This article is part of our DraftKings NHL series.
There's no football on Mondays now, so it's time to focus on the NHL. For the final Monday of January, there are five NHL games on the docket. We have the first pucks dropping at 7:00 p.m. ET. Here are my NHL DFS recommendations. Good luck.
SLATE PREVIEW
No team is on the second leg of a back-to-back. One team, the Kraken, is on the first night of such a scenario. However, I find it quite likely Seattle will start Joey Daccord on Monday against the Oilers and save Philipp Grubauer for Tuesday's game with the Ducks. The only reason to flip those starts would be to wave the white flag against Edmonton and try to grab a win against Anaheim, but that feels quite unlikely.
GOALIES
Jordan Binnington, STL vs. VAN ($7,900): These two teams are pretty equal in terms of lacking luster offensively. To that end, the Canucks have averaged 2.79 goals per game and the Blues have averaged 2.76, both in the bottom 10. However, the Blues have managed 26.9 shots on net per contest compared to the Canucks' paltry 25.3. Thus, I'll go with Binnington as the home netminder, as his save percentage is up to .907 over his last 20 games. Not great, but workable in this scenario.
Darcy Kuemper, LAK at DET ($7,400): Yes, the Red Wings have gotten better offensively under former Kings coach Todd McLellan. That being said, Kuemper has a 2.09 GAA and .920 save percentage behind a defense that has allowed a league-low 24.9 shots on net per contest. Improvement doesn't mean the Wings have turned into the Lightning or Oilers offensively, so this matchup is still a viable one for a goalie playing almost as well as anybody.
VALUE PLAYS/ONE-OFFS
Rickard Rakell, PIT at SJS ($6,600): It has been far from delightful in Pittsburgh this season, but Rakell has looked more like the guy he was in his first full season with the team when he scored 28 goals with 32 assists. Skating next to Sidney Crosby, he's notched 23 goals and 19 assists through 50 games. Recently, the Penguins had a reason to celebrate. The Sharks have fallen behind them to last in GAA. They are also last in shots on net allowed per contest.
Stefan Noesen, NJD at PHI ($4,700): Noesen has the largest role of his career this season, and he's already tallied a career-high 18 goals. He's staying strong, with a point in each of his last two games to go with a total of nine shots on net. The Flyers have perhaps the worst goaltending situation in the NHL, which is the key reason they have a 3.36 GAA.
FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER
Sharks vs. Penguins
Mikael Granlund (C - $5,400), Fabian Zetterlund (W - $4,500), Will Smith (W - $2,800)
Yes, the Sharks are now last in GAA and shots on net allowed per game. However, the Penguins have a 3.63 GAA and have given up 31 shots on net per contest. Both are quite poor, and the Pens and Sharks are the only two teams above 3.50 in terms of GAA, much less 3.60. The Sharks are at home, and from a salary and health perspective, it was easier for me to land on a line from them to stack. Perhaps surprisingly, it's not the line with Macklin Celebrini on it, though two of these guys play with him on the top power-play unit.
Granlund has two multi-point games in his last three outings, lifting him to 43 points in 50 games. If you don't remember this I get it, but the Finn had 60 points in 69 games for the Sharks last year. Zetterlund is on a four-game point streak and he's put 109 shots on net through 52 contests. Also, while it doesn't mean a ton from a DFS perspective, Zetterlund is +8 this season, and doing that on this Sharks team is truly remarkable. Smith came into this season as a vaunted prospect as well, and while his rookie season hasn't gone as well as Celebrini's, he's rounding into form. Like Zetterlund, he's on a four-game point streak, and he has nine points in his last 15 games.
DEFENSEMEN
Jake Walman, SJS vs. PIT ($6,000): Walman is the top defenseman for the Sharks. He's averaged 22:45 per game in ice time, including 2:44 with the extra man. Since returning from injury, he has three points, 22 shots on net and 20 blocked shots in eight games. That's a lot of activity. As previously mentioned, the Penguins have a 3.63 GAA and are in the bottom five in shots on target allowed per contest.
Matt Grzelcyk, PIT at SJS ($3,700): Though he's far from the biggest name on the Pittsburgh blue line, Grzelcyk has averaged 20:12 per game in ice time, including 2:12 with the extra man. He's tallied 25 points in 51 contests, 10 of those coming on the power play. All that and he has a 1.6 shooting percentage, which is low even for a defenseman. The Sharks have given up 32.5 shots on net per game and have a league-high 3.67 GAA, so Grzelcyk has a good opportunity here.
