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Thursday’s NHL slate is off to a rocky start, with the Avalanche and Wild already taken off the board due to a postponement. There are still eight games left, however, making for an intriguing DraftKings DFS night with a solid combination of both top-end options and viable pivots. It should also be a much more manageable schedule today — all of the games start within a one-hour window — and we’ll take you through the stacking options here to prepare for the slate, which locks at 7:00 p.m. ET on DraftKings.
Set your DraftKings fantasy hockey lineups here: NHL $70K Twine [$20K to 1st]
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Top Stacks
New York Rangers
Mika Zibanejad ($6,800), Chris Kreider ($4,200), Pavel Buchnevich ($5,400)
Washington Capitals
Nicklas Backstrom ($6,400), Alex Ovechkin ($8,000), Tom Wilson ($4,800)
Toronto Maple Leafs
Auston Matthews ($8,500), Mitch Marner ($7,400), Zach Hyman ($4,500)
The first two stacks listed here are actually a pair that figures to go up against each other head-to-head tonight, as the first lines of the Rangers and Capitals are both well-positioned to take advantage of each others’ defensive flaws. Neither team should be expected to be that good defensively, and power play stacking could be viable here too which means that players like John Carlson ($6.800) and Artemi Panarin ($6,800) warrant strong consideration. The Leafs will get a plus-matchup tonight as well, taking on a Canucks team that gives up a lot of scoring chances and doesn’t have good goaltending either. Matthews and Marner are viable plays on any slate, but they’re among the best on this one when factoring in the high-quality matchup.
Value Stacks
Nashville Predators
Matt Duchene ($4,400), Filip Forsberg ($5,600), Mikael Granlund ($4,400)
Toronto Maple Leafs
John Tavares ($6,500), Mitch Marner ($7,400), Zach Hyman ($4,500)
Montreal Canadiens
Phillip Danault ($4,300), Tomas Tatar ($5,200), Brendan Gallagher ($6,400)
The Predators have really struggled of late and have been tweaking their line combinations, and the result is an extremely cheap second line which consists of three of their best forwards. Duchene, Forsberg, and Granlund were really good together last season, and they cost just $14.4K in aggregate. The Predators will also get a better matchup tonight against the Panthers than they did the last two games (against the Lightning), so this could be a recipe for a breakout night. The Tavares line benefits from the same circumstances as the Matthews line (see above) and the Canadiens have a case for any of their lines to show up in this section. Facing the Senators basically puts every player on the roster on the DFS radar, and the Canadiens are as deep as any team in hockey and have been utterly dominant so far this season. The Danault line more of a nominal choice here, and there’s probably value in the first three and maybe even all four Montreal lines in this game.
Contrarian Stacks
Dallas Stars
Joe Pavelski ($7,000), Jamie Benn ($5,600), Alexander Radulov ($6,500)
Vancouver Canucks
Bo Horvat ($6,200), Brock Boeser ($5,700), J.T. Miller ($5,000)
Chicago Blackhawks
Dylan Strome ($5,000), Alex DeBrincat ($6,100), Dominik Kubalik ($5,000)
The Stars lit up the Blue Jackets two nights ago with virtually no ownership, and given the exorbitant prices they’re likely to remain contrarian even after that five-goal game. Joe Pavelski at $7K is far from a value, but there’s enough talent on this line to make them worth a look in GPPs if they continue to fly under the radar. The Canucks have had a tough stretch and have switched up their lines (like the Predators), though swapping in Horvat for Elias Pettersson ($6,100) doesn’t really change the cost of the stack. The opposing Leafs haven’t been great defensively this season, and this Canucks line correlates on the first power play and has a good chance to take advantage there even if they struggle at even strength. Lastly, the Blackhawks are running it back against the Hurricanes after losing in a shootout earlier in the week, and they should be contrarian in such a difficult matchup. The second line is probably their most dynamic line, but this team on the whole—including Patrick Kane ($7,900)—could be worth a look given how low-owned they’re likely to be.
Set your DraftKings fantasy hockey lineups here: NHL $70K Twine [$20K to 1st]
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