NHL DFS Lineup Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, SuperDraft (3/22): Value Plays, Goalies, Stacks

Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey season is back and I am thrilled to be covering this sport over at RotoBaller! As always, I will do my best to give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on DraftKings, FanDuel, and SuperDraft.

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. 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 there just because he can rack up additional points based on his style of play.

Today I'll be bringing you my NHL lineup picks, analysis, and advice for NHL DFS contests on DraftKings, FanDuel, and SuperDraft for Monday, March 22nd, 2020 at 7:00 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!

NHL DFS Analysis and Picks for 3/22

• • Buffalo Sabres vs. New York Rangers (-140) - 6O
  • Carolina Hurricanes vs. Columbus Blue Jackets - 5.5O
  • Edmonton Oilers vs. Montreal Canadiens (-125) - 6O
  • Calgary Flames (-175) vs. Ottawa Senators - 6O
  • New York Islanders (-125) vs. Philadelphia Flyers - 5.5U
  • Anaheim Ducks vs. Minnesota Wild (-210) - 5.5U
  • St. Louis Blues vs. Vegas Golden Knights (-161) - 6.5U
  • Winnipeg Jets (-125) vs. Vancouver Canucks - 6U
  • Colorado Avalanche (-210) vs. Arizona Coyotes - 5.5U
  • Los Angeles Kings vs. San Jose Sharks (-122) - 6.5U

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 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

The Core plays below are the players that you should focus on incorporating into your cash game builds and tournament builds. When it comes to cash games, you want guys that offer high floors that rack up peripheral stats (shots, blocks, etc).

When it comes to tournaments, it is best to take a core play and see who their linemates are and build line stacks based on that. I will give 2-3 plays (varies on slate size) at each position at different pricing ranges so that you can have a variety of plays to choose from when building your cash builds or needing cornerstones for your tournament builds.

NHL DFS Center Picks

• Nathan MacKinnon, COL ($9,000 DK / $8,800 FD) - McaKinnon continues to impress and is heating up even more as he has generated eight points over his last four games and has recorded three-point efforts in back-to-back games. In just three games against the Coyotes this season, MacKinnon has registered a goal and an assist but has also taken 20 shots on goal!
• Ryan Strome, NYR ($5,900 DK/ $ 5,900) - Strome has been playing exceptionally well over his last 10 games as he has notched four goals and seven assists in that 10-game stretch. Strome has scored a point in five straight games and has recorded one goal against the Sabres this season.
• Tomas Hertl, SJS ($4,700 DK / $5,900 FD) - Hertl continues to generate points which is why we will continue to roster him. Hertl has scored four-point over the last three games and has scored two goals in two games against the Kings this season.

Other centers to consider: McDavid, Aho, Scheifele, Zibanejad, Couture, Schenn, Lindhom, Staal, Eriksson Ek, Roslovic, Norris, Glass

NHL DFS Forward Picks

• Artemi Panarin, VGK ($8,400 DK / $7,700 FD) - Panarin has not missed a beat while he was out for several weeks and since he has returned, he has provided a spark to the Rangers offense. Over his last five games that he has played, Panarin has notched three goals in five games while totaling seven points during that five-game stretch.
• Kevin Fiala, MIN ($5,200 DK / $5,700 FD) - Fiala has done well against the Ducks this season as he has scored three goals in four games while taking 16 total shots on goal in those four games. Fiala hasn't been in the best of forms as he hasn't scored a goal in over three games but a matchup against the Ducks should get him right back on track.
• Tomas Tatar, MTL ($3,900 DK / $5,100 FD) - Tatar has been heating up recently as he has registered a point in three straight games while scoring a goal and an assist in his most recent game against the Canucks. Tatar has notched two goals against Edmonton in three games played and while his pricepoint is low, he could go overlooked based on the matchup.

Other wings to consider: Pacioretty, Rantanen, Tkachuk, Stone, Kane,  RNH, Ehlers, Kreider, Kaprizov, Bjorkstrand, Marchessault, Necas, Kyrou, Burakovsky, Hoffman, Pulujarvi, Labanc, Copp, Schwartz, Kessel, Dube, Smith, Parise

NHL DFS Defenseman Picks

• Shea Theodore, VGK ($6,300 DK / $6,400 FD) - Theodore has one of the better floors from a DFS perspective as he can rack up points and peripheral stats at any given point. Theodore has recorded five points over his last four games and is also coming off of a six-shot on goal performance against the Kings. As long as Pietrangleo is out, Theodore remains to be one of the best all-around plays on any slate.
• Adam Fox, NYR ($5,200 DK / $5,200 FD) - Fox is on a bit of a hot streak as he has registered a point in three-straight games and is averaging over three peripheral stats per game. Fox has registered two assists in just three games against the Sabres this year and makes for a viable tournament play at his price range.
• Alexander Edler ($4300 DK/ $4,200 FD)- The ceiling might not be too high for Edler from a point-scoring perspective but for his price, he makes for a great value option for cash game builds. Edler is averaging five peripheral stats per game over his last four games played and is seeing over 20 minutes per game as well so his chances will come.

