It was expected that the Columbus Blue Jackets might be sellers leading up to the NHL trade deadline on Monday with Artemi Panarin likely to leave in free agency after the season, but Columbus shocked the NHL by becoming the biggest buyers in the league and trading for Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel. The Blue Jackets see the chance to take their shot at making a Stanley Cup run and they're shooting without hesitation and that's going to make a lot of their players popular down the stretch in NHL DFS tournaments and cash games on FanDuel and DraftKings. On Thursday night, they'll get the Flyers in a game where the total is listed at 6.5, so you can expect offensive fireworks and you may want several Blue Jackets in your NHL DFS lineups. But before you choose which players to roster on Thursday, be sure to check out the NHL DFS picks from DFS millionaire Mike McClure.
McClure is a DFS professional with nearly $2 million in career winnings. He's also a predictive data engineer at SportsLine who uses a powerful prediction model that simulates every minute of every game 10,000 times, taking factors like matchups, statistical trends and injuries into account. This allows him to find the best NHL DFS values and create optimal lineups that he shares only over at SportsLine. They're a must-see for any NHL DFS player.
On Wednesday, McClure was all over Maple Leafs wing Andreas Johnsson at $4,300 on FanDuel. The result: He scored two goals against the Oilers -- returning over 30 points and over 7x value. Anyone who rostered him was well on their way to a winning night.
For Thursday's NHL DFS slate, we can tell you McClure is high on Lightning wing Nikita Kucherov at $9,300 on FanDuel and $7,900 on DraftKings. Kucherov had another incredible night on Wednesday, dishing out three assists in a Lightning victory over the Rangers. He's now up to 104 points in 64 games this season and his potential to score three points or more on a nightly basis makes him more than worthy of his high price tag.
The 25-year-old Russian has scored at least three points in five of his last nine games and he's provided at least a 2x return despite his price in eight of those nine contests. Lock him in as one of the top overall NHL DFS plays on Thursday.
McClure also loves Blue Jackets center Matt Duchene ($6,900 on FanDuel, $7,300 on DraftKings), who just joined Columbus before the trade deadline and has 60 points in 53 games this season.
Duchene is still adjusting to his new role with the Blue Jackets, but he's still sensational in the faceoff circle and has already been placed on the top power-play unit, where he dished out an assist on Saturday. Against the Sharks, Duchene also scored a goal at even strength.
McClure is also targeting an undervalued player who is set to explode for huge numbers on Thursday. He's a huge steal at his price point, so this pick could be the difference between cashing and going home with nothing. You absolutely need to see who it is before setting your lineups.
So what are the optimal NHL DFS lineups for Thursday? Visit SportsLine now to see DFS millionaire Mike McClure's complete optimal tournament lineups for FanDuel and DraftKings, and cash in BIG on NHL DFS.
