Below is a breakdown for Friday’s four-game NHL DFS main slate followed by example lineups. EDITOR’S NOTE: Example lineups may need to be updated after originally being posted early Friday morning. Updates will occur approximately one hour before lock.

Teams to Target

This slate looks remarkably easy to break down when you see the Vegas lines. All four home teams are favored and heavily at that with two opening as -175 favorites and the other two opening in the -230 range. All four also happen to be hosting teams that played yesterday, and none of the favorites are playing for the second day in a row.

Two games feature a high over/under of 6.5 goals so the favorites in those games, the Maple Leafs and Rangers, are obviously good options. Toronto and Columbus are the two larger favorites, so the Blue Jackets are another option you have to consider. The one favorite you can largely ignore is Dallas as their game has a very low total of five goals, and the Stars average the sixth fewest goals per game.

The best value among Toronto’s top power play forwards is John Tavares on FanDuel. He is $1,700 cheaper than Auston Matthews there, and he is $100 cheaper than he is on DraftKings despite the cap being higher on FD. That said, you can often end up with plenty of room to roster a high-priced player on a short slate, so Matthews is in play if affordable. Down the depth chart you could go with Zach Hyman who plays up on the top line with Matthews or Alexander Kerfoot who plays on Tavares’ line. Hyman is a bit overpriced on DK while Kerfoot is cheap on both sites. On the blue line your options are top PP unit D-man Tyson Barrie (who is expensive on DK) or the value option in Jake Muzzin.

While the Leafs are the big Vegas favorite, my favorite matchup belongs the Blue Jackets against Detroit. That’s no limb to climb out on as the Wings (prior to yesterday) had allowed more goals than any other team with a 26-goal cushion and who had the worst goal differential at -96 with the next worst team being at -44.

The value from Columbus comes from their second line centered by Boone Jenner with Gustav Nyquist and Cam Atkinson on his wings. Jenner is priced particularly well on FD at only $3,700, and he can be used in any kind of lineup there as salary relief. He could also be paired with one or both of his wingers even though they’re both overpriced. It might make more sense to stack the entire line on DK where they’re all priced well. Perhaps a mini-stack of Jenner and Nyquist makes the most sense on FD as they play together on the power play while Atkinson plays on the other unit. The top D pair of Seth Jones and Zach Werenski plays the most with that line in home games, and Werenski plays with Jenner/Nyquist on the power play. The problem is that Werenski is arguably the worst defensive value on the slate on FD, so use him on DK and Jones on FD.

The last of the three big favorites is the Rangers, and we’ll lean toward the second line as Mika Zibanejad’s top line is likely to draw the matchup against Jack Eichel’s line. Artemi Panarin, the team’s leaders in goals and assists, plays on that second line along with Ryan Strome, and the pair plays on the top PP unit together. Both are priced a bit better on FD than DK. Adam Fox would be a good D-man to pair with them on FD as he’s priced well there, and his pair plays the most with the second line at even.

Value Plays

Maybe it’s not exactly a value option, but Buffalo’s top line is a contrarian option tonight. As stated, the favorites are so obvious tonight that any players from an underdog should see lower-than-normal ownership for a short slate. The best matchup of the slate per my matchup model belongs to the Sabres against a Rangers team that is the second-best matchup in the league. New York’s second line is their only line with a decent collective xGA, but as discussed, Eichel’s line should match up with New York’s first. Eichel has Jimmy Vesey and Sam Reinhart on his wings with Reinhart also joining him on the top PP unit. The line is a bit more affordable on FD but could be fit into a lineup on either site. Options to pair with the line are defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Brandon Montour. Risto plays on the top PP unit with Eichel, and Montour played the most of any blue liner with the Eichel line at even last night.

Another potential line stack from an underdog is Anaheim’s top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Rickard Rakell and Jakob Silfverberg. The Ducks have an improved matchup against the Leafs as they’re likely to still be without Frederik Andersen tonight. Anaheim’s top line stays together on the top PP unit and is priced collectively well on both sites (more so on DK), which makes them a GPP option.

While Jenner is the best value at the C position on FD, Ondrej Kase provides the best salary relief on the wing at only $3,600. Kase has points in four of his last six and racked up six shots on goal Tuesday night against the Senators. The previously mentioned Fox is the best defensive value option on FD.

Over on DK, the values at forward come primarily from the Minnesota-Dallas game. DK’s pricing model is much more fluid game-to-game based on matchup, and the Wild and Stars have depressed prices thanks to the low over/under. The pair of Alexander Radulov and Joe Pavelski are both quite cheap, and they could be mini-stacked as they play together at even and on the power play. Minnesota’s entire top line of Eric Staal, Zach Parise and Mats Zuccarello is cheap on DK. They could potentially be a stack option, or any of them could be used as one-off salary relief. You could also consider Jeff Skinner who is priced well on DK and plays on the top PP unit with Eichel.

Value on the blue line on DK can come from Montour or a couple of defenders in the Minny-Dallas game. Both Mathew Dumba and John Klingberg are priced well on DK, and both see work on the second PP unit. Dumba is also priced well on FD, but Fox is only $100 more there and has a considerably better matchup.

Goalies

From the four favorites, Ben Bishop and Elvis Merzlikins are over $8,500 on FD while Michael Hutchinson (UPDATE: The newly acquired Jack Campbell 6will start for Toronto tonight) and Alexandar Georgiev are $7,600 or less. Unless you just have money to burn, lean towards the savings in cash games. Of the expensive goalies, Bishop is preferable because Merzlikins has little room for error with the lowest projected shots faced total of the slate. On DK, Georgiev is the only one of the goalies from the favorites that is under 8K.

As for contrarian and/or value options for GPPs, it’s a bit tough on FD. You could consider Devan Dubnyk since that game has such a low total, or you could stick with Campbell and Georgiev there. Over on DK you have more options. Georgiev is still an option, but you could go even cheaper with Jimmy Howard or Ryan Miller. The DK scoring model rewards saves more than FD, and Howard and Miller have the two highest shots faced projections of the slate.