The 2021 NHL season is officially underway, and that means NHL DFS is back in our lives. Like many sports the easiest way to maximize your ceiling is through stacking and that couldn’t be more true with each goal averaging 1.7 assists per event. In this article I’ll help you find the best stacks and NHL DFS picks to make for DraftKings +FanDuel fantasy hockey lineups using Awesemo’s Top Stack Tool.
[GRETZKY]
[SportsbookAffiliates]
NHL DFS Picks: Top Stacks for DraftKings + FanDuel | Jan. 13
Top Stack: COL1
The Avalanche, and many NHL DFS slates, end and begin with Nathan MacKinnon and the top line. A frontrunner for this year’s Hart Trophy and perennial point producer, he carries this line regardless of who is skating alongside him. Fortunately enough for him, he has a healthy Mikko Rantanen to start the year as they take on the Blues in Denver. Rantanen and MacKinnon have produced dominant offensive on-ice metrics whenever paired together over the last four years. Surprisingly, Jared Bednar decided to go with offensively minded Andre Burakovsky to complete the line, which should make for some extremely high-event hockey.
These three only played approximately 65 minutes together all last year, so the data is not going to give us much. But with a positive Corsi For, I like their odds of creating chances and meeting our high expectations at sub-10% ownership on FanDuel.
Awesemo Top 2 Stack Projection: 16.6%
Awesemo Cumulative Ownership Projection: 6.5%
Leverage: 10.1%
Under-Owned Stack: STL1
Playing high-event hockey can often be a double-edged sword for teams, as it creates opportunities for opponents to counterattack and create scoring chances. That is what we are expecting here with the Blues’ top line. Game stacking is not often used in NHL DFS, as it often negatively correlates if those lines are on the ice together because one side is normally controlling the scoring opportunities. As such, I wouldn’t strongly advise running these two together.
Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn played together the most of this trio with just 117 joint minutes on the ice. In that time they amassed positive chances for across the board and a ridiculous 83% goals for percentage. Paired with them is David Perron, a solid two-way forward who is coming off the second-best point producing year of his 13-year career in his second stint with the Blues.
I obviously don’t expect the completely lopsided goals-for numbers to hold up, but the situation sets up very nicely for this group on just a five-game slate.
Awesemo Cumulative Ownership Projection: 1.1%
Awesemo Top 2 Stack Projection: 5%
Leverage: 3.9%
Follow us on all of our social channels! Check out our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more great Awesemo content.
Looking for more fantasy hockey and NHL DFS picks content? We have loads of fantasy hockey articles, data, DraftKings and FanDuel cheat sheets and more on the Awesemo NHL home page. Just click HERE.
