The NHL schedule has an eight game slate for fantasy owners to cash in on FanDuel. The action gets underway at 7pm ET leaving fantasy owners plenty of times to get in to a fantasy league including a chance at $2k dollars in the $20K Sat NHL Breakaway with only a $2 entry fee. The list of top NHL fantasy options includes Sidney Crosby, Carey Price and Marc-Andre Fleury.

The complete lineup of contests includes the Buffalo Sabres @ New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs @ Winnipeg Jets, Philadelphia Flyers @ New Jersey Devils, Montreal Canadians @ Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild @ Dallas Stars, Columbus Blue Jackets @ Arizona Coyotes, Detroit Red Wings @ Vancouver Canucks and the ST. Louis Blues @ San Jose Sharks.

As we start to look around at key fantasy plays we start at the left wing position around the NHL. Entering tonight’s contest the New York Rangers is a great spot to start filling the left wing position. The Rangers host a Sabres team that is allowing a league high 7.80 fantasy points per game to opposing left wingers. The only other team in action tonight that is above the seven point fantasy mark is the Arizona Coyotes who take on the Blue Jackets.

At the right wing position the top contests to select a few players from include the Rangers, Coyotes, Wild, Blue Jackets, Jets and Flyers. Much like the left wing position the Sabres have had a difficult time slowing down opposing left wingers and it has shown with their league high 9.23 fantasy points allowed to the position. All of the teams listed are taking on opponents that are allowing over seven fantasy points to opposing left wingers.

The final position we like to look at is the center position with the same teams listed above as teams find a selection. The Sabres are nearly allowing 14.91 fantasy points a game to the position followed by the Blue Jackets (14.52), Coytoes (14.48) and Stars (14.17). This gives us a solid building block for building our lineup tonight.

Here is our suggested NHL FanDuel lineup for January 3^rd, 2015.

Zach Parise, Left Wing ($8,200): The Minnesota Wild left winger has been solid of late registering five games with over two fantasy points including a 11.8 game along with a 3.4 and 4.2. Tonight the Wild have a great matchup against a Stars team allowing over six fantasy points a game to opposing left wingers.

Mikkel Boedker, Left Wing ($4,200): Boedker is one of those cheap option plays that could pay off for you in the larger tournaments. Over his last ten games, Boedker has three games with over four fantasy points including two with over five. Much like Parise, Boedker and the rest of the Coyotes are a great play against the Blue Jackets.

Jason Pominville, Right Wing ($6,700): Pominville has been solid this season averaging 3.3 fantasy points a game in 36 games played. This includes four games with over 5.7 fantasy points in his last ten games played.

Michael Frolik, Right Wing ($4,700): Much like a few of the players we based this play on his salary along with the team the Jets are playing. The Jets host a Maples Leaf team that has allowed 7.1 fantasy points per game to opposing right wingers.

Evgeni Malkin, Center ($9,000): We splurged with Malkin at the center position at $9,000 but based on how he played last night we elected to go with the hot hand. The Penguins center registered 7.2 fantasy points picking up both a goal and an assist against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Ryan Johansen, Center ($5,900): Johansen has been pretty consistent all season averaging over three fantasy points a game for fantasy owners. That being side that also included a bad stretch where Johansen failed to register a point in three consecutive games. Since that point he has posted games of 4.7, 1.3, 3.7, and 5.2 fantasy points.

Marek Zidlicky, Defenseman ($3,600): Similar to Boedker we are looking for a solid play at a cheap cost leading us to Zidlicky. If the Devils defensemen can post a game like he did in early December he could reward fantasy owners with a big pay day against a Flyers defense allowing over nine fantasy points a game to opposing defenseman.

Mark Streit, Defenseman ($5,000): The Flyers defenseman has put together three straight games with an assists and seven over his last ten games. The downside is his ability to stay in the positive side of the +/- statistics.

Cory Schneider, Goalie ($7,700): The options were limited after spending on a few of the other positions up top. This led us to the Devils goalie who recently limited the Penguins to only one goal and finished with 7.4 fantasy points.