NHL DFS Lineup Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings (6/10 Showdown): Value Plays, Goalies, Stacks

Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey season has now entered the postseason which is the most exciting time to watch and partake in NHL DFS! As always, I'll give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on both DraftKings and FanDuel.

Today I'll be bringing you my NHL lineup picks, analysis, and advice for NHL DFS contests on DraftKings and FanDuel for Thursday, June 10th, 2020 at 9:00 PM. Be sure to also check out our awesome NHL tools including our Lineup Optimizer, Research Station, Projections, and DFS Cheat Sheets!

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jorgepucks as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions. Good luck RotoBallers!

Intro and Overview

If you are new to playing NHL DFS, there are several things to know that will help you get caught up to speed. The first thing to know is that stacking lines is important and correlating your plays can pay off. In hockey, if someone scores a goal, there's a good chance that some on his team will receive an assist on that goal, so you want to build lineups around players skating together.

In the image above, you'll see that Sidney Crosby is skating in-between Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust and this line has skated together for most of the year. The idea behind staking forward lines is that if Crosby gets a goal, there is a higher percentage and chance that either Rust or Guentzel would get credited with an assist, therefore, resulting in more fantasy points.

The second thing is to make sure you look at the two sites and see the different ways to obtain points. On DraftKings, you get bonus points for 5+ shots or 3+ blocked shots so someone like Alex Ovechkin who is a volume shooter tends to be a better play on that site just because he can rack up additional points based on his style of play.

NHL DFS Analysis and Picks for 6/10

• • Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights (-140) - 5.5U

NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix

The matrix above takes the averages of four categories and creates a rating scale to help you decide which goalies to use, which goalies to target against, and conversely which teams could be viable from a stacking standpoint. It looks at four categories: Goals Allowed (GA), Shots Allowed (SA), Goals For (GF), Shots For (SF). The higher the overall rating in the total column indicates that it is a more dangerous matchup for that team's goalie while it might be beneficial to stack against him. If the total is low, that means he is in a good matchup from a fantasy perspective and should be considered for your goalie selection. I match and sync this every day to the actual opponents that they are facing every slate so this is always slate specific.

NHL DFS Power Play Matrix

The Power Play matrix is to help locate matchups that can be exploited should there be an odd-man advantage during the game. Just like the goalie matrix above, the teams are matched up based on their own power play percentage rank and their opponent's penalty kill percentage rank. When looking at this matrix, you will want to look for teams that succeed in the power play rank (lower the rank the better they are) while their opponent has a poor penalty kill rank (the higher the rank, the worse their penalty kill is).

Did you know RotoBaller has a Premium NHL DFS subscription? Like what you read today? You can show your support for Jorge by using the promo code JORGEPUCKS when purchasing an NHL DFS Premium Pass. You get 10% off, and exclusive access to all of our Premium NHL cheat sheets, DFS research tools, Premium Slack Chatrooms, Stack Builder, Correlation Matrix, and Lineup Optimizer!

NHL DFS Core Plays- Showdown Edition

Captain Picks

• Marc-Andre Fleury ($10,600 DK) - If Vegas is able to win on home ice, it will be partly due to an outstanding goaltending performance by Marc-Andre Fleury. He is allowing only two goals scored per game in the four games he has played against Colorado during these playoffs and was dominant on home ice all season long as he went 13-4 with a 2.01 goals allowed average and a .927 save percentage with two shutouts. With DK including goalies, he would be a top option in all formats and is worth paying up for.
• Max Pacioretty ($8,800 DK/ 15,000 FD) - Pacioretty has now registered a point in six straight games and looks to be in top-tier form as Vegas can close out the series here in Game 6 against the Avs. While he carries a high price tag on FD, his pricing on DK is very reasonable and he has managed to score a goal in all three home games that he has played in during these playoffs.
• Nathan MacKinnon ($11,400 DK/ 14,500 FD) - If you're looking for a player from Colorado, look no further than Nathan MacKinnon. MacKinnon will be a very popular pick in all formats and will carry heavy ownership despite being held pointless in three straight games. He is due to get on the scorer's sheet and if Colorado wants to force this to a Game 7, they will need him to have himself a game.

Value Picks

• Reilly Smith ($5,400 DK/ $8,500 FD) - Smith grades out to be a solid value play on both sites. He skates on a very productive line and has managed to accrue a point in three out of his last four games played against the Avalanche.
• Brandon Saad ($5,000 DK/ $9,500 FD) - Saad has a hot hand for Colorado and he was placed on the top line alongside both Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He has managed to score a goal in four out of his last five games against Vegas and as long as he continues to skate on this top line, he would be a great value play in all formats.
• Mattias Janmark ($3,800 DK/ $7,500 FD) - Janmark returned from a three-game absence and was able to record a point in 15 minutes of ice time. Janmark is not a safe play by any means but has been productive for Vegas as he has seven total points in nine playoff games this year.

Stacks

• VGK 2- Marchessault/ Karlsson/ Smith
• VGK 1- Pacioretty/ Stephenson/ Stone
• TBL 3- Saad/ MacKinnon/ Rantanen

Player Pool (In order of preference)

C- Karlsson, MacKinnon, Stephenson, Compher, Jost, Roy

W- Pacioretty, Rantanen, Stone, Marchessault, Landeskog, Smith, Saad, Burakovsky, Tuch, Nichushkin, Janmark, Donskoi

D- Pietrangelo, Makar, Theodore, Martinez, Toews, McNabb, Girard, Graves, Hague 

G- Fleury, Grubauer

Key Abbreviations:

xGF/60= expected goal for per 60 minutes of ice time

GF/60= goals for per 60 minutes of ice time

SC/60= Scoring Chances per 60 minutes of ice time

If you have any additional questions, make sure to reach out to me on Twitter or in our NHL room at the RotoBaller slack chat!

NHL Player News and Updates

[jiffyNews category_include='9958' headline='More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis'