This article is part of our FanDuel NHL series.
SLATE PREVIEW
There are four games on the Wednesday slate with San Jose being the only tired team. The Sharks travel to LA while Edmonton is across the city to face Anaheim. Washington is in Philadelphia and Nashville is on the road against the Maple Leafs. Below, you'll find suggested options for crafting an effective lineup.
GOALIES
Jack Campbell, EDM at ANA ($7,500): Campbell has been seeing more action of late as he has played in four of the last five games, but two games were in relief of the struggling Stuart Skinner. Campbell is having a tough season, going 9-8-1 with a 3.68 GAA and an .877 save percentage, but gets the lowly Ducks, who are the second lowest scoring team in the NHL, averaging only 2.27 goals per game. Campbell won both his starts against Anaheim last season, giving up four goals on 60 shots.
Pheonix Copley, LA vs. SJ ($8,300): Copley has taken over as the Kings No. 1 goaltender, as he is 11-2-0 with a 2.56 GAA and a .904 save percentage. Copley has started 11 of the last 13 games and has won nine of his last 10 games. He had one bad start, giving up six goals on 31 shots to the Sabres, but even then, he shut them out the first two periods before Buffalo went crazy in the third. He has given up only 24 goals on 269 shots, in his last 10 games. Copley will face the Sharks, who are averaging 3.07 goals per game.
VALUE PLAYS
Joel Farabee, PHI vs. WAS ($5,100): Farabee has three goals and five points in his last four games, giving him nine goals and 23 points in 41 games. He is due to score on the power play as he has yet to pick up a point with the man-advantage despite averaging 2:07 per game. Farabee is playing alongside Noah Cates and Travis Konecny and sees second-line power play time.
Tom Wilson, WAS at PHI ($4,800): Wilson returned to action Sunday after missing the first-half of the season recovering from offseason knee surgery. He was held pointless, seeing 14:10 of ice time with 1:13 coming on the second power play. Wilson had 24 goals and 52 points in 78 games last season.
Cody Glass, NAS at TOR ($3,600): Glass has two goals in four January games, including one on the power play. While he has been pointless in his last two games, the former sixth overall pick in 2017 had seven points in his previous eight games. Glass has four goals and 11 points in 29 games and is a nice inexpensive add, if you go big with the Oilers top line.
FORWARD LINE STACKS
Oilers at Ducks
Connor McDavid (C-$10,600), Leon Draisaitl (C-$10,200), Klim Kostin (W-$3,800)
When you have the top two players in the NHL facing the worst defensive team in the league, then you have to have them in your lineup. McDavid leads the NHL in goals with 34 and is tied for the lead with 43 assists. Overall, his 77 points are 15 points better than teammate Draisaitl, who sits second in the NHL with 62 points. McDavid had a goal and an assist in one game against the Ducks this season, after scoring two goals and eight points in three games last season. Draisaitl had two assists this season and was huge versus the Ducks in 2021-22, when he had five goals and eight points in three games. Kostin, the third member, is inexpensive, but has only five goals and nine points in 26 games. If you can afford it, use Zach Hyman, who costs $8,600, but has 44 points in 41 games.
Capitals at Flyers
Alex Ovechkin (W - $9,900), Nicklas Backstrom (C -$3,000), Sonny Milano (W - $5,900)
Ovechkin is tied for fourth in goals with 29, giving him 809 in his career, as he continues his pursuit of Gretzky's all-time mark of 892 goals. Ovechkin had three goals and an assist earlier this season in a pair of games against the Flyers. Whether or not you use Backstrom in a stack, his price is just too good to leave him out of your lineup. Backstrom returned to action Sunday for the first time this season as he has recovered from offseason hip resurfacing surgery, making him only the second NHLer (Ed Jovanovski in 2014 was the first) to return to action from that surgery. Backstrom had six goals and 31 points in 47 games last season, the first time since his rookie season of 2007-08 that he wasn't close to averaging a point a game or better. Milano is having a good season with seven goals and 19 points in 30 games and has four assists on the power play.
DEFENSEMEN
Erik Karlsson, SJ at LA ($7,900): What a season Karlsson is having. The defenseman had 10 goals and 35 points in 50 games last season. That's not bad but in no way did anyone expect Karlsson to return to his form shown in Ottawa when he had 16 goals and 82 points in 2015-16. He has 55 points in 42 games, seventh-best in the NHL and the top total for defensemen, with Josh Morrissey and Rasmus Dahlin tied for second, nine points behind. Karlsson is on pace for 107 points, which has been done only nine times, five times by Bobby Orr and four times by Paul Coffey, the last time being in the 1988-89 season. Karlsson has at least one point in 15 of his last 16 games.
Cam Fowler, ANA vs. EDM ($4,900): Fowler has four goals and 18 points in 41 games, including three goals and nine points on the power play. He scored in lone game against the Oilers on Dec. 17. Fowler had a career-year in 2021-22, with 42 points in 76 games.
