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Chris Wassel highlights his top OwnersBox NHL lineup picks for Saturday-Friday of Week 9 of the NHL season. Enter the $5K fantasy hockey contest on OwnersBox for free!
Welcome back RotoBallers! The NHL season is now into December with Week 9 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 9! (Dec 4-Dec 10). 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!
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$2.5K Contest Once More for Week 9!
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 9 lineups at $10 per lineup if you want more chances to win.
You can enter up until Saturday, December 4th 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.
Nathan MacKinnon, COL ($9,500) - vs OTT, PHI, NYR, DET
If one is looking to try and catch Nathan MacKinnon while he is starting to heat up, the time may be now. He has four good matchups this week and with Colorado's goaltending situation in a bit of flux, that should force the offensive urgency just a little bit more.
The good thing is looking at some numbers. Ottawa and Philadelphia give up a ton of fantasy points wherever they go. Even if they do not yield goals, they will give up shots. Philadelphia. at press time, was allowing 35 shots a night and giving up the fourth-most high-danger scoring chances. Ottawa was not far behind in scoring chances and even the New York Rangers allow a good number of them as well.
Now, could MacKinnon approach 15 points per game? Absolutely. There is even a chance he could exceed it. His salary here is still pretty cheap considering his overall pace is ticking upward back to his 100-point season pace days from before the pandemic. Also, with MacKinnon, stacking options are plenty and abundant with Cale Makar, Nazem Kadri, and even Mikko Rantanen, if one has the dollars.
Ryan Hartman, MIN ($5,500) - vs TOR, EDM, SJ
It's been some crazy ride for Hartman as his points per game still is approaching one. This seems incredible but he is almost exceeding his career points per season just a quarter of the way into this season. It is crazy.
Anyway, the Minnesota Wild play just three times this week but the Oilers and Sharks should be good, entertaining matchups which this forward thrives on. Playing with Kirill Kaprizov helps but Hartman has always been a bit of a shots per 60 machine. On Thursday night, against the New Jersey Devils, he had ten shots on 13 attempts. He also had three points and was a +4 in the 5-2 win.
There are some other ways to use Hartman and maybe stack one winger and a cheaper defenseman from the Wild. One could take a shot at a Kaprizov on a week like this then come back with a Jonas Brodin or Matt Dumba.
Editor's note: Consider Filip Forsberg who plays four times this week. His price may only be $6,500 but there are enough good matchups to take a shot at this dangled carrot.
OwnersBox Defensemen Picks
Adam Fox, NYR ($7,000) - vs CHI, CHI, COL, BUF
Another week rolls on by and Adam Fox has a nice Week 9 schedule set up with four games in all including two against the Chicago Blackhawks who are starting to become the Blackhawks we are used to seeing. Their penalty kill is starting to level off and they are relying way too much on a veteran goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury.
Overall, Fox stands at 22 points in 21 games. He has just four goals on 43 shots but that is not so bad. It is hard to believe that he won the Norris Trophy last year yet stands slightly above that pace this season. Fox would surpass 70 points with ease right now if he played all 82 games.
Again, it is the role that keeps helping Fox. Slowly but surely, his peripheral floor is increasing when it comes to shots, blocked shots, and even hits. His ice time is within six seconds of last year's so worrying about fatigue is not warranted yet. The New York Rangers' schedule has benefitted him heavily so far and continues to do so this week.
Please again note that several nice defensive options are out there this week. Dougie Hamilton plays three times this week and Cale Makar plays four -- one of them against the aforementioned Rangers.
From the cheaper bin err pricing section, Jacob Trouba and Dmitry Orlov are at $4,700 and $4,500 respectively and could again provide nearly double-digit point potential this week with favorable matchups. Trouba has been arguably as hot as Adam Fox lately and is $2,300 cheaper.
OwnersBox Goaltender Picks
Ilya Sorokin, NYI ($11,500) - vs WPG, CGY, EDM
Ilya Sorokin probably deserves a hug at this point. I'm not kidding. It has been an awful run of bad luck for the New York Islanders goaltender. He has played like the number one and has gotten few good results.
The goaltender is 5-6-3 in 14 starts with a sterling 2.39 goals-against-average and a nice .929 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 .923. He has allowed just six goals on his last 110 shots faced. The Islanders are averaging well less than two goals a game in support for their goaltender.
Honestly, the nine-game losing streak will end at some point this coming Week 9. Buy low while you can. This could be a fun ride even at $11,500.
Jake Oettinger, DAL ($10,000) - vs ARZ, LA
The Dallas Stars keep on rolling and so does Jake Oettinger. The great thing is both he and Braden Holtby are playing great as Dallas rides a six-game winning streak. Rick Bowness has a goalie who can go on a good run and lately, he has responded.
The nice part is that Oettinger plays Arizona to start this week and at least the Coyotes are showing signs of offensive life which should increase volume. After that, Los Angeles has picked back up offensively with the return of Drew Doughty to the lineup. It has been worth it to keep rolling with cheaper options in net of late.
Another option to watch maybe to just scour for even cheaper backups who just play once. It is a cheap way to stream then play the swap fee to accumulate more points. Among the goalies that play once. Dan Vladar may be worth it. He is $10,500 and will likely draw a very good matchup. Does one risk things and try to play an Igor Shesterkin, Jacob Markstrom, or Andrei Vasilevskiy? This week might be a decent gamble.
Sample Lineup
Here's a lineup I built using some of the players from this article and yes, this uses almost all but $3,800 of the $200,000 cap. This allows some later wiggle room, if needed:
OwnersBox Week 9 NHL Picks
