This article is one in a series that uses the FantasyLabs Tools to build daily fantasy scouting reports for each of the NHL’s brightest stars.
One of the biggest surprises in the NHL this season has to be the emergence of Mikael Granlund. Going into this season, Granlund had a career-high 13 goals and 44 points last year. This season, however, he has absolutely exploded by putting up 25 goals and 66 points in 71 games. He seemingly has ‘taken the next step.’
Season
In terms of DFS production, Granlund has without question massively improved this season (per our Trends tool):
With an increase of 4.25 FanDuel points per game, Granlund has become one of the better players in the NHL.
Home/Road
Granlund’s home/road splits are perhaps surprising:
Mikko Koivu has been centering Granlund for the majority of the season, and Koivu typically plays as the shutdown center. With the home team having last change, one might assume that Granlund’s offensive performance would decline at home because he’s on a defensive line. It’s possible, however, that his home performance could be bolstered by facing opposing lines that are more focused on offense than defense.
Divisions
While the Eastern Conference has an open and offensive style of hockey, the Western Conference has more of a physical and defensive style.
The Pacific division is the only one against which Granlund has a negative Plus/Minus, which makes sense given that teams like San Jose, Anaheim, and Los Angeles are defensively strong and Edmonton has drastically improved its goaltending.
Opponent Team Score
Granlund has done well against teams with non-elite Opponent Ratings, outperforming his salary-based expectation with a +4.89 Plus/Minus at an incredibly consistent rate:
Taking on tougher opponents has proven to be a tough task for Granlund:
With just a +0.41 Plus/Minus, Granlund has struggled much more against the top teams in the league.
Top Performances
Granlund’s best performances this season have tended to come against weaker opponents:
He has done well against some great teams — Chicago and Ottawa (the latter of which he’s played only once) — but Dallas and Vancouver are among the worst teams in the NHL.
The Salary Sweet Spot
Granlund has had some intriguing variance in his FanDuel pricing and production. I’ve broken his games into three different salary ranges to offer consistency in sample size:
Granlund Salary: Above $6,500
Granlund Salary: $5,100 – $6,500
Granlund Salary: $5,000 and Below
A true stud, Granlund has increasingly exceeded his expectations as his salary his risen. At the same time, his Consistency Rating has declined as his price has gone up. Nevertheless, hitting value more than 50 percent of the time is impressive.
Correlations
The Correlations tab in our Player Models highlights the viability of stacking in NHL. Using our Team Lines tool, you can easily find Granlund’s linemates for a game and stack appropriately. As you see, out of all the people with whom he’s played at least 50 games, Granlund is most strongly correlated with his most frequent linemates this season, Koivu and Jason Zucker (these numbers go back to last season):
Conclusion
Granlund is having a breakout year, and he continues to exceed expectations on FanDuel, especially at home. Even though his performance has become more volatile as his salary has risen, he makes for a strong stacking candidate with his linemates.
