Written by LineStar Fantasy Wizard @ZeroInDenver

Welcome (back) to the NHL Hat Trick. Hockey is back and my heart is full. I'm also glad to see people hop in the chat and willing to give NHL DFS a try. And like I said in yesterday's issue of the newsletter, I'm going to try to give a little nugget of DFS strategy.

Today, I want to discuss selecting forwards. Keeping in mind that there are (hopefully) a bunch of you new to NHL DFS and maybe to hockey in general, I'm going to overgeneralize a bit. You can get pretty deep into hockey analytics, but I'll save that for another day. Instead, what I want to focus on is the data presented in LineStar.

In a nutshell, I'm looking for skaters that check as many of these boxes as possible:

• Skates on one of the power play lines

• Gets at least 18 minutes of ice time per game

• Averages 3 or more shots per game

• Averages 4 fantasy points per game on DraftKings (12 fantasy points per game on FanDuel)

• Averages 15 or more FPPG to Line under "Skaters vs Opp Team"

You can find this under the stats for each player on the site or app:

As you can see, players won't typically check all boxes, but you'll notice that in the app and on the LineStar site, green is good and the more vivid green is even better.

So again, this is a starting point. We'll get deeper into analytics as the season goes on, but for people new to NHL DFS, I hope it gives you a starting point for what to look for in LineStar when building your lineup.

That said, we have a huge 10-game slate, so let's go over some of my favorites:

High Priced Goaltending

Marc-Andre Fleury, VGK (vs PHI) (DK: $8.2K, FD: $8.9K)

If you played NHL DFS last year, you might have heard of the "Vegas hangover." Maybe visiting players enjoyed too much of what Vegas offers, but for the most part, they didn't play very well. I'm going to hope that holds true again this season and chase one of the most heavily favored goalies on the slate.

Value Goaltending

Antti Raanta, ARI (@ DAL) (DK: $7.1K, FD: $7.7K)

If you're the kind of person who hated spending up for a pitcher in MLB DFS, I have the perfect goaltender for you. Granted, he has a tough matchup on the road, but I don't really have much interest for anyone else in that price bracket.

#BiscuitInTheBasketWatchList 🚨

For those of you who aren’t familiar with hockey, “biscuit in the basket” is a term for scoring a goal. Here I’m going to give a center, wing, and defensemen for the top and value pricing tiers that I think has a good chance to score a goal.

Clayton Keller: ARI – C (DK: $6.1K, FD: $6.3K)

If it wasn't for Barzal last season, I think Keller could have won the Calder trophy for the rookie of the year. Since I have no interest in playing Bishop today, I'm going to look for someone on the other side of that equation and here we are.

Cam Atkinson: CLS - W (DK: $6.5K, FD: $7K)

Cam Atkinson is always one of my favorite wingers to play, especially in cash games. Consistently gets a lot of minutes, plays on the top power play line for Columbus and averages over 4 shots on net a game.

Shea Theodore: VGK - D (DK: $4.6K, FD: $4.9K)

I found myself playing Vegas defensemen a lot last year. You get guys like Theodore who get a bunch of minutes, take shots, block shots, and are generally underpriced.

Value Sticks

Similar to the biscuit-in-the-basket watch list, in this section I’ll provide a center, wing, and defensemen who are priced in the value tier. If I can find someone under priced on both sites, I’ll highlight them. But in some cases, it could be site specific.

Casey Mittelstadt: BUF – C (DK: $4.3K, FD: $4.4K)

Casey was the number 8 pick of the 2017 draft and if he lives up to his expectation, will not be this cheap for long. Also, he faces Boston on the tail end of back-to-back games on the road.

Anthony Mantha: DET - W (DK: $4.8K, FD: $5.3K)

Koorpisalo is starting for Columbus tonight, which is good news for Detroit as he's been averaging over 3.5 goals allowed per game.

Josh Morrissey: WPG - D (DK: $4K, FD: $4.2K)

As I dip down in price on defensemen, I pay a lot of attention to who takes shots, blocks shots, slots in on one of the power play units, and plays for a team implied to score 3 or more goals. Morrissey fits that mold for me today.

Bottom of the Barrel

I did this last season, and I'll do it again this season. These are the players in the bottom of the salary barrel but are in a good spot.

THE GREAT TYSON JOST: COL - C (DK: $3.5K, FD: $4.2K)

Patrik Nemeth: COL - D (DK: $3.8K, FD: $3.8K)

Valentin Zykov: CAR - W (DK: $3.8K, FD: $4.1K)

Line Stacks

Artemi Panarin-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Cam Atkinson (DK: $18.5K, FD: $20.7K)

This line has had some success against Detroit, and I already mentioned my interest in Atkinson today. I think you could definitely do a full stack in GPPs and even a Panarin-Atkinson pairing in cash games.

Jeff Skinner-Jack Eichel-Sam Reinhart (DK: $16.9K, FD: $19.1K)

I like all those players individually and like them even more as a stack against a Boston team playing again tonight.

Warren Foegele-Jordan Staal-Justin Williams (DK: $13.5K, FD: $13.6K)

I was really hoping to see Andrei Svechnikov skating on the top line with Aho at morning skate, but that didn't happen. Instead, I think the second line for Carolina is in a really good spot and will go overlooked on a huge slate today.

Risk-It-For-The-Biscuit Stack 🍪

 Brendan Perlini-Clayton Keller-Vinnie Hinostroza: (DK: $14.3K, FD: $13.6K)

Going to pick up right where I left off from last season by tossing Yotes in as the biscuit stack of the day. I think Keller gets an upgrade of line mates over last season and could definitely go off tonight.

Good luck today! Tag me in the LineStar Chat @ZeroInDenver if you have any questions or feedback. Follow me on Twitter @ZeroInDenver.