RADIO
All other Premium Tools and Content can be accessed on the premium dashboard.
It has been a week and a half since our last full NHL slate and the league comes back with seven games starting in the early window and one solitary game in the late night window. That game features Edmonton and Vegas, and on a slate that looks to be dominated by defense, a decision will have to be made if you want to fade that game and sweat it out, or if you want to leave a lot of minutes on the table until that game and hope to make a run up the leaderboard.
DraftKings has its usual array of low-cost GPP options, including five tournaments that have an entry fee of $15 or less and a top prize of $1,000 or more, highlighted by the $20-entry Tuesday Twenty with a top prize of $20,000. Meanwhile, Fanduel has a $4.44 entry tournament with a $2,000 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
New Jersey Devils (NJ1 - Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Ondrej Palat)
The Colorado Avalanche are the only team playing back-to-back nights after the All-Star Break and the Devils are the beneficiary who get to face them in a comfortable home matchup. The Avs started Alexandar Georgiev last night, with Justus Annunen projecting to get the start tonight. He’s only played in one game this year, but he saw 40 shots on goal and allowed four goals. The Avs allowed 3.36 even-strength goals per 60 minutes in their last ten road games before the break.
New Jersey was as hot as Colorado was cold entering the break, averaging 2.98 even-strength goals per 60 minutes in their last ten home games. Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier were leading the charge, with Bratt scoring a goal or assist in four straight games and Hischier doing the same in five of his last six games. Ondrej Palat has been playing as the third winger on this line, but we will keep an eye out to see if that changes at Morning Skate. Check in with our Discord to hear about any updates to this, or other, lines and how those changes affect our stacking preferences.
Florida Panthers (FLA1 - Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues)
On a night that seems to be lacking defenses we want to attack, we instead should turn to offenses that are looking to rebound after disappointing runs to the All-Star Break. Florida qualifies as one of those teams, scoring only 2.41 even-strength goals per 60 minutes over their last ten home games but with the capabilities to produce at a much higher level. Advanced data shows that the Panthers were unlucky, as they were expected to have scored over three goals in those ten games.
A lot of their misfortune looks to be remedied by the return of a healthy Aleksander Barkov to the lineup. He played in three games before the break, all Florida wins in which they scored three or more goals. Evan Rodrigues is doing his part, with three or more shots on goal in four straight games, while Sam Reinhart is one of the hottest players in the league; riding a 13-game point-scoring streak.
On the Philly side, Samuel Ersson should be starting in net and he’s allowed three or more goals in four straight games. The defensive data may not show it, but this is a great spot for the Panthers to continue their run of positive offensive regression.
Washington Capitals (WSH1 - Alexander Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, Tom Wilson)
As has been mentioned many times in this article, tonight appears to be a slate that could be dominated by defense. There aren’t many spots that look to be an obvious “attack”, but any home team taking on the Montreal Canadiens would fall into that category. Over their last ten road games, Montreal has allowed 3.31 even-strength goals and a slate-high 13.58 high-danger chances per 60 minutes. Even on a slate with far less defense, this would be a team we’d be looking to stack against.
The Capitals haven’t played well on offense this year, but they went into the break with a tiny bit of offensive spark. Dylan Strome, at only $4,400, scored three goals in the final two games before the break, and Alexander Ovechkin had a goal and two assists in those games. The entire stack is cheap, coming in at a total of $14,900, so they won’t need to do much to provide an acceptable return. Stacking the Capitals also allows you to build a well-balanced lineup with another strong line as their complement.
Others in consideration: BUF1, WPG2, NJ2, MTL1, EDM1
Top Value Stack of the Night
Boston Bruins (BOS3 - Morgan Geekie, Trent Frederic, Jakub Lauko)
The Bruins’ third line has been surprisingly plucky at points this year. Jakub Lauko only averages 2.5 DraftKings points per game, but he had three games of 6.5 DraftKings points or more in the five games before the All-Star Break. Trent Frederic has been a legitimate fantasy asset, currently in the midst of a five-game point-scoring streak. He has scored double-digit fantasy points in four of his last seven games, yet is priced at only $3,600.
The Bruins have been white-hot at home, averaging a slate-high 3.78 even-strength goals per 60 minutes over their last ten home games. Meanwhile, the Flames have allowed 2.46 even-strength goals per 60 minutes in their last ten road games, but advanced data shows that they’ve been a little lucky to have allowed so few goals. They should have allowed 2.79 goals in those games, so it’s likely that negative regression is headed their way.
Others in consideration: MTL3, CGY2, BOS4, BUF2, COL2
Top Goalies to Target
Stuart Skinner (Edmonton Oilers)
Stuart Skinner may be the hottest goalie in the entire NHL. He hasn’t allowed more than two goals in a game since December 22; a span of 11 starts. He has at least 16 DraftKings points in each of those games, giving him one of the highest floors on the slate. A trip to Vegas is never fun for an opposing goalie, but Skinner’s success has extended to road games; allowing a total of five goals in his last five road starts. He has scored fewer than 16 DraftKings points just once on the road since November 22.
Shot volume may be a bit of an issue for Skinner’s fantasy outlook, but only one goalie out of the 16 on the slate allows a high number of shots per game so if there’s any slate to not worry about volume for your goaltender it’s this one. Skinner is only $7,500 despite his recent run of success, making him a strong play for both cash and GPP lineups.
Others in consideration (GPP): Sam Montembeault, Sergei Bobrovsky, Tristan Jarry, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Justus Annunen
Others in consideration (Cash): Thatcher Demko, Connor Hellebuyck
