NHL DFS Lineup Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings, SuperDraft (1/20): Value Plays, Goalies, Stacks

3 years ago by Jorge Pucks

Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey season is back and I am thrilled to be covering this sport over at RotoBaller! As always, I will do my best to give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on DraftKings and FanDuel.

If you are new to playing NHL DFS, there are several things to know that will help you get caught up to speed. The first thing to know is that stacking lines is important and correlating your plays can pay off. In hockey, if someone scores a goal, there's a good chance that some on his team will receive an assist on that goal, so you want to build lineups around players skating together. The second thing is to make sure you look at the two sites and see the different ways to obtain points. On DraftKings, you get bonus points for 5+ shots or 3+ blocked shots so someone like Alex Ovechkin who is a volume shooter tends to be a better play there just because he can rack up additional points based on his style of play.

Today I'll be bringing you my NHL lineup picks, analysis and advice for NHL DFS contests on DraftKings and Fanduel for Wednesday, January 20th, 2020 at 7:00 PM. Be sure to also check out our awesome NHL tools including our Lineup Optimizer, Research Station, Projections, and DFS Cheat Sheets! Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jorgepucks as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions. Good luck RotoBallers!

NHL DFS Analysis and Picks for 1/20

Edmonton Oilers vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (-157) - 6.5O
San Jose Sharks vs. St. Louis Blues (-177)- 5.5O
Minnesota Wild (-143) vs. Anaheim Ducks - 5O
Montreal Canadiens (-122) vs. Vancouver Canucks- 6O
Arizona Coyotes vs. Vegas Golden Knights (-200) - 5.5O

NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix

Team	Rank GA	Rank SA	Rank GF	Rank SF	Total
Edmonton	15	12	17	28	15.5
Toronto	26	13	29	6	21
San Jose	27	22	4	26	21.75
St. Louis	5	28	17	21	15.75
Minnesota	23	21	20	25	18.5
Anaheim	25	11	3	27	20.25
Montreal	19	18	13	2	19.75
Vancouver	19	4	24	18	9.5
Arizona	3	8	9	14	7.75
Vegas	13	29	19	1	16.25

The matrix above takes the averages of four categories and creates a rating scale to help you decide which goalies to use, which goalies to target against, and conversely which teams could be viable from a stacking standpoint. It looks at four categories: Goals Allowed (GA), Shots Allowed (SA), Goals For (GF), Shots For (SF). The higher the overall rating in the last column indicates that it is a more dangerous matchup for that team's goalie while it might be beneficial to stack against him. I match and sync this every day to the actual opponents that they are facing every slate so this is always slate specific.

NHL DFS Power Play Matrix

Matchup	PP%	Opp PK %
Edmonton	1	21
Toronto	6	2
San Jose	23	18
St. Louis	3	1
Minnesota	10	24
Anaheim	31	25
Montreal	22	16
Vancouver	4	19
Arizona	18	26
Vegas	9	5

The Power Play matrix is to help locate matchups that can be exploited should there be an odd-man advantage during the game. Just like the goalie matrix above, the teams are matched up based on their own power play percentage rank and their opponent's penalty kill percentage. When looking at this matrix, you will want to look for teams that succeed in the power play rank while their opponent has a poor penalty kill rank.

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NHL DFS Core Plays

The Core plays below are the players that you should focus on incorporating into your cash game builds and tournament builds. When it comes to cash games, you want guys that offer high floors that rack up peripheral stats (shots, blocks, etc).

When it comes to tournaments, it is best to take a core play and see who their linemates are and build line stacks based on that. I will give 2-3 plays at each position at different pricing ranges so that you can have a variety of plays to choose from when building your cash builds.

NHL DFS Center Picks

Auston Matthews ($ 8,400 DK / $ 7,900 FD) - The great debate will be Matthews and McDavid...with Toronto being on home ice and having the line matching advantage, Matthews could find himself in much more favorable matchups throughout the game. Matthews has taken five or more shots in three out of four games played and has four total points on the season. Edmonton is allowing opponents to take 36 shots per game while also giving up 3.8 goals per game as well so if the Maple Leafs get on the board, Matthews should be involved somehow someway.
Logan Couture ($ 5,700 DK / $ 7,000 FD) - The Sharks captain had a big-time game in their first game against the Blues on Monday night as he had two goals and an assist in just 17 minutes of ice time. Couture has registered double-digit fantasy points in all three games this season and with how competitive and the first game was with the Blues, it wouldn't
Chandler Stephenson ($ 4,300 DK / $ 3,800 FD) - Stephenson finally had a breakout game against Arizona on Monday as he recorded his first goal of the season while also notching his second assist of the season. Stephenson truly benefits as he skates between Pacioretty and Stone and as long as he is in between those two wingers, he is always viable for your hockey DFS lineups.

