The NHL has a loaded schedule on Saturday with 3 day games, 10 evening games, and nearly every team in action. It’s an exciting day to play some Daily Fantasy hockey with a big slate of games that includes a few huge favorites that we want to target for our cash game (50/50, head-to-head lineups). There are also a large amount of teams that could have big scoring nights, and therefore we’ll want to put together several different lineups for GPP tournaments.

With so many choices tonight, it is a bit of a challenge to decide which teams and players to use, but we’ll break things down in this article today with the top teams to target and recommended players to use to build winning FanDuel lineups, Included also are a few sample FanDuel lineups.

Top Teams to Target Tonight for Daily Fantasy Hockey

There is a theme amongst the top teams to target tonight, as they are all big favorites and their opponents all rank at or near the bottom of the league in points, goals against per game, GF-GA ratio, shots against per game, penalty kill % and Corsi %. Nashville is the biggest favorite of the night playing at home in Buffalo, Pittsburgh plays at Arizona, and Ottawa is home to Toronto. The Sabres, Coyotes and Maple Leafs have a combined 5 wins in their past 10 games collectively, and they are all teams that we want to load up players against. The Predators and Penguins have not been scoring well lately, but they do both have offenses that can put up a big score on a given night; while the Senators have been on fire as they try to make a late season run at the playoffs.

Recommended Players for FanDuel

TOP DEFENSEMEN PLAYS

Erik Karlsson ($7,000) – Karlsson is once again proving he’s arguably the top offensive defensemen in the league, leading in points (with 56), shots on goal (251) and he’s second in goals (19). Karlsson’s been dominant during Ottawa’s recent surge with 21 points in his past 19 games, including a +11 rating and averaging over three shots per game. With the Senators’ balanced scoring up front, it is definitely advisable to get Karlsson into as many lineups as you can, even with his high price.

Justin Schultz ($3,600) – At nearly half the price of Karlsson, we have Schultz as a VALUE defenseman. Schultz is Edmonton’s top defenseman and power-play quarterback, and the Oilers face the Flyers’ 29th ranked penalty kill tonight. Edmonton’s power play has been firing in the month of March, with an impressive 12 goals in 33 chances (36.4%). Look for Edmonton to hit the back of the net a few times tonight and Schultz should be on the score sheet.

TOP LEFT WINGER PLAYS

David Perron ($5,900) – What’s the best way to get exposure to the Penguins’ top line and Sidney Crosby without actually paying up for Crosby? Ok, this is easy since we’re doing a player profile on Perron. The Penguins offense has not been as strong lately due to injuries and that includes the top line. Although, a game against the defensively challenged Coyotes may be the remedy to get things back on track. Arizona has lost six straight (including 5-2 on Thursday), and 18 of their past 20 games. Although Perron hasn’t been scoring as much, he still continues to take a lot of shots and the Coyotes have potentially the worst goaltender in the league with Mike Smith and his 3.20 GAA and .900 SvPct.

TOP RIGHT WINGER PLAYS

Mark Stone ($3,700) – This brings us to the top VALUE play of the night. Stone has quietly put together a breakout season with 49 points in 68 games and a +16 rating. Since the all-star break Stone has 23 points in 24 games, and despite all this his FanDuel salary is still only at $3,700! We won’t complain, we’ll just take plug Stone into our cash game lineups and tournament stacks, and take advantage of his big discount to pay up for other big players instead.