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Chris Wassel highlights his top OwnersBox NHL lineup picks for Saturday-Friday of Week 6 of the NHL season. Enter the $5K fantasy hockey contest on OwnersBox for free!
Welcome back RotoBallers! The NHL season heads deeper and deeper into November for Week 6 and we have an excellent salary cap contest for you over at OwnersBox!
For those who do not know, OwnersBox is a fantastic weekly fantasy sports platform that offers plenty of game setups to fulfill your desire to draft throughout the season. And the big one that we're focusing on right now: NHL weekly salary cap contests!
In this article, I will be providing you with my weekly fantasy hockey lineup picks on OwnersBox for the Saturday-Friday Contest of the Week for Week 6 (Nov 13-Nov 19). This contest is not anything like a standard DFS contest or your season-long leagues. Read my picks below, and then join us in this tournament as we battle it out for the cash prizes!
$5K Contest Once Again for Week 6!
OwnersBox is hooking up RotoBaller readers to celebrate the launch of their new salary cap style contests, so be sure to take advantage of these promo offers!
- Join this week's freeroll on OwnersBox - the contest is completely free to enter for new users with code NHL10, and there's a $5,000 cash guaranteed prize pool. You can also enter up to 18 lineups at $10 per lineup if you want more chances to win.
You can enter up until Saturday, November 13 at 6:55 pm ET.
OwnersBox Forward Picks
On OwnersBox, you have the option of picking five forwards in all. The forwards can play up to 16 games total. That is the max. Once one exceeds that total, the lineup reverts to the best ball format. Also, one can swap players with a 20% fee.
Mika Zibanejad, NYR ($7,500) - vs DET, NJ, MON, TOR
Few teams have been as interesting as the New York Rangers. They are regularly projected to score at least three goals every night this week. One of the biggest beneficiaries of this may just be Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin. They make for impressive potential as at some point this duo will wake up from their comatose state at even strength.
The road trip continues in Columbus then New York entertains New Jersey and Montreal before heading to Toronto in order to end the week. Both of these guys are a good deal off from their normal early-season usual selves.
Now, do not expect New York's top center-wing combination to stay dormant for much longer. As the chances increases so will the points. The duo may be as low-salaried they will m
Kirill Kaprizov MIN ($7,500) - vs STL, VAN, SEA, SJ, VGK
It's been some kind of ride for Kaprizov owners this week as the Minnesota winger starts to heat up at just the right time. Kaprizov has nine points in 11 games on 41 shots. Kaprizov has just a couple of goals on the season.
However, this is a player who has seen some jumps in ice time along with production. It is fun to see about Mats Zuccarello as a stacking partner here. There are the Minnesota defensemen like Matt Dumba to consider as well. Even look further down the available players' pool. There are some game ideas to ponder also.
Minnesota has not run out of steam and they may continue to produce above their usual norms. Meanwhile, Kaprizov is likely to net a few goals in the next week which mean double-digit point totals all Week 6 long.
Editor's note: Consider Artemi Panarin who plays four times this week. His price may only be $8,300 but Toronto and Montreal are prime matchups. New Jersey and Columbus are not so bad either. Panarin's price has slowly come down each week. At some point, he is going to snap out of his even-strength funk.
OwnersBox Defensemen Picks
Shayne Gostisbehere, ARZ ($4,500) - vs NSH, STL, CLS
Another week and let's look at a value defenseman first. That is right. Shayne Gostisbehere finds a way to get more points on one of the worst teams this decade in the Arizona Coyotes.
The Arizona blueliner keeps seeing more and more opportunities in all phases -- especially the man advantage. He has several assists there and now is up into the double-digits in real-world points after just 13 games.
Again, it is the role that boosts the value of Gostisbehere. Arizona, most nights, is playing from so far behind that "score effects" take over often. The point is one does not have to spend up for a Kris Letang or Dougie Hamilton though the option is always there.
Please again note that several nice defensive options are out there this week. Bowen Byram and Artem Zub head our list again. Zub is also in the lower tier. Byram is rather cheap and will get more scoring chances with Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in the Colorado lineup.
OwnersBox Goaltender Picks
Robin Lehner, VGK ($11,100) - vs VAN, CAR, DET
Robin Lehner has been seeing increasing volume and now is getting hot at the right time.
The goaltender is 6-5-0 in 11 starts with a solid 2.72 goals-against-average and an improving .919 save percentage. That is far from average for a goalie who feels under siege on an almost nightly basis. The goaltender's career save percentage is .920. He has allowed just 29 goals on the year and faced a league-high 359 shots already.
Vancouver and Detroit on the road have produced lightly this year which should allow Saros to put up some points. Lehner is priced high but the goaltender is on a nice, homestand at just the right time.
John Gibson, ANA ($10,200) - vs VAN, WSH, CAR
His early start on the season was noticed largely because so few people expected the Anaheim Ducks to have eight wins at press time.
Gibson is cheaper by goalie standards at $10,200. For goaltenders, that is not as much of a risk as one would think. Is the goaltender going to stay around 25 OwnersBox points a game? No. Would 20-22 be reasonable? Probably. The nice part is that Gibson will see plenty of shot volume, especially versus Washington and Carolina. The Anaheim goaltender should benefit as Carolina and Washington just are not quite as good on the road.
Another option to watch maybe to just scour for backups who just play once. It is a cheap way to stream then play the swap fee to accumulate more points. For example, Marc-Andre Fleury would be a wild choice at $10,000. He only plays once against Seattle though.
Sample Lineup
Here's a lineup I built using some of the players from this article:
