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.

Tonight is the last day of a miserable stretch of 2 and 3 game slates for NHL. I mentioned this before that I wanted to try some things out. Let's see if it helps, or just confuses you guys.

But let's start with my overall rankings on skaters for the slate.

You'll notice that I added a "PrjOwn" column which is based on LineStar's projected ownership for the main slate. Keep in mind, it's not perfect, but it's certainly better than nothing. If you missed the last newsletter, "Proj" is the LineStar projection for the night and "Consis" is the rate that the player has met or exceeded projected fantasy points over the past 30 days.

Next, here's how the slate looks from a high-level. Here are team numbers over the past 10 games.

If you're new, let's do a quick rundown of what each of the columns represents:

W = wins, L = losses (excluding OT losses), CF% = Corsi (shot attempts) For %, CF60 = Corsi for per 60 minutes, CA60 = Corsi allowed per 60 minutes, HDCF60 = High danger Corsi for per 60 minutes, HDCA60 = High danger Corsi allowed per 60 minutes, SF60 = shots for on net per 60 minutes, SA60 = shots on net allowed per 60 minutes, SV% = save percentage, SOT = shots on target (percentage of shots taken that hit the goal or go in), Sh% = shooting percentage (% of shots that become goals), SCF60 = scoring chances for per 60 minutes, SCA60 = scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes, PDO = Called SPSV% by the NHL, is the sum of a team's shooting percentage and its save percentage, GF60 = goals for per 60 minutes, GA60 = goals allowed per 60 minutes.

Of course, if you have any additional thoughts or questions, be sure to hit me up in chat.

Rankings

Here's where we'll get a little weird for today. I'm going to give rankings on players on the slate. Now these are my own personal rankings based on player performance over the past 5 and 10 games along with matchup and my own sauce. Is it perfect? Sometimes, and sometimes I'm way wrong (sorry about Bobrovsky the other night)

Looking at goaltenders, keep in mind that I wrote this before most goalies were confirmed. But it should give you a good idea of how they all match up.

If you take anything away from this, keep in mind that hockey is a high-variance sport. Hart ranks the highest, but could get absolutely shelled. He's playing Boston. Going all in on Hart probably isn't a great move.

• With DFS, I try to think of these things:

• Who makes the most sense to play?

• Who has been the most consistent?

• Who has the most upside?

• Who will benefit me most if others are wrong?

Next, let's look at today's skaters, starting with centers.

One of the takeaways that I hope you'll get from this is that I might have a player ranked lower that might be a better play in your lineup due to price, consistency, or recent performance. You're almost certainly not going to fit the top ranked guys in your lineups. I did the bars as a way to make easy comparisons and see how everyone compares to each other in that particular bucket. Again, let me know if this is useful or not.

Next, let's look at wingers.

And defensemen...

One more thing to be aware of is that shot numbers are slightly skewed because some players (Chiarot for example) may have only played one or two of the last 5 games and these numbers are aggregates of the last 5 team games. Make sense? If not, hit me up in chat.

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.

Bryan Little: WPG - C (DK: $3.9K, FD: $5.3K)

Marcus Johansson: NJ- W (DK: $3.5K, FD: $3.6K)

Travis Sanheim: PHI - D (DK: $3.2K, FD: $3.9K)

Line Stacks

For tonight, here's my top 12 ranked lines on the night. I've included data bars for ownership, consistency, fantasy points, LineStar projected, and my personal rank on the night.

Keep in mind, these are my favorites. You should all do your own research and you might (and probably should) disagree with me in some spots. Don't be afraid to go your own way.

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