of either, as that will be taken by Ryan Suter's pairing. That is good for his plus/minus.
On top of that, Scandella had been playing the power play before the injury, on the top unit with Mikael Granlund and Mikko Koivu. Whether he returns there is undecided, but at the least, he should be getting some power play time. I would prefer to use him in a GPP than a cash game simply to get to value, likely through point production and not a solid floor, and he has two good matchups to exploit this week for cap relief.
Goalie
John Gibson (Anaheim) - $7,800
There is a flu bug running through the NHL, as is always the case around this time of year. It appears something is keeping Anaheim starter Frederik Andersen off the ice, and this has given an opportunity for highly-regarded prospect John Gibson to take the reins. While a prospect, this is a kid with some playoff games already under his belt so there shouldn't be too many butterflies.
Anaheim has a home game Wednesday against the Lightning, and with Tampa's injuries, it can be a problem for them to get some goals on the board. With just four games that night, and a couple of tough matchups in there, I like Gibson both for cash games and GPPs.
Curtis McElhinney (Columbus) - $7,400
This is a bit more of a longshot option. He has been just fine this year with a .915 save percentage, but at the end of the day, he is still a backup.
Nonetheless, Columbus has back-to-back games this weekend with Florida and Philadelphia. While starter Sergei Bobrovsky has played back-to-backs this year, it will be more than two weeks between starts for McElhinney. I am assuming he gets one of them, and should be a low-owned GPP play.