Other centers to consider: McDavid, Pettersson, O'Reilly, Schenn, Danault

NHL DFS Forward Picks

Max Pacioretty ($ 7,500 DK / $ 8,300 FD) - Pacioretty was able to find the back of the net in the first game on Monday against the Coyotes. He is off to a really hot start as he has scored a goal in every single game so far this season and has taken at least five shots in every game as well.
Kevin Fiala ($ 6,400 DK / $ 6,400 FD) - Kevin Fiala has the green light when it comes to shooting the puck. Fiala is averaging six shots per game to start the season and is still searching for his first goal of the year. With his high shot volume, Fiala could smash once he finds the back of the net.
Jordan Kyrou ($ 2,800 DK / $ 3,200 FD) - Kyrou has been a great value piece for the Blues to start the season. He is playing on the second line with Schwartz and Schenn and has registered three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in his first three games of the season. While it is still a small sample size, Kyrou has really stood out skating on this line and if he continues to pull the trigger and shoot, good things will happen.

Other wings to consider: Marner, RNH, Stone, Pearson, Leonard, Kyrou

NHL DFS Defenseman Picks

Brent Burns ($6,900 DK / $ 6,500 FD) - Burns is coming off of a vintage Burns type of performance. He took four shots, saw 28 minutes of ice time, and had one goal and two assists. Two of his points came on the power play and the Sharks will need Burns to keep it up on the offensive end if they want to remain competitive throughout the season.
Jeff Petry ($5,800 DK / $ 5,600 FD) - Petry continues his hot streak as he has registered a point in three straight games and has five total points on the season. In addition, he is seeing over 21 minutes of ice time and is skating on the top power-play line as well so his assist opportunities will be there.
Alexander Romanov ($ 4,300 DK / $ 4,100 FD) - If you want to go to a cheaper Canadiens defenseman, you could slide on down to Alexander Romanov. Romanov skates on the third defenseman line but also sees second-team power-play tome as well. Romanov is not afraid to shoot the puck as he is averaging three shots per game and two blocked shots per game.

Other defensemen to consider: Theodore, Pietrangelo, Karlsson, Chychrun, Parayko, Larsson

NHL DFS Goalie Picks

Robin Lehner ($ 8,500 DK / $ 8,600 FD) - Vegas is the largest favorite on the slate which means either Lehner or Fleury will be in a heavy favorite in cash game lineups. The one downside to rostering a Golden Knights goalie is that Vegas will not announce who will be in the net prior to warmups so you will need to monitor this news closely. Lehner is 2-0 on the season with a 2.01 goals allowed average and a .926 save percentage.
Cam Talbot ($ 7,800DK / $ 7,900 FD) - Talbot has been trusted as the defacto goalie in Minnesota and so far, he has not disappointed. Talbot is 2-1 on the season with a 2.27 goals allowed average and a .926 save percentage. He faced 27 shots in his last outing against the Ducks and was on the losing end as the Wild lost 1-0. The Ducks aren't a big-time scoring threat as they are averaging 1.3 goals scored per game so Talbot looks to be in a good spot to rack up some saves and hopefully pitch a shut out.
John Gibson ($ 7,300 DK / $ 7,400 FD) - While I just mentioned Talbot above, you could save some salary and go down to Gibson who should be in the opposite net for the Ducks in this game. Gibson is 1-1-1 with a 2.03 goals allowed average and a .937 save percentage. Gibson had a monster game against the Wild on Monday as he stopped all 34 shots that he faced and pitched his first shut out of the season. With this being the lowest total on the slate, it is certainly viable to consider either goalie, especially considering they just combined for one goal scored in their last matchup.

Note: If you do roster a goalie listed above in cash games, it is sometimes best to make a hedge lineup in tournaments and take the opposing offense against them incase he gives up a few goals while that opposing team carries lower ownership.

Favorite NHL DFS Line Stacks

TOR 1
- Thornton/ Matthews/ Marner (Rielly, D-men add on)
  - This slate will be a pick your poison kind of slate as Edmonton and Toronto face off and both teams will carry heavy ownership. Edmonton has shown that they still have trouble playing defense and with knowing that, it looks better to consider rostering the Toronto side of this game. This top Toronto line has really produced some strong numbers as they are sporting an 80 CF/60, a 2.51 xGF/60, and 45.09 scoring chances for per 60 minutes of ice time. The Matthews line should skate with the McDavid line which really is a great matchup for the Matthews line as the McDavid line has an xGA/60 of 2.76 and also allowing 10.78 high-danger chances against per 60 minutes.
VGK 1
- Pacioretty/ Stephenson/ Stone (Pietrangelo, D-men add on)
  - The pricing is still too good on this line to not play them. In the first game against Arizona, this line produced a 76.92 CF, five scoring chances, and three high-danger opportunities. The top Vegas line saw a mixture of the Coyote's second and third lines throughout the game and was able to take advantage of both matchups. The top Vegas line has a 2.94 xGF/60, 29 SCF/60, and 15.41 HDCF/60 on the season. Those numbers will come down a bit as the season goes on but it gives us a glimpse as to what kind of form they are in to start the season.
STL 2
- - Schwartz/ Schenn/ Kyrou
    - The St. Louis second line dominated their matchup against San Jose on Monday night. They primarily stayed with the Sharks second line and did an amazing job by creating 11 scoring chances while holding the Sharks second line to zero scoring chances at full strength. In addition, they were able to create three high danger opportunities and also generate two goals. We will need value on this slate to squeeze in the higher-priced stacks and this is a line that dominates puck possession and looks to be in a very favorable matchup.