Written by LineStar Fantasy Life Coach @ZeroInDenver. Got NHL DFS questions or want to see something covered in this newsletter? Hit me up in LineStar Chat.

Welcome back to the NHL Hat Trick.

It's a good day. It's always a good day, but we have a solid 8-game slate. I think the key to winning tonight will be just building solid lineups. I've mentioned this before, but think of DFS on these larger slates like a multiple choice question on a test. Find out what you can eliminate. For the most part, I ignore almost everyone on 3rd or 4th lines. (There's rare instances where I'll look at a 3rd liner, but that person needs PP1 time). From there, I'm looking at players from teams in good matchups - either the team is scoring a high number of goals or the opposing team is giving up a lot of goals (both is preferred).

The more you can eliminate, the easier your choices will be. And remember, DFS isn't about picking the best players, it's about building the best complete lineups. I wouldn't worry too much about ownership either. Have a look at LineStar's ownership projections for tonight:

I wouldn't expect anyone on the slate to be above 20% owned in tournaments. I've been studying a lot of the pros, and for the most part, a lot of them don't put exposure in MME above 20% for most players. I think there's a fear of missing out in DFS where some people feel they need to lock certain players. I don't believe that's the case with NHL. I don't believe anyone is ever a lock and too many times I've seen people sacrifice other spots in their lineup to fit a top-tier guy in. Remember, make complete, solid lineups.

That said, let's dive into this slate. Here's a look at how teams have performed over the last 10 games:

Heads up - at the time of this writing, a few goalies have NOT been confirmed. Keep an eye on chat for updates throughout the day.

🅿️ Jonathan Quick vs ✅ Sergei Bobrovsky

✅ Darcy Kuemper vs ✅ Carter Hutton

🅿️ Frederik Andersen vs ✅ Andrei Vasilevskiy

✅ Petr Mrazek vs ✅ Carey Price

✅ James Reimer vs ✅ Devan Dubnyk

✅ Cam Talbot vs ✅ Connor Hellebuyck

✅ Anders Nilsson vs 🅿️ Pekka Rinne

🅿️ Ben Bishop vs ✅ Martin Jones

In other news, Andrei Vasilevskiy has been activated from IR and is starting for Tampa in net tonight, and Alex Galchenyuk is questionable to play tonight for Arizona.

Keep an eye on chat for updates throughout the day.

Now, lets look at my favorites on the slate:

Goaltending

So as most of you know, I'm a heavy GPP player. So I'm approaching goalie selection purely looking at upside for tonight. I'll be leaning heavily on goaltenders that will be facing a high volume of shots tonight, as they'll have some of the biggest upside if they can limit goals and pick up a win.

Here are my three favorite goaltenders on the night:

Frederik Andersen (@ TOR) (DK: $7.5K, FD: $9.3K)

Hear me out on this. Andersen has been pretty solid over his last 10 games from a fantasy perspective (5.8 points on DraftKings over the last 5, 23.2 on FanDuel over the same period). Tampa is a difficult team to roster a goalie against, but there's a ton of upside if he can keep the puck out of the net as Tampa is averaging 33.6 shots a game over their last 10.

Martin Jones, SJ (vs DAL) (DK: $7.9K, FD: $8.4K)

Let the record show, I take no pleasure putting Jones here. I don't like him from a fantasy perspective, as I think he's overpriced for what he produces (in DFS terms). However, he's got the third best GSAA over the last 30 and faces a Dallas team that only has 3 dudes that I think can score goals - and Hanzal is not one of them.

Connor Hellebuyck, WPG (vs EDM) (DK: $8K, FD: $8.5K)

Goalies facing Edmonton have scored more fantasy points than any other team tonight. Believe it or not, I have this projected as one of the lower-scoring games on the slate. Famous last words, I know, as this game could go 6-5, but I'm willing to go to hell and back tonight with Hellebuyck.

#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. Remember - I gave some tips last week on numbers that I look for, and these players check most (if not all my boxes):

Jack Eichel: BUF - C (DK: $8K, FD: $7.8K)

Insane 8.8 shot attempts (1.8 high danger) with 6.6 shots on net over his last 5 games and facing an Arizona team that is giving up 3.18 goals a game over their last 10.

Cam Atkinson: CLS- W (DK: $7.2K, FD: $7.1K)

Favorite winger on the slate. Cam is seeing 3.8 scoring chances a game and is taking 6.6 shot attempts (2 high danger) and 4 shots on net a game over his last 5 games.

Erik Karlsson: SJ - D (DK: $6K, FD: $7K)

Karlsson is averaging 7.2 shot attempts with 4.6 shots on net in just over 23 minutes of ice time a game over his past 5 games.

Value Twigs 💲

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.

Nick Schmaltz: ARI C (DK: $4.5K, FD: $4.7K)

Lots of top tier players mean that you're going to find some solid value plays to fill your lineups. Consider Nick Schmaltz who has a respectable 58 CF% with 5.2 shot attempts and 2.4 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Andrei Svechnikov: CAR - W (DK: $4.6K, FD: $3.6K)

Svechnikov has a nice 69 CF% with 5.4 shot attempts (2.2 high danger) and 3.4 shots on net over his last 5 games.

Rasmus Dahlin: BUF - D (DK: $4.3K, FD: $4.3K)

Dahlin is averaging 5.2 shot attempts with 3.4 shots on net in over 24 minutes of ice time a game over his last 5 games.

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 tonight.

Nazem Kadri: TOR - C (DK: $3.9K, FD: $5.4K) **DraftKings Only**

Lucas Wallmark: CAR - C (DK: $4K, FD: $3.2K) **FanDuel Only**

Tyler Toffoli: LA - W (DK: $3.8K, FD: $4.9K) **DraftKings Only**

Ryan Hartman: NSH - W (DK: $4.4K, FD: $3.5K) **FanDuel Only**

Brett Kulak: MON - D (DK: $2.6K, FD: $3.5K)

Line Stacks

Line stacking is a common strategy in GPP. You’ll see a lot of winning lineups where players are stacked from the same forward lines or power play lines.

Since it's a small slate, I'm going to do things a little different. I'm going to list two of the the highest-owned stacks, two of my favorite stacks, and two "biscuit" (high risk, high reward) stacks:

High-Ownership (Based on LineStar Ownership Projections):

WPG: Ehlers-Scheifele-Wheeler (DK: $20K, FD: $21.7K)

BUF: Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart (DK: $20.5K, FD: $20.4K)

Favorite stacks:

CLS: Panarin-Dubois-Atkinson (DK: $19.6K FD: $20.1K)

TB: Johnson-Point-Kucherov (DK: $19.9K FD: $22.7K)

Biscuit stacks (high risk, high upside):

VAN: Leivo-Pettersson-Boeser (DK: $14.8K FD: $16K)

MON: Tatar-Danault-Gallagher (DK: $15.1K FD: $17.2K)

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