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Chris Wassel highlights his top OwnersBox NHL lineup picks for Saturday-Friday of Week 5 of the NHL season. Enter the $5K fantasy hockey contest on OwnersBox for free!
Welcome back RotoBallers! The NHL season heads further into November for Week 5 and we have an excellent salary cap contest for you over at OwnersBox!
In case you're not yet familiar, OwnersBox is a fantastic new 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 5 (Nov 6-Nov 12). 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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$5K Contest Once Again for Week 5!
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 6 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.
Leon Draisaitl, EDM ($10,500) - vs DET, BOS, BUF
No NHL team has been more fun than the Edmonton Oilers. They are regularly projected to score close to four goals every night. One of the biggest beneficiaries of Connor McDavid is Leon Draisaitl. Lately, the forward has been producing just as many fantasy points per game and he is $1,500 cheaper too.
The road trip continues against Detroit, Boston, and Buffalo later next week. There is a slight concern in that there are three games in four nights. However, the Oilers are a rather young team. That should matter little. The only tough matchup is Boston. That will likely be one of those "cool off" nights for Edmonton.
Now, do not Edmonton expect to sustain this all season long? However, expect the two forwards to continue to exploit great matchups all season long. There is a real chance that even in three games, Edmonton could score 10-12 goals.
Troy Terry, ANA ($4,600) - vs STL, VAN, SEA
It's been a pretty fun start for Troy Terry who has a nine-game point-scoring streak that just keeps on going. One of the weird wrinkles is that Terry is playing nearly 16 minutes a night and is deployed in the offensive zone just 37%. Despite that, he has seven goals on just 21 shots.
However, this is a player who has seen some unsustainable jumps in ice time along with production. Ryan Getzlaf has been on quite a roll while averaging a point a night.
St. Louis may run out of steam a bit. Vancouver has one of the worst team defenses in the league and Seattle has been okay defensively. The key here is to try and exploit plus matchups while one can.
Editor's note: Consider Alex Ovechkin who plays four times this week. His price maybe $10,300 but Philadelphia and Buffalo are prime matchups. Detroit and Columbus are not so bad either. Kyle Connor has only gone up to $8,900 and plays three games.
OwnersBox Defensemen Picks
Ryan Merkley, SJS ($3,500) - vs NJ, CGY, and WPG
Another week and let's look at a value defenseman first. That is right. Ryan Merkley is pretty much at the bottom of the salary heap when it comes to OwnersBox.
Merkey is attempting six shots a game while playing just 15 minutes a night. Now, injuries happen and the rookie is riding a roster spot while other players mend. That's a good thing always.
Again, it is the role that makes gives Merkley some value. Playing home against New Jersey should be a huge boost. After that, Calgary and Winnipeg could provide some unexpected opportunities as well.
Please again note that several nice defensive options are out there this week. Bowen Byram and Artem Zub head our list. Zub is also just $4,200 and plays twice this week. Byram is just $3,900 and with Cale Makar on the IR, that means more opportunites.
OwnersBox Goaltender Picks
Juuse Saros, NSH ($10,500) - vs CHI, DAL
Juuse Saros has been seeing lots of scoring chances faced no matter who he is in net against. Nashville lets among the most medium and high-danger scoring chances in the league.
The goaltender is 4-4-0 in eight starts with a very good 2.39 goals-against-average and a .922 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 19 goals on the year and faced 245 shots already.
Dallas and Chicago on the road have produced lightly this year which should allow Saros to put up some points. Connor Ingram may get the third matchup of the week for Nashville.
Elvis Merzlikins, CLB ($10,400) - vs COL, WSH
His early start on the season was noticed largely because so few people expected the Columbus Blue Jackets to start off well.
Merzlikins is not all that expensive at $10,400. For goaltenders, that is not as much of a risk as one would think. Is the goaltender going to stay around 28.6 OwnersBox points a game? No. Would 20-22 be reasonable? Probably. The nice part is that if the Columbus allows some shot volume, Merzlikins should benefit as Colorado is undermanned and Washington tends to play to its level of competition.
Another option to watch may be to just scour for backups who just play once. It is a cheap way to stream then pay the swap fee to accumulate more points.
Sample Lineup
Here's a lineup I built using some of the players from this article:
