Written by LineStar Fantasy Wizard @ZeroInDenver

Welcome (back) to the NHL Hat Trick. Also, in a first for the LineStar Hat Trick, we have a Saturday edition.

Today, I want to discuss selecting defensemen. 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 defensemen that check as many of these boxes as possible:

• Skates on one of the power play lines

• Gets at least 23 minutes of ice time per game

• Averages 3 or more shots per game

• Averages 2 or more shots blocked per game

You can find this under the stats for each player on the site or app (using Justin Schultz as an example):

In case you didn't know, there is an advanced sorter for Shots+Blocks/G. When looking for defensemen, this is usually my starting point, as this usually provides for a solid floor. Of course, in DFS, nothing is certain and any player can put up a 0 any given night. But like I said, this is a good place to start.

That said, we have a huge 11-game slate, so let's go over some of my favorites:

High Priced Goaltending

Frederik Andersen, TOR (vs OTT) (DK: $8.4K, FD: $8.4K)

I'll admit, I don't like spending up on goaltenders. It always feels like a trap, and Andersen is the most expensive one on the slate (on DK). On the other hand, Toronto gets a great matchup at home against an Ottawa team the French would call “les incompétents." What cold go wrong?

Value Goaltending

Devan Dubnyk, MIN (vs VGK) (DK: $7.3K, FD: $8.3K)

He's a much better value on DraftKings, and while I'm not thrilled about his price on FanDuel, there's no one else in that price range that I really feel like taking a chance on.

#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.

Ryan O'Reilly: STL – C (DK: $6.1K, FD: $5.8K)

Cam Ward gives up lots of goals, and looking at the other side of that, I think ROR is in a good spot to put the biscuit in the basket tonight. He's skating on the top line and top power play line with Tarasenko, which makes for a good pairing in all contests.

Patrik Laine: WPG - W (DK: $6.5K, FD: $7.7K)

I came across this crazy stat from @SeanShapiro on Twitter: Laine has 14 goals and 4 assists in 9 games versus Dallas in his brief career.

Alexander Edler: VAN - W (DK: $5.2K, FD: $5K)

Like I mentioned earlier, Edler checks all my boxes for tonight. I think if you're going to spend up at D, Edler should be strongly considered.

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.

Eric Staal: MIN – C (DK: $5K, FD: $7.1K)

Much better value on DraftKings. I'm mostly looking to target Fleury because he did not look good his last game. Staal has good history against Vegas and I think he nets one tonight.

Brendan Gallagher: MON - W (DK: $5K, FD: $6.3K)

I know Pittsburgh is heavily favored, but Matt Murray gives up goals. I still think Gallagher is underpriced, as he'd be $1000 more expensive if he played on Toronto or Washington. Gallagher dents the twine tonight.

Erik Johnson: COL - D (DK: $4.1K, FD: $4.9K)

Before getting injured last season, Johnson was almost $1000 more each night. Call it homerism, but I'll definitely have plenty of shares of him in my lineups tonight.

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.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi: - C (DK: $3.9K, FD: $3K)

Anthony Beavillier: NYI - W (DK: $3.9K, FD: $4.6K)

Marco Scandella: BUF - D (DK: $3.4K, FD: $3.8K)

Line Stacks

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Patric Hornqvist (DK: $21.3K, FD: $22K)

I don't like pointing out the obvious, but let's face it, Pittsburgh is in a good spot and I really like this line.

Filip Forsberg-Ryan Johansen-Viktor Arvidsson (DK: $19.2K, FD: $20.8K)

Even though Greiss held Carolina to one goal, he has a tendency to give up a lot of goals. I think this puts Nashville in a prime spot for tonight, so I'm going to target their top line.

Patrick Marleau-Auston Matthews-Tyler Ennis (DK: $13.5K, FD: $13.6K)

Craig Anderson is giving up 3.6 goals a game and I think a Toronto stack is a must. Leaning the Matthews line today mostly because it's a bit cheaper than the Tavares line and all three get power play minutes.

Risk-It-For-The-Biscuit Stack 🍪

Jason Zucker-Eric Staal-Mikael Granlund: (DK: $14.7K, FD: $19.6K)

There's a crazy difference between DraftKings and FanDuel pricing. Still, with as sloppy as Vegas looked the other night, I want to see if that's a fluke or a continuing sophomore slump for the Golden Knights.

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