The action is starting to heat up on the ice as the NHL schedule takes center stage tonight for DFS owners to cash in on. In all tonight’s NHL schedule offers an exciting lineup that features 20 teams in action while providing a ton of top tier options for DFS owners to build around on FanDuel tonight.

Tonight’s NHL Schedule offers DFS owners a lot of options across the board with top tier options available at all four positions. This includes the NHL leaders in wins between the pipes in Andre Vasilevskiy (27 wins), the NHL leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin (28 goals) and the NHL overall scoring leader in Nikita Kucherov (60 points).

Now before we take a look at who we like as we get set to build our NHL FanDuel lineups, let’s take a look at the 10 contests on the NHL Schedule for Thursday January 18th, 2018.

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Philadelphia Flyers
Boston Bruins @ New York Islanders
Washington Capitals @ New Jersey Devils
Dallas Stars @ Columbus Blue Jackets
St. Louis Blues @ Ottawa Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights @ Tampa Bay Lightning
Buffalo Sabres @ New York Rangers
Arizona Coyotes @ Nashville Predators
San Jose Sharks @ Colorado Avalanche
Pittsburgh Penguins @ Los Angeles Kings

With that all said here is alook at our Daily Fantasy Hockey Options on FanDuel for Thursday January 18th, 2018.

FanDuel NHL – Centers

Joe Thornton & Paul Stastny

The options at the center position are intriguing as we like a few of the top tier options including Sidney Crosby, Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron. That said in GPP contest we like the value the mid-tier center options bring to help stack at the wing position. This opened up the door for both Thornton and Stastny to land spots in our lineup options. Thornton and his teammate Logan Courture have the top matchup of the night at the center position against a Avalanche team that ranks 1st in fantasy points allowed to the position. Thornton also enters this contest red hot picking up goals in three straight games rewarding his DFS owners with double digit performances in each contest. Meanwhile Stastny might not have the best matchup but he does face off against a Canucks team that has allowed a ton of goals on the year. The Blues center has also been red hot with four 20 plus fantasy performances over his last five contests.

Top Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin & Sidney Crosby
Mid Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Ryan Johansen, David Krejci& Pierre-Luc Dubois
Sleeper NHL Fantasy Options – Alexander Kerfoot, Jason Spezza& Max Domi

FanDuel NHL – Wings

Alex Ovechkin, David Pastrnak, Rick Nash & Mikkel Boedker

We are looking to ride the wing position tonight as we loaded up with three options all at or above the $6k mark. Our top option is Ovechkin who is a near lock any night of the week as you look to build your DFS hockey lineups. In the Capitals previous meeting with the Devils, Ovechkin rewarded three assists in route to a 34.1 point fantasy performance. Behind Ovechkin we looked at a pair of teammates in both Brad Marchand and Pastrnak. The move to save a few dollars allowed us to plug in Ovechkin. Both guys should have a chance to put together some numbers against an Islanders team that ranks 1st in goals allowed per contests and 4th in fantasy points allowed to left wingers. We turned to Nash as he looks to take advantage of a Coytoes team that has struggled against right wingers all season as they are ranked 1st in DVP against the position. The last guy we elected to go with Boedker who will have a shot to be a big time fantasy sleeper against an Avalanche defense that ranks 1st in the NHL DVP against left wingers.

Top Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Nikita Kucherov& Brad Marchand
Mid-Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Evander Kane, Gabriel Landeskog& Reilly Smith
Sleeper NHL Fantasy Options –Craig Smith, Kevin Fiala, Travis Konecny & Dominik Simon

FanDuel NHL – Defenseman

Ivan Provorov & Zdeno Chara

As we look to offset some of the more expensive daily fantasy hockey options we like we turn to two players who both sit under the $5,500k salary mark. The first is Provoov of the Flyers who has a premier matchup against a Maple Leafs team that ranks 1st in the NHL in fantasy points allowed to opposing defenseman. Along with the matchup the Flyers defenseman enters tonight’s contest scoring at least six fantasy points in nine straight contests including seven of those performances going for at least 12 fantasy points. Meanwhile Chara meanwhile is more of a GPP type play who has rewarded his DFS owners with two double digit performances over his last three games while topping the eight point mark in five of his last six overall contests.

Top Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Brent Burns & P.K. Subban
Mid-Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Roman Josi&Seth Jones
Sleeper NHL Fantasy Options –Alex Goligoski& Nate Schmidt

FanDuel NHL – Goalie

Pekka Rinne

The options between the pipes are solid tonight for DFS owners to build around on FanDuel. The list includes both Henrik Lundqvist, Braden Holtby and Andrei Vasilevskiy. That said we are turning to Rinne as he is expected to get the start for the Predators tonight. Rinne enters tonight riding five straight games with at least 14 fantasy points including three contests over the 20 point mark (28, 20.8 and 31.2). That type of success added to the fact he will facing of against a Coyotes team that ranks 2nd to last in goals scored in the NHL (2.3 per contest), makes Rinne a solid option.

Top Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Henrik Lundqvist& Braden Holtby
Mid-Tier NHL Fantasy Options – Michal Neuvirth