RADIO
Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey season has now entered the postseason which is the most exciting time to watch and partake in NHL DFS! As always, I'll give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on both 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.
In the image above, you'll see that Sidney Crosby is skating in-between Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust and this line has skated together for most of the year. The idea behind staking forward lines is that if Crosby gets a goal, there is a higher percentage and chance that either Rust or Guentzel would get credited with an assist, therefore, resulting in more fantasy points.
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 on that site 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 Tuesday, June 8th, 2020 at 6:30 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 6/8
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- Tampa Bay Lightning (-120) vs. Carolina Hurricanes - 5.5U
- Vegas Golden Knights vs. Colorado Avalanche (-145) - 5.5U
NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix
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 total column indicates that it is a more dangerous matchup for that team's goalie while it might be beneficial to stack against him. If the total is low, that means he is in a good matchup from a fantasy perspective and should be considered for your goalie selection. 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
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 rank. When looking at this matrix, you will want to look for teams that succeed in the power play rank (lower the rank the better they are) while their opponent has a poor penalty kill rank (the higher the rank, the worse their penalty kill is).
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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 a preferred play (varies on slate size) at each position and then other options at different price points so that you can have a variety of plays to choose from when building your cash builds or needing cornerstones for your tournament builds.
NHL DFS Center Picks
- Brayden Point, TBL ($6,400 DK / $7,500 FD) - Point might be one of the best point-per-dollar plays on the entire slate given his recent form. He has recorded a goal in four of his last five games played and has managed to produce two points in back-to-back games against the Canes. While he isn't a high-volume shooter like Nathan MacKinnon, he is a playmaker that knows how to find the open man and it also helps that he skates alongside one of the best pure scorers in Nikita Kucherov. Point is viable in all formats and would be one of the first people to consider in your cash game builds.
Other centers to consider based on my preference:
- High Priced- MacKinnon, Aho
- Mid-Tier- Karlsson, Trocheck, Stephenson
- Value- Gourde, Staal, Cirelli
NHL DFS Forward Picks
- Max Pacioretty, VGK ($7,000 DK / $7,600 FD) - Pacioretty continues to produce against any opponent and there is no reason to not continue rostering him. He has registered a point in every playoff game so far and has managed to score a goal in back-to-back games against Colorado. He provides a very solid floor from a fantasy standpoint and with this game being in Colorado, he might come in lower owned as people might flock to the Avs side of things so Pacioretty makes for a great tournament play.
Other wings to consider based on my preference:
- High Priced- Kucherov, Rantanen, Landeskog, Stamkos
- Mid-Tier- Stone, Marchessault, Svechnikov, Teravainen, Palat
- Value- Smith, Tuch, Necas, Niederreiter, Coleman, Killorn, McGinn
NHL DFS Defenseman Picks
- Alec Martinez, VGK ($5,300 DK / $5,100 FD) - You really can consider any of the big three defenders for Vegas but when it comes to cash game builds, especially on DK, my attention will always gravitate towards Alec Martinez. Martinez provides a very safe floor as he is good for four to five combined peripheral stats per game and has recorded the three blocked shots bonus in five straight games. If he is able to record those blocks and also register a point, he could be one of the higher-scoring defensemen on any of these playoff slates.
Other defensemen to consider based on my preference:
- High Priced- Hedman, Makar
- Mid-Tier- Pietrangelo, Theodore, Toews
- Value- Graves, Sergachev, Pesce, Slavin, Cernak, McNabb
NHL DFS Goalie Picks
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL ($8,000 DK / $8,100 FD) - This series features a little bit of a Jekyll and Hyde feel as the first two games played in Carolina both featured three total goals per game while the games in Tampa combined for 11 total goals scored. The line matching was a lot tighter when the Canes had the home-ice advantage and we could be in for another close low-scoring contest which means we should focus on this game when it comes to our goalie selection. if you're looking for a cash game goalie, Vasilevskiy could be the best one to choose. He has won three out of his four starts against the Canes so far this postseason and was dominant on the road as he allowed only two goals on 70 total shots that he faced.
Other goalies to consider based on my preference:
- High Priced- Grubauer
- Mid-Tier-
- Value- Fleury
Note: If you do roster a goalie listed above, it is sometimes best to make a hedge lineup in tournaments and take the opposing offense against them in case he gives up a few goals while that opposing team carries lower ownership. Also, make sure that the goalie listed above is starting and if not, make sure to pivot!
Favorite NHL DFS Line Stacks
- COL 1
- Landeskog/ MacKinnon/ Rantanen (Makar, d-men add on)
- The top line for the Avs looked very good when they were facing off against Vegas in the first two games of the series on home ice but when they went on the road, it was a completely different story. In the first two games. this line produced three goals for at all strengths while generating 29 scoring chances and 15 high danger opportunities in just 41 minutes of ice time. In their most recent two games on the road, this line managed to only score one goal while allowing two goals and was only able to generate 20 scoring chances four and five high danger opportunities while allowing eight higher chances against. This game could feature some serious back and forth and with Colorado getting the home ice advantage, we could see their top line be put into several favorable matchups that could lead to points being scored.
- Landeskog/ MacKinnon/ Rantanen (Makar, d-men add on)
Other Stacks to consider in order of preference: TBL 1, VGK 2, VGK 1, CAR 1, TBL 2, TBL 3
Key Abbreviations:
xGF/60= expected goal for per 60 minutes of ice time
GF/60= goals for per 60 minutes of ice time
SC/60= Scoring Chances per 60 minutes of ice time
If you have any additional questions, make sure to reach out to me on Twitter or in our NHL room at the RotoBaller slack chat!
NHL Player News and Updates
[jiffyNews category_include='9958' headline='More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis'
