Good morning, everybody! You have just jumped into some NHL DFS Value Stacks where we target the better scoring lines, defensive pairings, and value picks for the larger hockey slates of the day. Designed to be a fast read, we aim to get info to you quickly and efficiently. For deeper dives into advanced metrics, you will want to either follow me (@Choppodong) out on Twitter, watch accompanying videos on YouTube, or simply become a VIP and join our exclusive Slack Channels inside the DFS Army. Either way, I can’t wait to engage and talk puck the rest of this 2018 season, so let’s dive in!!!
Welcome back! Hope you built up a nice itch to scratch from the All-Star Break that felt like a month. We have 12 games to jump into tonight, so let’s not waste any time. Lots of matchups to dissect…
NHL Goalies and Back to Back Situations
Watch these teams for extensive travel, backup goalies getting the start, and general exhaustion giving your opposing scoring lines a nice boost in opportunity.
Front end of back to back: NYI, SJS
Back end of back to back: none
NHL Advice: Starting Goalie Picks
Jaroslov Halak (NYI – $7600) – Isle’s coach Doug Weight has been quoted as saying Halak will see a “good long run” with the goalie position, and it appears Halak is responding. 2-1 in his last 3 games with a 93.7% save percentage, Halak sees shots but has been stopping the puck by allowing only a 2.33 GA avg over that span. FLA has not been good away from home (8-14-3) and are currently 20th in the league offensively (2.77 goals/game). With a 6.5 over/under coming out of Vegas, you might sneak up on some people with this play tonight.
Pekka Rinne (NSH – $8600) – It’s been a strong run for Pekkerhead. He has won his last 5 outings and has seen 114 shot attempts fired at his ugly mug. He allows goals, but those shots build a stable floor that when coupled with large Vegas support (-170 as of now) gives us a fairly safe pick. Rinne has only posted 2 games under 20 fantasy points in his last 8 games. He becomes fairly safe for all formats.
Are you new to NHL DFS? See: Strategy Guide for Fanduel and Draftkings
NHL Strategy: Favored Hockey Line Stacks
In DFS NHL we correlate in different ways. Sometimes centers with wingers, sometimes we include a defenseman, and sometimes we cross lines and overlap on power play units. Here are the correlated plays I like most today.
PIT1 – So many ways to roll out a solid lineup here. Mix and match because they are all in good spots and PIT is sort of heating up as a team. That said, my favorite stack will contain Crosby, Simon, and Schultz. I have access to PIT1, the second defensive unit, and both power plays. Suprisingly, Schultz serves almost as much time with the top PP as Letang, and crosses over ice time with both units instead of just sitting on the PP2 like many think. This combo gives great cash-safe access to the offense as a whole, and PIT is matching up against a very leaky SJS1 and SJS3 tonight. I want as much access to both those lines as possible, so it only makes sense to spread across scoring lines and have a player or two on the ice at all times.
VGK2 – Being on the road, I’m trying to target the softer CGY2 here. I’m not sure VGK2 will be the right line, but I’m sure of the fact they are red hot right now and cheaper than the Vegas top line (also firmly in play). With a full stack of Haula/Perron/Neal/Miller you tighten your focus for GPPs (a smaller portion is cash-safe) and take advantage of 10 goals, 14 assists, on 68 shots across the last 5 games. You will overlap quite a bit with the weaker CGY line, but you should be fine all game long in the event we miss the bullseye matchup here.
BUF PP1 – A little odd being that everyone in the DFS community knows how bad BUF is these days. But, don’t look now…..these guys are scoring of late! I’d leave little to chance, though, and stack up the top power play unit tonight. Reinhart/Okposo/Eichel/Ristolainen covers a couple of even strength lines. They also feature a defenseman logging a ton of ice time to spread out enough for cash contests. A very ballsy play, and obviously not completely without risk. Over their last 5 games, this sneaky combination has produced 351.6 fantasy points for a stack average of 70.32 points per game! And, this stack can be bought for $22.8k, or only 40% of your Fanduel cap. If you wanted to break it off for added safety, Ristolainen and Reinhart would be my choices. With 92.4 and 80.2 fantasy points over that 5 game span, you are spending just under $9000 for this mini-stack and get a ton of recent bang for your buck.
There are plenty more stacking combinations tonight. For more of our targeted plays, become a VIP today and enter our private Slack Forums where the discussion never rides the bench!
DFS NHL Advice: Value Picks
Justin Schultz (PIT D2/PP2 – $4200) – If not using the top units from PIT tonight, you still want to grab exposure to the weaker defense of San Jose tonight. The game features a game total of 6 that is still leaning on the over tonight. Schultz allows this exposure by crossing over with both PIT1 and PIT2, giving access to both Crosby and Malkin, and as noted above, Schultz overlaps both power play units unlike his counterpart Kris Letang.
Kevin Fiala (NSH3/PP1 – $4300) – Personally, I can’t find a line in Nashville worthy of stacking up, but I did find a decent little value play in Fiala. Most won’t dive into this game for forwards, let alone down to the 3rd line. But, Fiala has been hot averaging 14.9 Fanduel points across his last 5 games. If you wanted to gamble a bit more, add in Rinne for the win and a defensemen (doing most of NSH’s scoring lately) for a correlated play capitalizing on the defensive backslide that is CHI1 and CHI2 lately.
Scott Wilson (BUF2 – $3100) – Super punt priced, Scott Wilson, has been producing like a much more expensive player with 1 goal, 2 assists, and 10 shots on goal over his last 3 games. Over the same span, he has averaged a mind-boggling 15.2 ppg. Take the $2000 discount and load up on the bigger PIT guns as a leverage play and minimal exposure to BUF should they scare you a little with their horrible season-long play.
Video Supplement for NHL DFS Value Stacks
For those that like things in video form with screen-sharing capability, here is a supplementary piece from YouTube (where you can find more strategy screen-sharing videos). In these videos, we can fire even more information at you in a shorter period of time when it comes to stats and numbers…
DFS NHL Overtime
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