DFS NHL Breakdown: Tuesday Line Stacks and Strategies

Slate Preview

Tuesday brings us a gigantic 13-game slate with some incredible matchups, including the Islanders/Penguins, Jets/Predators, Maple Leafs/Golden Knights, Oilers/Sharks and a potential Stanley Cup final preview between the Lightning and Blues in St. Louis. All 26 teams are fresh, with only Ottawa and Montreal scheduled for a back-to-back Wednesday against each other. Below is a chart of the highlighted tournaments of the night, with FanDuel hosting a $33 Super Goal tournament with a $20,000 top prize.

The following chart will be included so I do not have to bog down the write-ups with too many offensive and defensive ratings. Also shown are my projected shots on goal, shooting percentages and save percentages. Starting goalies are listed with either a projected or confirmed tag at the time of publication – this will be updated later in the day.

Line Stacks

The Line Stacks below are not necessarily my top projected scoring lines but are the best value plays on the board. All players below have a number inside parenthesis next to their names, which denotes the power play unit they are on (1) or (2). If they are not on a power play they will be noted with a (0), and the rare occasion of a (3) means that they are on both power play units.

This is the most difficult slate I've come across since I started writing for RotoWire; there are dozens of usable stacks, so here are some of the better value options:

BUF1 vs MIN: Jack Eichel (1) ($7,900 FD, $7,500 DK), Sam Reinhart (1) ($5,600 FD, $5,800 DK), Victor Olofsson (1) ($5,900 FD, $4,900 DK) - BUF1 has been huge lately with 10 goals, seven assists and a massive 53 shots over their last five games. The onslaught should continue with a favorable home date against a struggling Minnesota defense (103.0 DR) that allowed 18 goals in their last five games.

DET1 vs. OTT: Anthony Mantha (1) ($6,800 FD, $6,700 DK), Dylan Larkin (1) ($6,600 FD, $6,400 DK), Tyler Bertuzzi (1) ($5,400 FD, $5,500 DK) - Ottawa (112.1 DR) has shown some improvement defensively, but they are still a team to attack. Larkin, Mantha and Bertuzzi have been one of the strongest teams in the league and are playing well over their last five games with six goals, 10 assists and 36 shots on goal.

NJ1 vs. BOS: Taylor Hall (1) ($7,300 FD, $6,100 DK), Nico Hischier (2) ($5,000 FD, $4,100 DK), Jesper Bratt (2) ($3,500 FD, $3,000 DK) - Boston has struggled defensively of late, allowing 23 goals in their last seven games (2-2-3 record). New Jersey revamped their lines last game en route to a 4-3 OT win against Montreal, and the new top line of Hall, Hischier and Bratt combined for a goal, three assists and 11 shots; hopefully they can take advantage of better home ice defensive matchups Tuesday.

SJ2 vs. EDM: Tomas Hertl (1) ($6,800 FD, $6,300 DK), Timo Meier (2) ($5,800 FD, $5,900 DK), Barclay Goodrow (0) ($3,600 FD, $3,300 DK) - SJ2 looks like the best value on the board with a great home matchup against Edmonton (105.7 DR). Hertl and Meier have combined for seven goals, seven assists and 24 shots over their past five games, while Goodrow offers some salary relief plus some solid production with a goal, two assists and eight shots over five games.

CBJ1 vs. MON: Pierre-Luc Dubois (1) ($5,700 FD, $5,600 DK), Emil Bemstrom (2) ($3,200 FD, $2,600 DK), Sonny Milano (2) ($3,200 FD, $2,500 DK) - Dubois, Bemstrom and Milano have combined for three goals, four assists and 22 shots over their last four games, although this is a new alignment for CBJ1 and chemistry may still be a question, with all of the huge prices on the slate I am willing to risk this value line at home. Montreal 101.0 DR) offers a subpar defense and allows a large number of scoring and high danger chances (19.6/gm, fourth most on the slate).

Other Options: BOS1 at NJ, FLA1 vs PHI, CGY1 vs COL, NSH1 vs WPG, EDM1 at SJ, VGK1/2 vs TOR, SJ1 vs EDM, CHI2 vs CAR, BUF2 vs MIN

Solo Forward Options

Connor McDavid (1) EDM1 at SJ ($9,200 FD, $8,500 DK) - McDavid continued his MVP campaign onslaught last week with six goals, seven assists and 17 shots in four games. A road matchup is obviously not a strong as a home game against San Jose, but the Sharks are allowing a slate-high 22.0 scoring/high danger chances per game.

