As the NHL regular season nears its conclusion, we have ourselves a Monday that, frankly, lacks playoff implications. That being said, you don't need games with stakes for DFS purposes. There are five games on Monday's slate, with the first starting at 7 p.m. ET. Here are my NHL DFS lineup recommendations.
SLATE PREVIEW
Sunday featured almost exclusively teams on the second night of a back-to-back, so it is not surprising that no team is in that position Monday. In terms of teams on the first night of a back-to-back, there is no goaltending situation I am really monitoring there. I mean, David Rittich isn't as good as Ilya Sorokin, but he's been fine, and also I feel confident Sorokin will start Monday against the Penguins in the one game with true playoff implications.
GOALIES
Adin Hill, VGK vs. VAN ($8,400): Vegas' goaltending has been a real issue, but sometimes a matchup arrives that covers for a lot of sins. The Canucks are comfortably the NHL's worst team, now last in goals per game and GAA. If Hill can't handle this matchup, and the Golden Knights can't pick up a breezy win to bolster playoff positioning, then the team has some real worries at hand.
Alex Nedeljkovic, SAN vs. STL ($8,000): With Yaroslav Askarov nursing multiple injuries, Nedeljkovic has been called upon more than one might expect as of late. There have been bad games in the mix, to be sure, but the journeyman has also allowed two or fewer goals on five occasions in the month of March. At home, I'd take a shot on him against the Blues. St. Louis has averaged 2.64 goals and 25.3 shots on net per game.
Update: Askarov has been confirmed as the starter for San Jose.
VALUE PLAYS/ONE-OFFS
Cutter Gauthier, ANA vs. TOR ($6,900): There is a chance that Gauthier puts 300 shots on net this season, which is rarified air. He's at 270 with Anaheim having nine games left before the playoffs. Gauthier has also tallied 37 goals, so 40 is definitely in play. Well, the Maple Leafs have allowed the most shots on goal per game this season, and they have the third-highest GAA as well. Gauthier could get closer to both those milestones Monday.
Matthew Knies, TOR at ANA ($5,200): I'm flipping this matchup around, as the Ducks aren't exactly defensive stalwarts. They have the fourth-highest GAA, right behind Toronto, and they also have a below-average penalty kill. As rough as this season has been for the Leafs, Knies has gotten to 20 goals again, and his 59 points are a personal best. That includes 13 points with the extra man through 71 contests.
FORWARD LINE STACK TO CONSIDER
Golden Knights vs. Canucks
Mitch Marner (C - $6,000), Pavel Dorofeyev (W - $6,100), Brett Howden (W - $2,500)
The Canucks are not merely bad defensively, but particularly bad. Vancouver has a 3.76 GAA, and no other team has a GAA higher than 3.55. The Canucks are also comfortably last in penalty-kill percentage. This Vegas line is a good choice for a stack, and maybe Vegas will get a bounce from changing coaches so late in the season as well. After all, John Tortorella hasn't had a chance to alienate everybody just yet.
Marner has tallied over 50 assists for the fifth season in a row (and the season before that was the COVID-truncated campaign). He's also tallied 22 power-play points through 73 contests. Dorofeyev has 34 goals after scoring 35 last season. He had 17 power-play points last year, but this year he's all the way up to 28. Howden scored 23 goals last year, but he's struggled this year while dealing with injury issues. However, he does have three points in his last five games.
DEFENSEMEN
Jackson LaCombe, ANA vs. TOR ($4,500): Even though LaCombe's puck luck has diminished compared to last season, he's shown that he is a true point producer on the blue line. He has nine goals after scoring 14 last year, but he has 51 points after topping out at 43 in his last campaign. That includes 14 points in 73 games since the end of the Olympic break. He has 141 shots on net this season, but the Maple Leafs are porous when it comes to preventing pucks on goal, and they have a 3.46 GAA.
Shea Theodore, VGK vs. VAN ($3,700); Theodore has tallied 34 points this season through 62 games. That's a drop off from last season, but the Golden Knights have spent more time with five forwards on the power play. Even though he's averaged a mere 1:15 per game with the extra man over his last 14 games, he still has seven points in that time. Maybe Theodore won't see much of Vancouver's horrendous penalty kill, but it doesn't have a 3.76 GAA just because its penalty kill is bad.
