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Get today's top DraftKings daily fantasy hockey lineup picks for October 11, 2025. Doug's expert NHL DFS goalies picks, value plays, stacks, and power play picks.
The NHL is back to its shenanigans tonight, giving us another monster 14-game slate after no games on Friday night. A wild world, the NHL is. Tonight's slate features some of the best offenses in hockey, with the Tampa Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Avalanche, and Edmonton Oilers all playing throughout the night. Oddly enough, none of those four teams is featured in today's article, which speaks to the depth of talent in the league.
Instead, we are going to take an early look at Boston and Washington, both of whom have great matchups to start the evening. The Bruins are a surprising 2-0 and are playing like they did in their glory days of a few years ago. Maybe they've finally figured out how to replace legendary centre Patrice Bergeron. The late window is represented by the Golden Knights, who are the hottest offense to start the year, and the Anaheim Ducks, given their low prices and aggressive nature.
I aim to help you narrow your plays to get the most bang for your DFS buck. NHL Premium members can find members of the RotoBaller NHL family on Discord, where our chat is always active. I'll bring my NHL lineup picks, analysis, and advice for NHL DFS contests on DraftKings for Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. ET. Be sure also to check out RotoBaller's awesome NHL tools, including our Lineup Optimizer, Research Station, and Heat Map.
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NHL DFS Analysis And Picks For 10/11/25
Boston Bruins (BOS1 - David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie, Elias Lindholm; $18900 DK)
Defensive Addition: Charlie McAvoy ($5000 DK)
On a night with just about every team on the slate, it’s the Boston Bruins who popped the hardest on the Heat Map. They host the Buffalo Sabres, who just allowed four goals in an opening night home loss to the New York Rangers, after New York got embarrassed at home by the Penguins on Tuesday night. The setup for Buffalo couldn’t have been better, and they laid a complete egg. This speaks to how poorly they could perform this season, and is one of the main reasons we will be targeting them early this year.
Their defensive pairing of Bowen Byram and Rasmus Dahlin has combined to allow 4.05 expected goals and just shy of 13 high-danger chances per 60 minutes on the road over their last ten games, dating back to last year. It’s possible that newcomer Colton Ellis could get the nod in net after joining the team less than a week ago, after getting waived by St. Louis, yikes! If Alex Lyon ends up starting, that won’t be much better for the team, as he was the one who got ripped by the Rangers on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Boston has looked good, scoring seven goals en route to a 2-0 start, with four of those goals coming from their first line combination of David Pastrnak, Morgan Geekie, and Elias Lindholm. They’ll come back down to earth at some point, but this isn’t that night, and that makes them the best team to stack on tonight’s slate.
Vegas Golden Knights (VGK1 - Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Ivan Barbashev; $19000 DK)
Defensive Addition: Shea Theodore ($5500 DK)
No offense has come out hotter to start the season than the Vegas Golden Knights, leading the league with nine goals through two games. Pavel Dorofeyev has paced the team with four of those goals, so intuitively, he’d seem like the guy to target, but we have to dig deeper to realize why it’s not his line that we’re looking to stack tonight.
Three of Dorofeyev’s goals came on the power play, where he skates with Jake Eichel, Mitch Marner, and Mark Stone, not his even-strength line with Tomas Hertl and Brandon Saad. The majority of the rest of the offense this year has come directly from the Vegas top line, where Jack Eichel is playing like an MVP candidate with two goals and four assists through two games.
Tonight’s matchup is another strong one, as this line will face off against Seattle’s defensive pairing of Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn. Going back to last season, that duo has allowed 3.43 expected goals, 18.24 high-danger chances, and 32.68 scoring chances per 60 minutes at home over their previous ten games.
Goalie Joey Daccord has struggled against high-danger shots over his past ten home games, saving 77% that have come his way. Vegas has been dominant on the power play this year, so my favorite way to play Vegas tonight is to not only run the entire top line but also to add Tomas Hertl, as well as Dorofeyev, to achieve full correlation when Vegas has the man advantage.
With the empty net missed, Jack Eichel cashes in the other way and scores from centre ice😳
— Everything Hockey (@EHClothing) October 10, 2025
Washington Capitals (WSH1 - Dylan Strome, Alex Ovechkin, Connor McMichael; $17900 DK)
Defensive Addition: John Carlson ($5100 DK)
The Capitals may seem like an odd look as a top stack tonight, but they’ve got a great matchup against the Islanders, who looked flat on defense in their opening game against the Penguins on Thursday night. Goalie Ilya Sorokin saved just 24 shots, while allowing four goals to a Pittsburgh team that wasn’t thought to be very good this season.
The team’s defensive pairing of Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock has been awful at home over their past ten games, dating back to last year, allowing 3.22 expected goals, 33.44 scoring chances, and 13.93 high-danger chances per 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, Washington has an aggressive offense that puts goalies in considerable danger, averaging over 11 high-danger chances per 60 minutes on the road over their past ten games, dating back to last season. In three games against the Islanders last year, Dylan Strome was dominant with four goals and three assists, while Alex Ovechkin chipped in with a goal and an assist in two games.
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NHL DFS Value Stack of the Night
Anaheim Ducks (ANH2 - Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, Beckett Sennecke; $13400 DK)
We used the Ducks as our value stack on Thursday night, and it looked like they were going to reward us for our confidence in them, as Beckett Sennecke scored an early goal, and the team was off to a strong start. Unfortunately, Seattle goalie Joey Daccord settled in after that and came up with a monster 35-save game to keep Anaheim off the scoreboard for the rest of the night.
Still, there was a lot of positive that came out of that game for Anaheim, most notably that this line combined for 10 shots on goal, further cementing our hypothesis that they would be a hyper-aggressive value stack. Tonight, they get a much more appealing matchup against the San Jose Sharks, who have been particularly poor defensively against opposing teams’ second lines at home over the last couple of years.
On Thursday night, the defensive pairing of Dmitry Orlov and Shakir Mukhamadullin allowed over 20 high-danger chances and 36 scoring chances per 60 minutes to Vegas in a 4-3 loss, allowing seven shots on goal to their second line. Add in defender Jackson LaCombe, and you’ve got a potentially slate-breaking line at a value price point.
This is great stuff right here 🙌
Beckett Sennecke had a mic on him for his first NHL game and goal!#FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/eJid8TqUqx
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) October 11, 2025
NHL DFS Goalie to Target
Sergei Bobrovsky (FLA - $8100 DK)
It may seem odd to look at a goalie like Sergei Bobrovsky tonight, considering he’s going up against a relatively potent Ottawa offense. Still, sometimes in DFS, we have to ignore the strength of an offense and instead focus on the shot volume from that offense.
Sure, Bobrovsky could allow three goals tonight, but the Senators took 34 shots on goal in their first game, which would mean Bobrovsky would still save 31 shots in our scenario. Add in a win, which the odds currently say is likely with Florida being a -145 favorite, and out of nowhere, Bobrovsky has put together a DraftKings score of 17.2 points, which is more than acceptable.
Going back to last season, no goalie has played as well as Bobrovsky, allowing just 1.41 goals per game at home over his last ten starts, so giving up three goals tonight, in a game with a total of just 5.5 goals, is more of a worst-case scenario rather than a median projection. There may be some goalies with a higher upside, or with a better matchup, but no goalie on tonight’s slate is safer than Bobrovsky.
Others in consideration: Spencer Knight (CHI), Scott Wedgewood (COL), Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB), Filip Gustavsson (MIN)
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