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The NBA is on break so it’s all hockey, all the time (with a small break for the Daytona 500). DraftKings is even promoting this as “Hockey Week” with bigger tournaments and multiple bonuses. Today’s slate of games is split into two, six-game chunks. The earlier slate doesn’t have nearly as many tournaments, so this article is going to focus solely on the Main slate.
DraftKings has gone above and beyond their normal Saturday offerings. There are five tournaments with an entry fee of $15 or less and a top prize of $1,000 or more, highlighted by the $15-entry Kick Save with a top prize of $20,000 and the $4 Micro Forecheck with a top prize of $5,000. Meanwhile, Fanduel has a $4.44 entry tournament with a $5,000 first prize. There is money to be won tonight, so let’s get that cash!
This is going to be a fun slate with a ton of stacking options. I aim to help you narrow your plays to get the most bang for your DFS buck. Be sure to check out all of our NHL articles and NHL DFS tools, including our daily NHL Heat Map. NHL Premium members can find many members of the RotoBaller NHL team in Discord leading up to lock to answer all of your lineup questions.
Top Three Stacks of the Night
Toronto Maple Leafs (TOR1 - Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner, Matthew Knies)
It’s not unusual to see the Maple Leafs listed among the top stacks on a slate, but their recent form may give some players pause tonight. Toronto has only scored 2.42 even-strength goals per 60 minutes over their last ten home games. We generally don’t touch teams who play at that level, but Toronto is getting a little unlucky. Advanced data shows that the Leafs should have scored 2.7 goals per 60 minutes, leaving room for upside today.
Anaheim has allowed 2.77 even-strength goals per 60 minutes over their last ten road games, but our desire to stack against them goes even deeper than that. The Ducks roll out two defensive pairings that get hammered on the road, and both of them should spend more than 40% of their ice time trying to defend Auston Matthews and friends. The last time these two teams faced off, Matthews went wild with one goal on 13 shots on goal for 32.3 DraftKings points. Mitchell Marner backed that up with 18.5 DraftKings points on the strength of one assist and seven shots on goal. There isn’t a team on tonight’s short slate that can match the upside of a Matthews and Marner combination. Jake McCabe should continue to man the point for Toronto’s top power play during Morgan Reilly’s suspension, and he’s a great addition to a Leafs stack at only $4,300.
Montreal Canadiens (MTL1 - Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky)
The Canadiens are quietly one of the hottest offenses in the league. Their top line of Suzuki, Caufield, and Slafkovsky went into the All-Star Break playing well, and they’ve exploded in the five games since the team returned to play. The trio has combined for 13 goals and 12 assists in those five games, with each player on the line scoring double-digit fantasy points in four games, and scoring 20 or more DraftKings points twice. Despite their success, they still remain a very affordable stack. Star defender Mike Matheson should be added in as a fourth player on your Canadiens stack, as he has also scored double-digit DraftKings points in four of the five games since the return from the All-Star Break. All four members of this stack play on the top power play line, so you’re getting 100% correlation by using all of them.
The Capitals have been as cold on offense as Montreal has been hot on offense. Over their last ten road games, Washington has allowed 3.14 even-strength goals and a slate-high 13.3 high-danger chances per 60 minutes. Charlie Lindgren continued his fall from grace in his last start with four goals allowed. That marked the fifth time in six games that he allowed three or more goals, including three goals allowed on nine shots by Montreal eleven days ago.
Carolina Hurricanes (CAR1 - Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Andrei Svechnikov)
This slate lacks matchups that pop on the Heat Map outside of Toronto and Montreal, so we are going to grab a potentially overlooked line of our third stack of the night. Vegas is the defending Stanley Cup champions, and Adin Hill has been playing well this year, but there are some underlying reasons to stack against them tonight. First of all, Vegas has allowed only 1.61 even-strength goals per 60 minutes over their last ten home games, but advanced data shows that this is nearly a full goal better than what they were expected to do.
That means they are due for negative regression sooner or later, and that can be attributed to the poor defensive play of Alex Pietrangelo and Alec Martinez. They surrender a lot of possession to opposing offenses, and that has led to those teams taking an above-average number of high-danger chances. If Adin Hill is off his game at all, he could be in trouble against a group of players as talented as Carolina’s top line. A play on Carolina is a lot thinner than our normal top stack, but they should go unowned, and if they pop off they are the kind of late-night hammer that can take down a tournament.
Others in consideration: PHI1, VGK2
Top Value Stack of the Night
Vegas Golden Knights (VGK3 - William Karlsson, Brendan Brisson, Sheldon Rempal)
We can look to the other side of the ice in the Carolina and Vegas game for a little bit of late-night value. Like with the Carolina side, this is a thin play, but one that can open up the rest of your lineup and pay off huge with even one full-line goal (a goal and two assists). Carolina’s defense isn’t bad on the road, but this is their second road game in two nights and they’ll be starting Spencer Martin in net. Martin has allowed three or more goals in seven of his last nine starts, and in six road games, he’s allowing nearly four goals per game.
The third line for Vegas should get the most ice time against the defensive pairing of Burns/Slavin, who have been the most generous of the Hurricanes’ defensive trios. Both Brandan Brisson and Sheldon Rempal are priced at the stone minimum price of $2,500, meaning you can do whatever you want with the rest of your lineup if you roster them both. It would take about 7.5 DraftKings points from each of those guys to pay off their price points, a number Rempal has hit in two of his five games this year. Brisson has hit that mark in three of his last five games. Rempal was sent down to the AHL earlier this week, but sometimes that’s just done for paperwork purposes, so keep an eye on our Discord to see if the gets replaced or recalled before the the puck drops.
Others in consideration: NJ3, NJ4, CBJ2
Top Goalies to Target
Thatcher Demko (Vancouver Canucks)
Thatcher Demko was $8,100 on Thursday night for a home matchup against Detroit. He scored 21.4 DraftKings points, yet his price went down another $200 tonight! Demko is a machine at home, averaging 19.1 DraftKings points per game over 21 starts. He has scored 13 or more DraftKings points in 12 of his last 15 starts, giving him one of the highest floors of any goalie in the league. The Jets have only averaged 1.48 even-strength goals per 60 minutes over their last ten road games, so it’s not like they’ve done anything recently to deter us from using Demko. His price point makes him a prime target in both cash and GPP lineups.
Others in consideration (GPP): Nico Daws, Samuel Ersson, Mackenzie Blackwood
Others in consideration (Cash): Adin Hill, Connor Hellebuyck