Other defensemen to consider: Hamilton, Barrie, Nurse, Chychrun, Burns, Jones, Giordano, Weber, Brodin, Hughes, Werenski, Karlsson, Trouba, Dunn, Suter, Prosser, Schmidt, Drysdale

NHL DFS Goalie Picks

• Cam Talbot, MIN ($8,300 DK / $8,000 FD) - Despite his overall record on the season, Cam Talbot is having a very solid year. He is 6-5-1 with a 2.66 goals allowed average and a .915 save percentage. Talbot has only faced the Ducks once this year but in his lone start, he stopped 27 of 28 shots in a losing effort. The Wild have been playing very well this year and should be one of the safer picks to get a win tonight which means Talbot should be in a good spot to record some saves and get the win.
• Alexander Georgiev, NYR ($8,600 DK / $7,500 FD) - We are unsure of who will draw the start between Georgiev or Kinkaid but whoever gets the start is certainly in play against the Sabres. The Rangers are still without Shesterkin so both Georgiev and Kinkaid will be splitting time and since Kinkaid started on Saturday, we can lean to thinking Georgiev would draw the start Monday. Georgiev is 5-5-2 on the year with a 2.92 goals allowed average and a .897 save percentage. This is certainly a situation that you will want to circle back on before lineup lock as the Rangers could easily decide to start Kinkaid as well tonight.
• Thatcher Demko, VAN ($7,600 DK / $7,700 FD) - Demko continues to impress as he is on a four-game winning streak and has won eight out of his last nine starts. On the season, Demko is 12-10-1 with a 2.66 goals allowed average and a .921 save percentage. Demko has found success against Winnipeg this year as he is 2-1 against them in three total starts and has stopped 79 of 81 shots faced in those three games.

Other goalies to consider: Markstrom, Quick

Note: If you do roster a goalie listed above, it is sometimes best to make a hedge lineup in tournaments and take the opposing offense against them incase he gives up a few goals while that opposing team carries lower ownership. Also, make sure that the goalie listed above is starting and if not, make sure to pivot!

Favorite NHL DFS Line Stacks 

• COL 1
  • Landeskog/ MacKinnon/ Rantanen (Makar, d-men add on)
    • The top line for the Avs continues to be one of the more dominant lines to stack in the entire league and should get a favorable matchup against the Coyotes tonight. This top-line has 26 minutes of ice time against Arizona this season and has generated 32 scoring chances and 13 high danger chances in just those 26 minutes. This line is still trying to find success at 5v5 against Arizona but has netter two goals on the power play in three games this year. With it being a larger slate, this Avs line could see lower ownership which means they are a viable tournament stack on this slate.
• NYR  2 
  • Panarin/ Strome/ Blackwell 
    • The newly formed second line for the Rangers has been pretty solid over the last month as they have skated together for over 60 minutes and are producing a 2.4 expected goals for rate per 60 minutes. They are generating the most scoring chances on the team (28.39) per 60 minutes but are only generating 5.87 high danger chances per 60 minutes. With the Rangers having the home-ice advantage, the second line should draw favorable matchups against the Sabres depth lines and can hopefully net a few goals.

Other Stacks to consider: EDM 1, SJS 1, VAN 1, NYI 1, CGY 1, MIN 2, OTT 2, CBJ 3, PHI 3

SuperDraft NHL DFS Picks

C: MacKinnon (1.25X), Strome(1.4X), Couture (1.5X), Hertl (1.7X)

W: Panarin (1.2X), Pacioretty (1.3X), Stone (1.4X), Rantanen (1.6X)

D: Burns (1.15X), Hamilton (1.25X),Fox (1.3X), Makar (1.5X)

G: Lehner (1.2X), Kohkonen (1.3X), Varlamov(1.6X)

*Core 4 for SuperDraft are Bolded

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!

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