The 2016-17 NHL Season has arrived at just the right time to provide daily fantasy sports owners some more excitement. While we stayed away from the opening four game slate we won’t pass up the second night of the action. Tonight’s slate features a solid nine game slate that features some of the top stars in the game.

Our star list includes players such as Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars and Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning. These three stars are at the top of the list of NHL productions.

Bishop led the NHL in fewest goals allowed at 2.06 per contest. Meanwhile the Capitals star led the NHL with a league leading 50 goals scored marking it the sixth time in his career he led the league and the fourth consecutive season. The success continued in Tampa Bay where Benn finished second in the NHL with 89 points scored trailing only Patrick Kane.

For us we would love to build our lineup around all three of these big stars tonight. The downside is that the three combined take up nearly $26k of our salary leaving us with just $29,100 to use on the rest of our lineup (average of $4,850 per player). This opens up the door for us to look at a few fantasy sleepers or to substitute a cheaper option at one of those positions.

Nonetheless all three are great options to build our NHL FanDuel Lineup on Thursday October 13^th, 2016.  Here are the rest of the NHL options we like tonight.

C – Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins: With Sidney Crosby out someone needs to step up for the Penguins and that player is Malkin. Now Malkin might have not had the best season during 2015-16, that being said when healthy he is one of the top centers in the NHL.

C – Bryan Little, Winnipeg Jets: Now for us it is a little hard this time of the year to get a true feeling for how these teams and players will produce. Much of it comes down to how hot a goalie starts but Little is a solid option who produced 42 points last year.

W – Zach Parise, Minnesota Wild: While we loved the idea of going with Benn or Ovechkin the downside is the high salaries. Now if you elect to go cheaper than Malkin or maybe a deep fantasy sleeper at the wing position you could make it happen. In the end Parise was a great option after posting 53 points scored last yearfor the Wild.

W – Brendan Gallagher, Montreal Canadians: While it is hard to take numbers from last year and slap them into what we all expect from a player. That being said Gallagher was strong down the stretch last year finishing the season with four straight games with at least 14 fantasy points.

W – T.J. Oshie, Washington Capitals: We looking at the Capitals to be one of the higher scoring teams in 2016-17. While teams will continue to look to slow down Ovechkin other stars like Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom will have opportunities to put up some big time fantasy numbers.

W – Nick Foligno, Columbus Blue Jackest: While we would all love to build our lineups around the biggest names in the game but that isn’t the case on FanDuel. Foligno is another one of those fantasy bargains who has the potential to put the puck in the net or set up one his teammates.

D – Matt Niskanen, Washington Capitals: The defenseman position is one of those slots where you could find some real value while helping you free up some additional salary cap space. Over his final 12 games last year Niskanen posted no fewer than three fantasy points while picking up at least eight in five of those contests.

D – Rasmus Ristolainen, Buffalo Sabres: Here is another one of those options that costs under the $5k mar but showed some solid promise from the position. Ristolainen finished the season with nine goals to go with 32 assists. If you feel like you must go expensive look at Torey Krug.

G – Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers: Looking at the matchups landed us with the Rangers goalie on Thursday Night. We strongly considered Bishop as well as Braden Holtby. In the end we expect the veteran goal tender to put together a strong game against the New York Islanders.