Monday's DraftKings slate is a one-game showdown, NYR at EDM, and it locks at 8:00 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m. PT). With a captain slot that scores 1.5x points at 1.5x salary and a $50,000 cap, the pricing leans hard toward the top of the board.
Our model's top plays are all Edmonton skaters. Connor McDavid costs $11,200 with a ceiling of 41.6, while Leon Draisaitl is $10,600 with a ceiling of 42.8, the highest on the list. Evan Bouchard, at $9,800, carries a ceiling of 30.5 and a DraftKings average of 17.6, which puts him a clear step below the two forwards but still well above the rest of the pack.
The $9,600 tier is crowded and harder to love. Brett Epp has a ceiling of 24.9, Devon Levi has a ceiling of 20.6 and Tristan Jarry has a ceiling of 20.4. Those ceilings sit far below McDavid and Draisaitl, so the price tags look steep for what they can return. On the NYR side, Joonas Korpisalo and James Reimer are both $9,000 with a ceiling of 17.7.
Salary relief comes from the bottom of the player pool, and our model uses it. Max Jones at $2,000 and Jason Dickinson at $2,800 give the lineup room to pay for stars elsewhere. Several players carry DraftKings status tags, including Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (EDM) and Colton Dach (EDM) as DTD, so check the tags before lock.
The sheet gives no ownership figures, so we won't guess where the crowd lands.
Our model's top lineup spends $49,500 of the $50,000 cap. Leon Draisaitl is the captain at $15,900, joined by Connor McDavid at $11,200, Evan Bouchard at $9,800, Adam Fox at $7,800, Jason Dickinson at $2,800 and Max Jones at $2,000. Lineups lock Monday at 8:00 p.m. ET.
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