This article is part of our FanDuel NHL series.
The NHL is starting off a holiday week with a light night of action as there is only one NHL game on Sunday with Toronto hosting Utah at 7 p.m. EST. Utah, by the way, is on the road for the second leg of a back-to-back, though make light work of Pittsburgh on Saturday. Of course, the Pens were also playing for a second straight night, so that sort of supports my original point.
On FanDuel, you get $54,998 for five players. Yes, $54,998. That's designed to keep you from landing exactly at the cap number. One player is your Captain and nets you 1.5 times the points. Here's the lineup I ended up liking.
CAPTAIN
Mitch Marner, TOR vs. UTA ($14,000): I imagine you assumed my Captain would be from the Leafs after I said Utah was on the second day of a back-to-back. On top of that, Utah had to call Jaxson Stauber up due to Connor Ingram being injured. The 25-year-old has played all of six NHL games, and those were during 2022-23 with Chicago. As to why Marner is my Captain, he's registered six two-point outings in his last seven games with over 95 points in each of the last two seasons where he's logged over 70 appearances.
UTILITY
John Tavares, TOR vs. UTA ($13,500): Tavares was playing second-line - or even third-line - center earlier in the year, though still maintains a spot on the top power play. And then, Auston Matthews got hurt. So Tavares is also now on the lead five-on-five unit. And he's notched at least one point in five of his last six games thanks to skating all his minutes with Marner.
Clayton Keller, UTA at TOR ($13,000): Slotting in at least one player for the Utah Hockey Club made sense. After all, we've all seen unexpected results from the NHL. So I figured: why not get Utah's best player? Keller racked up three assists Saturday to give him 19 points overall. He also plays on the first PP, where the minutes are easier on the legs.
Pontus Holmberg, TOR vs. UTA ($7,000): Going with three high-salary players pushed me down the list of options for my last two selections. A lot of players at the bottom of lineups are in that range, but Holmberg isn't one of them - at least based on recent events. If Matthews were healthy, that might be the case. But instead, Holmberg centers the second line alongside is the second-line William Nylander with two points from his last three outings.
Alex Kerfoot, UTA at TOR ($7,000): For my last player, I was essentially left to pick from Utah's fourth unit. Kerfoot posted 13 goals and 32 assists last season, and he's currently at three and three of each. The veteran has produced five seasons with double-digit goals and four with over 40 points. For a fourth-line forward, that's a better track record than usual.