Matthew Tkachuk (1) CGY2 vs COL ($7,000 FD, $6,800 DK) - Tkachuk has cooled off a bit from his torrid finish to October, but a home game against Colorado (105.5 DR), who allowed 22 goals over their past six games, is worth targeting.

Jeff Skinner (1) BUF2 vs MIN ($7,200 FD, $6,000 DK) - Skinner offers a nice way to differentiate your BUF1 stacks from other entries while giving you exposure to BUF2 and correlation to the BUF1 stack on the top power play unit.

Andreas Athanasiou (2) DET2 vs OTT ($4,700 FD, $4,900 DK) - Athanasiou has three goals and 11 shots over his last three games and draws the aforementioned elite matchup against the Ottawa defense.

Radek Faksa (1) DAL3 vs VAN ($4,000 FD, $3,300 DK) - Faksa has scored three goals with three assists and 13 shots over his past five games; with a spot on the top power play unit plus a good home matchup against Vancouver (103.3 DR), he looks to be a nice solo value option Tuesday.

Defensemen

Brent Burns (2) SJ vs. EDM ($7,400 FD, $7,000 DK) - Burns is coming off a quiet game against Detroit but has played well of late with a pair of goals, three assists and 14 shots in the four games prior. Burns scored a goal against Edmonton a week ago, and I like him to be heavily involved against Tuesday.

Mark Giordano (1) CGY vs. COL ($6,100 FD, $5,500 DK) - Giordano has been cold the last five games but that has depressed his salary a bit and allows him to be a nice value play at home against Colorado (105.5 DR).

Thomas Chabot (1) OTT at DET ($5,600 FD, $5,400 DK) - With Jonathan Bernier in net, Ottawa will have a tougher challenge than if they had been facing Jimmy Howard, but Chabot is due for some positive goal-scoring regression. With 23 goals over the last two season (133 games), all of his other numbers are in line with career norms but he is way behind his production in goal scoring with only one in 20 games this season.

Nate Schmidt (1) VGK vs. TOR ($4,400 FD, $5,200 DK) - Vegas has many options to use, but with their new forward alignments it is tough to determine who may be the best one. However, there does not appear to be much question about who is the best defenseman on the Golden Knights, as Schmidt has a goal, four assists and seven shots in his last three games and occupies a spot on the top power play unit.

Matt Grzelcyk (1) BOS at NJ ($3,500 FD, $4,000 DK) - While Torey Krug is out, Grzelcyk (two assists, 10 shots in last four games) will likely be the best value defenseman available with his top power play spot with the BOS1 trio. 

Goalies

Linus Ullmark BUF vs MIN ($7,500 FD, $8,000 DK) - Minnesota offer a good mix for opposing goalies: they project to take a fairly good number of shots (32.4), but they are a poor shooting team (19.6 S%, third lowest on the slate). Ullmark has played much better than Carter Hutton, ignoring a terrible road start at Washington, in his last four starts he has a 2.02 GAA and .938 SV%.

Update: Robin Lehner CHI vs CAR ($7,400 FD, $7,500 DK) - The Blackhawks are playing some great hockey right now in front of their goalies, winning four in a row and recording at least an OT loss point in eight of their last nine. There is a big downside here with Carolina (108.6 OR) in town, but Lehner has a 3-1-0 record in his last four with a 2.77 GAA and .950 SV%, so there is a huge potential upside.

Juuse Saros NSH vs WPG ($7,400 FD, $8,200 DK) - Saros has struggled in relief of Pekka Rinne but when he gets the start he has played great over his last three with a 1.61 GAA and a .946 SV%. Winnipeg is a solid offensive team, but they struggle against good defensive squads and rate to only have an average (100.0 OR) Tuesday night.

FanDuel Tournament Punt: Jonathan Bernier DET vs OTT ($7,200 FD, $7,700 DK)
DraftKings Tournament Punt: Joonas Korpisalo CBJ vs MON ($7,500 FD, $6,900 DK)