NHL DFS Picks & Top Stacks for Daily Fantasy Hockey Lineups

Saturday’s are usually a full day of NHL DFS hockey. The eight-game main slate that locks at 7 p.m. ET will be the primary focus for this Power Play & Top Stacks article. With the help of Alex Baker’s industry-leading fantasy hockey point projections, ownership and top stacks tool, we’ll be finding some of the best NHL DFS picks for DraftKings and FanDuel lineups on Saturday’s slate.

If you’re looking for early slate news and notes, I’ll be in our premium Slack channel before and I will break the slate down together with the community.

As always, be sure to check our premium Slack for crucial fantasy hockey lineup information in the 20-30 minutes leading up to every game’s lock. With the COVID-19 pandemic still looming, teams have taxi squads and are ready to fill positions daily as teams scratch players. Our Slack chat is hands down one of the best places to get fantasy hockey news and line change notifications.

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NHL Power Plays: DraftKings + FanDuel DFS Picks | April 3

NHL DFS Picks: Centers

Nathan MacKinnon (COL vs STL)

DraftKings — $9,100

FanDuel — $9,000

MacKinnon’s Awesemo ownership projection isn’t incredibly high, but he should be quite popular after lighting the Blues up for a couple goals last night. He managed to fire off seven shots on goal to get the added shots bonus as well. This year alone, MacKinnon has three games against St. Louis and he has averaged just under two points a game, with a 22.8 DraftKings point average. Add in the fact that the Blues’ penalty kill has been awful and the Avalanche fully correlate, giving you a great stack again. The full-line salary will keep its ownership down as a total, so you can find some good leverage if you can get the right secondary value stack.

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NHL DFS Picks: Wingers

Artemi Panarin (NYR @ BUF)

DraftKings — $8,300

FanDuel — $7,700

These two teams just played on Thursday night and the Rangers came out victorious in overtime. Panarin has been lethal the last two games, tallying five points. He’s averaging over three shots per game and with another great matchup against the Sabres tonight, his shot projection is nearing three again. . On Thursday, the Sabres’ fourth line and second line matched up with Panarin for an even split, and he couldn’t be contained. Buffalo has struggled immensely the whole year, and with Jack Eichel shelved, there’s seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel. At five-on-five, the Sabres are 26th in XGA/60, 24th in Corsi, 27th in SA/60 and 29th in GA/60. Linus Ullmark will start tonight and he will be very busy.

Brendan Gallagher (MTL vs OTT)

DraftKings — $6,800

FanDuel — $6,400

Ice time has always been an issue when playing any forwards from Montreal. They are so deep that they have the luxury to run all four lines. But when we get a good matchup, we have to take advantage. Gallagher is a shot-volume winger that can fill the net up in a hurry. The crafty winger has lit the lamp in four of the last five games, and he’s consistently put three shots on goal. Awesemo’s shot projection has him eclipsing three again tonight. The Canadiens’ top line as a whole is one of the best offensive-possession lines in the league, so I’m not worried about the matchup against the Brady Tkachuk line. In a massive sample, Montreal’s top line carries a 61 CF%, with an expected goals of 3.3XGF/60 at five on five.

If you’re looking to capitalize on the Senators bottom-10 penalty kill, going to the Canadiens’ second line could be a great pivot. It fully correlates on the top power-play unit and it will save you $1,700 on DraftKings.

Timo Meier (SJ @ LA)

DraftKings — $4,900

FanDuel — $4,600

Meier is the definition of a volume shooter. Get him the puck and he will find a way to get it to the net. The Swiss winger has at least seven shots on goal in two of the last three games. Among all forwards, Meier leads the league in individual Corsi for per 60 at 21.42. According to Awesemo, Meier is in the top-7 players in projected shots on goal. Meier will also stay away from the one defensive line the Kings have, which is the Anze Kopitar line. If you’re looking for a value-ish one-off, Meier is on the short list.

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NHL DFS Picks: Defensemen

Shea Weber (MTL vs OTT)

DraftKings — $5,400

FanDuel — $4,900

Dominique Ducharme is constantly mixing things up on the Canadiens’ blue line. Weber has been playing around 22 minutes nightly, and he’s quarterbacking the top power-play unit. Over the last 10 games, Weber has averaged five shots/blocks per game. It’s nice to see his shot volume come back, after starting the year out a little flat. Ottawa is giving up the most points per game to opposing defensemen in the league and if you’re playing a power-play stack, adding in Weber is a great move. However, he will garner considerable ownership, according to the Awesemo projections.

If you’re looking to play a Canadiens top-line stack, I would look to use Jeff Petry ($5,900).

Gustav Forsling (FLA vs CBJ)

DraftKings — $3,900

FanDuel — $3,600

If you’re looking to save salary, going down to a guy like Forsling will help you pay up for a stack. Aaron Ekblad is out for the season with a gruesome leg injury, leaving a good amount of ice time to be accounted for. Ekblad was playing 25 minutes a night, and now Forsling will get to step up and play more minutes. Since Ekblad’s injury, Forsling has gone from 20 minutes a night to 23 minutes a night. Forsling is also quarterbacking the second power-play unit. Columbus has played better on the penalty kill, but it still has the 25th-ranked kill. Forsling should get plenty of run to pay off his salary.

Top Stacks

NY Rangers 2: Artemi Panarin – Ryan Strome – Kaapo Kakko

The Rangers’ second line has been a great possession line with a 55 CF%. At five-on-five they carry a 2.5 XGF/60, while creating 36 SF/60 and over 11 high-danger chances. The Sabres used the Taylor Hall line and the Tobias Rieder line against them on Thursday and they had a 73CF% and a 70% XG%. They dominated the scoring chances and killed the Sabres 5-1 in high-danger chances. Buffalo is going to continue to struggle to keep the Rangers’ top six at bay. Lastly, Buffalo has been a middle of the road team in terms of penalty killing percentage. Digging deeper, over the last 10 games, Buffalo is spending the most time in the league short-handed at 6:15 per game. In that time, they have the third-worst expected goals against on the kill as well. The Panarin-Strome-Kakko line is a top-5 option, according to the Awesemo Top Stacks Tool.

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Author

Jeff Votteler

As an avid competitor, Jeff "Votts" Votteler grew up playing all types of sports. But as he grew up, he gravitated towards hockey and played at a very competitive level. Fantasy sports became a passion of Votts' over 10 years ago, which in turn moved over to the emerging world of daily fantasy sports for the last five years. Votts likes to dive into the analytics of all the sports, where he can turn over those value "rocks" that players depend on to win on a daily basis.