Welcome to Daily Faceoff’s NHL DFS Value Plays, where five days a week, Monday through Friday, I break down hockey’s main roster and look for the plays with the highest value.

This value sheet includes salaries, DraftKings and FanDuel projections for the top forward and defenseman values, as well as honorable forwards and three punt options for blue liners. While the main value plays are about the ability to be different and the benefits of doing so, the others are about the ability to score marginal points by taking shots and blocking them. These players are always live for the bonus on DraftKingswhich all value games are aimed at.

These forecasts do not say exactly what will happen. A game sample has too much randomness to make accurate predictions. Instead, the predictions represent a player’s average performance if that match was played repeatedly. There is a wide range of possible outcomes and the projections represent the average of these possibilities for each player.

Matvei Michkov (W, PHI1, PP1) – @ VAN – (DK-$3,000 / FD $6,400)
DFO projection: DK – 9.6 / FD – 12.3

Welcome to the NHL, Matvei. On Thursday night, we saw another top prospect, Macklin Celebrini, make his DraftKings debut at the same price, coming away with 16.5 DK points, a goal and an assist, and two shots on goal.

DraftKings tends to value NHL rookies low early in their careers, and Michkov receives the same treatment. He’ll likely see a strong lineup tonight on a small four-game roster, but given his price, he’s a worthwhile player – especially considering he’s had an excellent preseason with the Flyers, scoring three goals in four games scored seven points.

Viktor Olofsson (W, VGK3, PP1) – vs. STL – ($3,500 / $4,500)
DFO projection: DK – 7.8 / FD – 10.1

Olofsson appeared to be at the Golden Knights’ lead before last night’s game, but dropped out of the lineup, but it still paid off with a two-goal, three-shot performance. He has another strong prediction tonight when Vegas takes on St. Louis, and considering he’s on the top power play unit, he could be in solid position again tonight and some of the same with similarly priced players take off the chalk.

Shayne Gostisbehere (D, CAR-3, PP1) – vs. TBL – ($2,700 / $5,400)
DFO projection: DK – 7.8 / FD – 10.3

A $2,700 defenseman quarterbacking a top power play unit with players like Andrei Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis, Sebastian Aho and Martin Necas? Sign me up.

Gostisbehere had a great year in Detroit last season, scoring 10 goals and 56 points in 81 games with two goals and 27 assists on the man advantage. He has the chance to get points there again with the Hurricanes.

Honorable mention in advance

1. Daniel Sprong (W, VAN2, PP2) ($3,200/$5,000): DK – 7.2 / FD – 9.4
2. Nicolas Roy (C, VGK3, PP2) ($2,800/$4,000): DK – 6.6 / FD – 8.7
3. Martin Necas (W, CAR2, PP1) ($4,300/$6,600): DK – 9.0 / FD – 11.7

Top punt defender

1. Filip Hronek (VAN-1, PP2) ($3,700/$5,500): DK – 7.5 / FD – 10.0
2. Erik Johnson (PHI-2) ($2,500/$3,500): DK – 5.4 / FD – 6.6
3. Ryan McDonagh (TBL-2) ($3,100/$3,900): DK – 5.6 / FD – 7.3

Tune in to DFO DFS REPORT Live at 4:00 PM EST!

Zach Laing is news director and senior columnist for the Nation Network and accounts for one half of the DFO-DFS report. You can follow him on Twitter at @zjlaingor reach us by email at [email protected].