NHL Daily Fantasy - January 10th, 2018 picks and analysis

If you're familiar with daily fantasy sports, I'm sure you know the drill. However, if you haven't played before, here's a quick rundown. The basic idea is to select a team from that day's slate of games, and they have to fit under a salary cap that's usually specific to each site. Each day it starts over so you're drafting a new team from scratch - to me it's much more engaging than the usual season long league.

For these guides I'll be using cryptofantasysports.com (CFS) as a guide for salaries and scoring, though the salaries also fit with DraftKings (DK). I used to play hockey on both DK and FanDuel (FD), however I've moved to CFS for a few reasons. First and foremost, the rake on CFS is 2.5% for Head to Head matches, and 5% for guaranteed tournaments. Compare this to DK at 10% for H2H, and 17.6% for most guaranteed tournaments and you'll see very quickly how this can affect your bottom line bankroll if you're playing every day like myself and many others.

Another huge benefit to CFS over the other sites I've used is the ability to fund your account in a variety of ways. The site works using No Limit Coin (NLC2), which has been specifically designed for use in these applications. You can purchase NLC2 either on exchanges such as YoBit and Cryptopia, or many will opt to buy directly from the website using Visa/MC ($500 weekly limit), or with Bitcoin. If you're like me and just want to poke around before depositing, they offer 10 free coins to anyone who signs up. Aside from that, they offer a free contest every day that you can actually win real money from.

There's multiple strategies that can be used to build successful lineups, which I'll go over eventually in these guides. No matter how you build your lineup, I'll share individual picks that can fit into just about any strategy. It can be a grind to research such a large player pool EVERY DAY, so the idea here is to cherry pick some of the best plays of the day and save you some time (to work on your NBA lineups, of course).

Since we've got a short slate tonight with only 2 games, I want to start off by recapping last night's games.

I let you guys down a little bit with the lineup I provided, though if you avoided Alex Steen you probably didn't have a bad night otherwise.

Congratulations to oldschool for taking down the freeroll. He won 44 NLC2 (appx $17 USD) and paid nothing to enter. These contests run every day, so make sure you sign up.

23 points from the duo of Jonathan Toews and Alexander Barkov at center was quite a good way to kick things off, and just in general he was able to get a bunch of consistent contributions. If you read yesterday's guide you'll see quite a few familiar names on his squad.

Let's get going on today's guide. Only 2 games on the slate - a battle of Ontario as the Ottawa Senators visit the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Minnesota Wild head to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks. 3 of these 4 teams were in action last night, with the Leafs being the only team that wasn't in action. The numbers are pretty underwhelming for all 3 teams when they play on back to back nights. Minnesota and Chicago both seem to have issues scoring goals on the 2nd game of a back to back, and the Wild especially are known to play a pretty tight game on the road.

Center

**Top Tier ($6500+)**

Auston Matthews (TOR) - $7900 always has potential to break out in any given night. The 20 year old leader of the Leafs high powered offense, Auston is averaging just shy of a point per game this year. The Leafs power play has been pretty silent as of late, and tonight's game against an Ottawa squad with a 74% penalty kill is the perfect recipe to snap out of the drought.

**Mid Tier ($5000 - $6400)**

No need to over-think this one, let's roll with Jonathan Toews (CHI) - $6400 again. The man is less than 30 years old and has a lake named for him in Manitoba, along with 4 multi-point efforts in his recent 5 game point streak. In the words of Greg Selinger, Premier of Manitoba, “We thought we’d name a lake after him, ’cause Manitoba has 100,000 lakes”. Get this man in your lineup.

**Low Tier (Under $5000)**

Mikko Koivu (MIN) - $4800
Matt Duchene (OTT) - $4600
Tyler Bozak (TOR) - $4400
Derrick Brassard (OTT) - $4300
Vince Hinostroza (CHI) - $4300

Left Wing

**Top Tier ($6500+)**

Cheapest LW is $6000, so this is an N/A today.

**Mid Tier ($5000 - $6400)**

With taking Auston Matthews in the hopes the Leafs power play comes alive tonight, I'm gonna pair him up with James Van Riemsdyk (TOR) - $5700 who likes to mix things up on the PP with his size. He's had a pretty down year but he can't stay quiet for long. He comes in tonight having gotten on the board last game against the Blue Jackets, so he'll look to continue that momentum.

**Low Tier (Under $5000)**

Zach Parise (MIN) - $4700
Patrick Sharp (CHI) - $3400

Right Wing

**Top Tier ($6500+)**

Just Patrick Kane (CHI) - $7400 here tonight, he's been feast or famine and is coming off a 5 point night. Proceed with caution but at the same time on this short slate you might be able to afford him pretty easily.

**Mid Tier ($5000 - $6400)**

Going to lock in Mark Stone (OTT) - $5900 just like I did yesterday. In the middle of a 3 game goal streak that's seen him put up 8 points, he's red hot and has a history of staying hot for a decent stretch. Sneaking in to the top 20 points leaders, the 25 year old is averaging a point per game on the season thanks to this recent surge.

**Low Tier (Under $5000)**

Richard Panik (CHI) - $3200

Defense

**Top Tier ($5500+)**

Erik Karlsson (OTT) - $6600 and his weirdo moustache were kept off the board last night in an 8-2 loss to Chicago, but it's back to business for the Swede tonight. Averaging nearly a point per game over the last few seasons, he's almost in a class of his own among defensemen.

**Mid Tier ($4000 - $5400)**

Ryan Suter (MIN) - $5200 is one of those guys you can set your watch to, in Don Cherry speak. He's on the ice in any situation and makes a pretty solid option tonight, especially in Head to Head matchups. Jordan Oesterle (CHI) - $4500 is quickly making a name for himself, and as long as he's getting 23-24 minutes of ice time he's a solid option. Jake Gardiner (TOR) - $4200 is another guy who logs serious minutes and could really give a boost to the Leafs power play if he can get going tonight.

**Low Tier (Under $4000)**

Dion Phaneuf (OTT) - $3400
Jonas Brodin (MIN) - $3000

Goaltenders

*PLEASE NOTE : Check closer to game time to make sure a goalie is starting, here is a good link. I write these guides in the morning and will do my best to update if I recommend a goalie and he doesn't start, but I can't guarantee this.

1. Devan Dubnyk (MIN) - $8000 - Coming off a poor showing @ Colorado a few nights ago, I think Dubnyk rights the ship. In 2 previous games this year vs. Chicago, he's posted a .958 SV%. With only 3 other goalies to pick from and one who sounds like a character from Mike Tyson's Punchout, there's just not much to pick from today.

So now that you've made it this far, I've got a bonus...putting it all together, here's my free lineup for you. Feel free to use this if you're just starting out and don't know much, but I encourage you to build your own lineups off these recommendations - there are so many different combinations it's crazy!

That's it! Happy lineup building and feel free to leave me comments with any questions or comments. Feel free to tell me what you'd like to see in future versions of this guide, and if you need any help with signing up at cryptofantasysports.com I would be glad to help you.