RADIO
Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey is one of my favorite sports to watch and play from a DFS perspective 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 for Thursday, August 6th, 2020 at 2:30 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 8/6
- Vancouver Canucks (-115) vs. Minnesota Wild (-105)
- Washington Capitals (-125) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (+105)
- Vegas Golden Knights (-115) vs. St. Louis Blues (-105)
- Toronto Maple Leafs (-159) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (+137)
- Calgary Flames (-160) vs. Winnipeg Jets (+140)
NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix
| Team | Rank GA | Rank SA | Rank GF | Rank SF | Total |
| Philadelphia | 4 | 30 | 31 | 21 | 17.25 |
| Calgary | 27 | 11 | 30 | 11 | 17 |
| Vegas | 11 | 31 | 29 | 1 | 18.75 |
| Minnesota | 12 | 22 | 26 | 15 | 21 |
| Vancouver | 26 | 1 | 25 | 25 | 17 |
| Winnipeg | 2 | 13 | 24 | 6 | 14 |
| Washington | 31 | 16 | 21 | 14 | 24.75 |
| St. Louis | 8 | 28 | 17 | 16 | 16.5 |
| Toronto | 17 | 21 | 17 | 19 | 10.5 |
| Columbus | 16 | 27 | 2 | 2 | 19.75 |
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 so for example, the Islanders GA and SA will get matched with the Panthers GF and SF.
| Matchups | PP % Rank | Opp PK % |
| Vancouver | 5 | 20 |
| Minnesota | 10 | 10 |
| Washington | 22 | 15 |
| Philadelphia | 23 | 21 |
| Vegas | 11 | 27 |
| St. Louis | 13 | 30 |
| Toronto | 16 | 16 |
| Columbus | 30 | 12 |
| Calgary | 1 | 5 |
| Winnipeg | 12 | 14 |
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.
NHL DFS Core Four
The Core 4 picks are to help you construct your cash game lineups while also giving you plays that you can use and build around in GPPs. Stacking is critical in NHL DFS so you might want to pair these suggestions with a linemate or two, especially when building your tournament lineups.
1) DFS Center: Auston Matthews ($8,400 DK / $8,800 FD)
Matthews was back on the score sheet Monday night as he had a goal and assist in a 3-0 win against Columbus. He has taken 16 shots on goal during this series and remains very active on the offensive end. With this series being the most active when it comes to pace of play, it is hard to not try to squeeze in talent like Matthews into your lineup.
Other Top Center Plays:
- John Tavares ($6,900 DK/ $7,600 FD)
- Evgeny Kuznetsov ($5,000 DK/ $7,100 FD)
- Sean Monahan ($5,300 DK/ $6,800 FD)
- William Karlsson ($5,400 DK/ $6,500 FD)
2) DFS Winger: Kevin Fiala ($7,200 DK / $7,000 FD)
Fiala has been one of the top wingers over his last ten games played. He has had double-digit DK performances in every game during that 10 game stretch while producing 17 points during that time frame as well. In five games against the Canucks this year, he has had six points and averaged 17.2 DK points per game against them. He is viable in all formats and is one of the top players on the slate.
Other Top Winger Plays:
- Johnny Gaudreau ($6,000 DK/ $7,900 FD)
- Mitch Marner ($6,900 DK/ $7,400 FD)
- Elias Lindholm ($5,200 DK/ $5,600 FD)
- Alex Ovechkin ($8,200 DK/ $8,600 FD)
3) DFS Defenseman: Mark Giordano ($5,900 DK / $5,900 FD)
When we look for a defenseman that can do it all, Giordano truly stands out. While he has been a little quiet from the scoring perspective in this series against Winnipeg, he has generated fantasy points from peripheral stats like shots on goals and blocked shots. During this series, he is averaging over 2.5 shots per game while blocking three shots per game so he could be viewed as a top cash game option at this position.
Other Defenseman Plays:
- John Carlson ($6,800 DK/ $6,700 FD)
- Jared Spurgeon ($5,400 DK/ $5,400 FD)
- Alex Pietrangelo($6,300 DK/ $5,800 FD)
- Alexander Edler ($5,700 DK/ $4,400 FD)
4) DFS Goalie: Frederik Andersen ($8,100 DK / $8,300 FD)
The Avs won a big game against St. Louis on Sunday afternoon. In this game, Grubauer made 31 of 32 saves and only allowed one goal and scored 24.2 DK points during that game. Looking at his last 10 games played, he has won seven of those games and posted double-digit points in eight of those contests. The Stars have only averaged 2.62 goals scored per game since the all-star break which has them closer to the bottom third of the league during that stretch. Colorado ranks third in the league over that stretch of time with only allowing 2.29 goals per game so this seems to be a good time to look at the Avs goaltender in all formats.
Other Goalie Options: Cam Talbot ($8,300 DK/ $8,000 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Center
- Mikael Backlund ($4,800 DK/ $5,800 FD)
- Eric Staal ($4,900 DK/ $6,000 FD)
Lars Eller (3,800 DK/ $FD)Nic Dowd ($2,500 DK/$3,200 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Wing
- Andrew Mangiapane ($4,000 DK/ $4,600 FD)
- Jakub Voracek ($4,900 DK/ $6,400 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Defensemen
- Nate Schmidt ($4,300 DK/ $4,500 FD)
- Justin Holl ($3,500 DK/ $3,700 FD)
- Matt Niskanen ($3,800 DK/ $4,300 FD)
DFS Value Plays: Goalie
- Alex Stalock ($7,300 DK/ $7,500 FD)
Top Team and Line DFS Stacks
Toronto Maple Leafs (L1, PP1, L2)
Shockingly, the Toronto and Columbus games have produced the highest corsi numbers throughout the playoffs. The Maple Leafs are generating 35.5 scoring chances per 60 minutes of ice time against Columbus which is extremely good. Korpisalo has been outstanding for the Blue Jackets and is really the main reason why this hasn’t been a blowout series so far.
Calgary Flames (L1, L2, PP1, PP2)
The Flames dropped six goals on the Jets Monday afternoon with their top two lines doing most of the scoring. Both lines will be chalky due to their upside and low price points but they are tough to ignore, especially with how banged up Winnipeg is right at the moment.
Minnesota Wild (L1)
While the Wild aren’t the sexiest team to use in NHL DFS, they certainly look viable against Vancouver. Kevin Fiala has been on fire as he has taken 11 shots on goal in just these two postseason games against Vancouver. Minnesota has averaged three goals per game and there is no reason to think they will slow down against a Canucks squad who has allowed 3.3 goals per game since the all-star break.
Other Stacks that could be lower owned: STL (L1, PP1, L2), Vancouver (l1, PP1)
