This article is part of our FanDuel NHL series.
Saturday's NHL main slate features plenty of action, with 11 games on tap after 7:00 PM Eastern time. Below, you'll find an overview of the matchups and suggested options for crafting an effective lineup.
SLATE PREVIEW
While Boston vs. Minnesota stands out as this slate's biggest mismatch, some other teams start to look more appealing when you look at recent trends. Those include the Avalanche at home against Toronto and the Blues at home against Nashville, as both visiting teams have played far below their capabilities of late.
GOALIES
Tuukka Rask ($9,000) won't come cheap, but he's the safe play in net. He's 10-2-2 with a 2.05 GAA and .931 save percentage, while the visiting Wild have a bottom-10 offense with 2.73 goals per game.
Louis Domingue ($7,000) is the new backup in New Jersey, and he gets a golden opportunity to shine in his first start with the Devils. The visiting Red Wings average just 2.42 goals per game, with only the Flames (2.40) scoring fewer. At just $7,000, Domingue could provide tremendous bang for the buck in net.
Connor Hellebuyck ($8,200) strikes a nice middle ground between the two above options, as he's substantially cheaper than Rask but much safer than Domingue. The Jets' netminder is 10-7-1 with a 2.45 GAA and an excellent .928 save percentage, and he'll be at home against a Blue Jackets team that ranks fourth from the bottom with 2.62 goals per game.
VALUE PLAYS/ONE-OFFS
Tyler Seguin ($7,900) got off to a slow start after six consecutive seasons with no fewer than 72 points, but he's found his groove of late with three goals, five assists and 20 shots over an active four-game point streak. The Stars' top center should continue his strong play in this home matchup against the .500 Blackhawks.
David Perron ($6,600) is hot and the Predators are not. The veteran winger has five goals and 13 points over his last 12 games, and he leads the Blues with 21 points in 23 games overall. Meanwhile, Nashville has lost six consecutive games, getting outscored 30-14 over that stretch.
Andreas Athanasiou ($4,700) got off to a dreadful start this season, but he's starting to heat up offensively, with two goals and three assists in the past five games. The winger's 30-goal output last season suggests he's capable of sustaining this recent success, and his Red Wings draw a favorable matchup against a Devils team that also occupies a bottom-five spot in the league standings and will be playing its second game in as many nights.
Sticking in the Red Wings-Devils game, Taylor Hall ($7,300) scored his team's only goal Friday. He's been snakebitten this season with only three goals on 75 shots, but the star winger has kept his value afloat with 15 assists in 21 games, and perhaps scoring Friday will give Hall the confidence he needs to keep producing against a Red Wings team that's allowing a league-high 3.75 goals per game.
FORWARD LINE STACKS
Bruins vs. Wild
Patrice Bergeron (C - $7,800), David Pastrnak (W - $9,200), Brad Marchand (W - $8,500)
This line and the Oilers' top line with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are probably the two most common stacks in the league this season, and with good reason, as both feature two of the league's top five point scorers. Pastrnak leads the league with 20 goals in 22 games, while Marchand has actually overtaken him in points, 37-36. Bergeron's no slouch himself, with an 8-12-20 line in 20 games played. A Wild team that's missing starting goalie Devan Dubnyk (personal) and ranks among the bottom 10 defensively with 3.27 goals allowed per game is unlikely to slow this dynamic trio down.
Avalanche vs. Maple Leafs
Nathan MacKinnon (C - $8,800), Andre Burakovsky (W - $5,300), Joonas Donskoi (W - $5,000)
Toronto finally snapped a six-game losing streak in Arizona on Thursday, but the Maple Leafs still have a bottom-10 defense, and we're not ready to proclaim them out of the woods yet regarding their recent struggles. This line should capitalize on the favorable matchup at home. MacKinnon has a 13-19-32 line in 22 games. Burakovsky has multiple points in each of his past four games, with five goals and three assists over this torrid stretch. Donskoi has a 9-6-15 line this season, putting him on pace to top the 30-goal mark.
Canadiens vs. Rangers
Phillip Danault (C - $5,100), Brendan Gallagher (W - $7,300), Tomas Tatar (W - $6,700)
Montreal's top line should thrive against a Rangers team that's playing its second game in as many nights and ranks among the league's five most generous teams defensively. Danault comes into this game riding a five-game point streak. He and Gallagher are tied for second on the team with 17 points apiece through 22 games, while Gallagher also leads the team in both goals (nine) and shots (74). The only Canadien with more points is Tatar, who has 20.
DEFENSEMEN
While Perron leads the Blues with 11 power-play points, Alex Pietrangelo ($6,100) is tied for second on the team with nine. The elite defenseman will have a nice opportunity to build on that total against a Predators penalty kill that's slipped to a league-worst 71.0 percent during Nashville's recent struggles.
Filip Hronek ($4,500) has a goal and two assists in two games since returning from injury, and the second-year blueliner has a 5-8-13 line in 22 games overall for Detroit. With the Red Wings getting a rare matchup against a similarly poor team in New Jersey, roll out the young defenseman with confidence.
Aaron Ekblad ($4,800) is coming off a dominant two-goal, one-assist performance against the Ducks, which put the first overall selection from the 2014 draft on pace to top 50 points for the first time. There's still another level to be found in the 23-year-old Panther's game, and it's possible he's unlocking it in front of our eyes. He'll face a Hurricanes team that has yielded 14 goals in its last four games.
Penalty killing has been the Canadiens' weakness, as they rank among the bottom five at 72.5 percent. Anthony DeAngelo ($4,800) is primed to capitalize on that weakness for the Rangers. He skates on the top power-play unit, and six of his 15 points this season have come with the extra man.
