NHL DFS Lineup Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings (4/20): 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 Tuesday, April 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 4/20

- New Jersey Devils vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (-260) - 6U
- New York Rangers vs. New York Islanders (-130) - 5.5U
- Carolina Hurricanes vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (-128) - 5.5U
- Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Florida Panthers (-200) - 5.5O
- Detroit Red Wings vs. Dallas Stars (-220) - 5.5U
- Toronto Maple Leafs (-280) vs. Vancouver Canucks - 6O
- Anaheim Ducks vs. Los Angeles Kings (-140) - 5.5U

NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix

Team	Rank GA	Rank SA	Rank GF	Rank SF	Total
New Jersey	28	10	5	14	18.75
Pittsburgh	16	18	26	11	13.25
New York Rangers	7	21	28	18	14.75
New York Islanders	2	26	13	18	18.5
Carolina	5	23	22	3	16.5
Tampa Bay	7	22	29	9	13.5
Columbus	26	5	4	24	14
Florida	11	15	23	2	13.5
Detroit	23	9	1	29	17.25
Dallas	3	30	13	24	15.75
Toronto	11	24	25	7	15.25
Vancouver	22	1	8	18	13.75
Anaheim	25	8	2	30	14.5
Los Angeles	18	7	11	14	14.25

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 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

Matchup	PP Rank	Opp PK Rank
New Jersey	29	24
Pittsburgh	9	31
New York Rangers	15	10
New York Islanders	25	3
Carolina	1	9
Tampa Bay	5	6
Columbus	28	12
Florida	12	16
Detroit	30	16
Dallas	6	24
Toronto	11	20
Vancouver	18	26
Anaheim	31	4
Los Angeles	13	18

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).

Did you know RotoBaller has a Premium NHL DFS subscription? Like what you read today? You can show your support for Jorge by using promo code JORGEPUCKS when purchasing an NHL DFS Premium Pass. You get 10% off, and exclusive access to all of our Premium NHL cheat sheets, DFS research tools, Premium Slack Chatrooms, Stack Builder, Correlation Matrix and Lineup Optimizer!

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 (varies on slate size) at each position at different pricing ranges 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

Auston Matthews, TOR ($9,100 DK / $8,700 FD) - Matthews continued his strong season on Sunday night against the Canucks as he recorded seven shots on goal and found the back of the net. Matthews now has scored six goals in six games against Vancouver and has taken 28 shots on goal in those six games.
Jamie Benn, DAL ($5,200 DK/ $6,100 FD) - Benn has been playing pretty well recently and his good form should continue on against the Red Wings. Benn has scored five points over his last five games and while he has yet to record a point in two games against Detroit, he has taken nine total shots on goal.

Other centers to consider:

High Priced- Barkov, Crosby, Trocheck, Kopitar, Aho
Mid-Tier- Horvat, Point, Miller, Carter, Nelson
Value- Anderson-Dolan, Wennberg, Backes, Bennett

NHL DFS Forward Picks

Joe Pavelski, DAL ($7,200 DK / $7,400 FD) - Pavelski has been a very consistent winger for DFS purposes over his last 10 games and continues to grade out like a fine cash game play. Pavelski has registered six points over his last five games played and is averaging close to three peripheral stats per game.
Oliver Bjorkstrand, CAR ($4,700 DK / $5,600 FD) - Bjorkstrand is one of the more underrated wingers in the entire league and should not be overlooked. He leads the Blue Jackets in both total points (33) and goals scored (14) nd now has five goals in seven games against the Panthers this season.

Other wings to consider:

High Priced- Marner, Guentzel, Hornqvist, Rust, Barzal, Huberdeau, Robertson
Mid-Tier- Iafallo, McCann, Svechnikov, Palat, Necas, Eberle, Niederreiter
Value- Vatrano, Galchenyuk, Duclair, Gurianov, Palmieri, Hoglander, Gusev, Dickinson

NHL DFS Defenseman Picks

John Klingberg, DAL ($5,800 DK / $5,400 FD) - Klingberg has been very steady for cash games and he has fared well against Detroit this year. In four games played, he has scored two goals and assisted two goals while totaling 16 peripheral stats in those four games. Klingberg has recorded a point in five straight games so it makes sense to ride the hot hand.
Brandon Montour, FLA ($4,200 DK / $3,900 FD) - Montour has been a nice cash game play ever since he joined the Panthers. Looking at his last 10 games played, Montour has recorded five goals and one assist but has accrued 23 shots on goal and 14 blocked shots which is ideal from a cash game standpoint.

Other defensemen to consider:

High Priced- Hamilton, Hedman, Letang, Doughty, Jones
Mid-Tier- Rielly, Heiskanen, Sergachev, Hughes, Subban, Lindell
Value- Myers, Oleksiak, Pesce, Cernak, Ceci, Skjei

NHL DFS Goalie Picks

Tristan Jarry, PIT ($8,300 DK / $8,100 FD) - Jarry has been extremely good for the Pens this season and is in good form as he is 3-1 over his last four starts. In those four games, he is carrying a 1.75 goals allowed average and is averaging 26 saves in that four-game stretch. Jarry is 1-1-1 against New Jersey this year and has stopped 93 of 100 shots that he has faced.
Jake Oettinger, DAL ($8,200 DK / $7,600 FD) - With Khudobin getting the start on Monday night, that means we will most likely see Oettinger between the pipes on Tuesday night against Detroit. Oettinger has won two straight games and has won three of his last five games that he has started but what's even more impressive is that he has only allowed eight total goals in that five-game span.

Other goalies to consider:

High Priced- Driedger
Mid-Tier- Petersen
Value- Holtby

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

TOR 1
- Galchenyuk/ Matthews/ Marner (Rielly, d-men add on)
  - The Matthews line led the team with 11 scoring chances and five high danger chances in just 11 minutes of ice time against the Canucks on Sunday night. While this line did allow two goals, they were able to generate a power-play goal which was scored by Auston Matthews. In 53 minutes of ice time together, this line is sporting a 3.99 expected goals for rate and is generating 47.41 scoring chances for and 24.84 high danger chances for which is extremely high.
DAL 1
- Robertson/ Hintz/ Pavelski (Klingberg, d-men add on)
  - The Stars top line had a very good night against Detroit on Monday night so it makes sense to go right back to them on Tuesday. In 13 minutes of ice time against the Red Wings, the Hintz line was able to score one even-strength goal while generating nine scoring chances and three high danger opportunities. They saw a good dose of the Larkin line and were able to maintain the puck for most of their possessions so if they decide to go with the same line matches as they did on Monday, it could make for another strong outing for the Dallas top line.