NHL DFS Lineup Picks for FanDuel, DraftKings (4/3): Value Plays, Goalies, Stacks

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, FanDuel, and SuperDraft.

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, FanDuel, and SuperDraft for Saturday, April 3nd, 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 4/3

• • New York Rangers (-135) vs. Buffalo Sabres - 6O
  • Philadelphia Flyers (-167) vs. New York Islanders - 6U
  • Dallas Stars vs. Carolina Hurriances (-140) - 6O
  • Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Florida Panthers(-215) - 5.5O
  • Ottawa Senators vs. Montreal Canadiens - 5.5U
  • Minnesota Wild vs. Vegas Golden Knights (-125) - 5.5O
  • St. Louis Blues vs. Colorado Avalanche -
  • San Jose Sharks vs. Los Angeles Kings -

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).

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

• Nathan MacKinnon, COL ($9,100 DK / $9,000 FD) - Nathan MacKinnon is just money against the Blues. He recorded two goals against the Blues last night and has now three goals and two assists on the year against St. Louis.
• Phillip Danault, MTL ($4,100 DK/ $4,600) - Danault has been on quite a run recently as he has recorded two points in four of his last five games played. While Danault doesn't offer the highest upside at the center position, you might want to use him while he is on a hot streak.

Other centers to consider: 

• High Priced- Barkov, Zibanejad, Trocheck, Barzal
• Mid-Tier- Kopitr, Karlsson, Hertl
• Value- Wennberg, Kotkaniemi, Dickinson

NHL DFS Forward Picks

• Brendan Gallagher, MTL ($6,800 DK / $6,400 FD) - Gallagher is one of the better goal scorers on this Montreal squad and is one of the better cash game plays on this slate. He has registered a point in four of his last five games and has recorded three goals and two assists in six games against the Senators.
• Rudolfs Balcers, SJS ($3,100 DK / $3,000 FD) - Balcers has really turned it up lately from an offensive perspective and could be a cheaper value play if needing salary relief. His line should avoid the Kopitar line and draw better matchups against the Kings depth. Balcers has scored four points over his last two games and is averaging over two shots on goal and one blocked shot per game over his last five games.

Other wings to consider: 

• High Priced- Pacioretty, Panarin, Rantanen, Landeskog, Huberdeau, Stone, Buchnevich, 
• Mid-Tier- Kreider, Marchessault, Necas, Brown, Svechnikov, Eberle Bjorkstrand, Benn, Tatar
• Value- Laine, Batherson, Burakovsky, Labanc, Schwartz, Smith, Stuetzle, Donato, Saad

NHL DFS Defenseman Picks

• Adam Fox, NYR ($7,000 DK / $5,700 FD) - One of the best defensemen on the slate is Adam Fox. Fox has scored a point in nine straight games and is averaging over three peripheral stats per game over his last 10 games played. He is worth spending up for as he has recorded a goal and five assists in five games against the Sabres while also having 17 total peripheral stats in those five games.
• Jared Spurgeon, MIN ($4,700 DK / $4,600 FD) - The pricing on Spurgeon on both sites is very solid and for the floor that he can give you, he is worth rostering on both sites. Spurgeon does a little bit of everything and in a competitive game against Vegas, he should be able to generate some peripheral stats at the very least.

Other defensemen to consider: 

• High Priced- Hamilton, Pietrangelo, Theodore, Petry, Burns
• Mid-Tier- Chabot, Weber, Doughty, Jones, Girard, Pulock, Werenski
• Value- Lindell, Karlsson, Slavin, Dunn, Yandle, Graves, Suter

NHL DFS Goalie Picks

• Philipp Grubauer, COL ($8,300 DK / $8,600 FD) - Grubauer looks to be back in the net again for Colorado and he enters this game as a winner of four of his last five outings. Grubauer is having a very good year as he is 22-7-1 with a 1.78 goals allowed average and a .918 save percentage and is 1-1 against St. Louis. In those two games, Grubauer has stopped 49 of 53 shots while also recording one shutout against them earlier this season.
• Sergei Bobrovsky, FLA ($7,900 DK / $8,100 FD) - Bobrovsky should get the start against Columbus and he is 3-0 against them this year. In those three starts, Bobrovsky has stopped 85 of 94 total shots and is sporting a 2.93 goals allowed average. Bobrovsky has won two straight games and could see some offensive help as Aleksander Barkov could return to the Florida lineup.

Other goalies to consider: 

• High Priced- Price, Varlamov
• Mid-Tier- Fleury
• Value- Gustavsson

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 Avs top line had a very solid night against the Blues as they created seven scoring chances and were able to record a goal at full strength. This line sported a 65 corsi for rating throughout the 12 minutes of ice time and also generated three high danger chances as well. This Colorado top line is one of the best lines in the league and the Blues just have a hard time stopping them year in and year out.
• NYR 2
  • Panarin/ Strome/ Kakko 
    • The Panarin line for New York had a very dominant performance against the Sabres on Thursday night as they had a 73 corsi for rating and generated six scoring chances and five high danger opportunities throughout the game. This line is sporting a 2.51 expected goals for rate on the year while also generating 25.24 scoring chances per 60 and 11.38 high danger chances per 60.

Other Stacks to consider: VGK 1, LAK 1, MTL 1, VHK 2, SJS 2, MTL 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!

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