Daily Fantasy Hockey DFS Value Update – March 23

Craig Smith
Craig Smith
Brace Hemmelgarn USA TODAY Sports

I will mention that I generally do not pick two players playing against each other in the same game for a daily fantasy hockey lineup. The same applies for a goalie and a player from opposite teams. You might see two players among the “value picks” from opposite teams, but that doesn’t mean you should take them both. No matter the value, you’re also likely cannibalizing points, so any gains made below a certain price point – the point where production and cost intersect – can be lost if production declines overall as well.

There are many things that determine value: The player’s history (both short and long-term), the price, recent production, opponent, line matching at even-strength, power play time and injuries are just some of the factors to consider. The “Top Value” doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest player, either.

Finally, as far as goalies go, it’s the one position I’ll pay through the nose for if I really like the match-up. The same applies for back-ups with good match-ups. In a given night, with a full slate of games, I won’t have more than three different goalies across all my lineups, usually two. I’ll name the goalies I like specifically in the match-ups they appear in.

Here is today’s slate of games (and DraftStreet values). Reminder: check Left Wing Lock for up-to-the-minute information on starting goalies.

Games are color-coded as follows:

Green means stack for GPPs. Yellow means targets for cash games. Red means value plays only.

Columbus Blue Jackets at New York Islanders

Columbus is in a fight for one of the last two playoff spots in the East and points like the New York Islanders will be few and far between for the rest of the season.

The Blue Jackets have alternated wins and losses for the last couple of weeks and that simply won’t do when it comes to earning a playoff spot. Even worse, it makes them somewhat unreliable in net for DFS purposes. On top of that, the team’s goal scoring has really dried up of late as they have scored just six goals in their last four games. The power play has been non-existent as well as they are 0-for-29 with the man advantage over their last eight games.

The Islanders should be a well-rested team for the game today as they haven’t played since Tuesday night, a 6-0 loss to Minnesota. They didn’t play poorly in that game – the team did manage 36 shots on goal – so that game would seem to be a blip on their scoring, not a representation of what to expect moving forward. Their penalty kill is somewhat atrocious of late, allowing four goals in their last four games, but that shouldn’t be a big problem for the team today.

These two teams haven’t met since early November and both squads were much different back then. For today, I would just rather stay away from both goalies and focus on value skaters for 50/50s.

Top RW Value

Top LW Value

Top C Value

Top D Value

Bargain Bin

Nathan Horton

(CBJ)

$6076

Matt Calvert

(CBJ)

$5952

Ryan Strome

(NYI)

$6138

James Wisniewski

(CBJ)

$7887

Josh Bailey

(NYI)

$6005

author avatar
Michael Clifford
Michael Clifford was born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and is a graduate of the Unviersity of New Brunswick. He writes about fantasy hockey and baseball for XNSports and FantasyTrade411.com. He can be reached on Twitter @SlimCliffy for any fantasy hockey questions. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');