NHL

3 Daily Fantasy Hockey Stacks for 10/21/19

The Dallas Stars haven't looked good to start the year, but the Ottawa Senators are the perfect elixir. Should we consider them the top stack on this four-game slate?

When playing NHL DFS -- much like MLB DFS -- stacking is key. Having multiple players from the same team, who correlate together, can give your lineup upside and help you maximize potential points.

You can roster up to four players from the same team in NHL, and you should look to have players from the same forward line or power-play unit together. Shared ice time is the key, as it will maximize their ability to contribute to real-life goals with each other, ultimately leading to more fantasy points for us.

Generally, we don't see late scratches in the NHL, and the team's lines are confirmed at practice or before the game. Two of the best resources for that are LeftWingLock.com or DailyFaceOff.com. That is where you can find updated forward and power-play lines for each team.

Dallas Stars

To say the Dallas Stars have gotten off to a slow start this season would be an understatement. But they face the Ottawa Senators tonight -- who are terrible.

Last season, the Senators were the worst team in the league and they are trying to repeat that this season, as they dead last in Corsi Against, and the seventh-worst in the number of High-Danger-Scoring-Chances per 60 minutes. They are bad, and we should be looking to attack them all season long. The Stars have an implied goal total set at 3.44, which is the second-highest on the slate tonight.

The Stars have been mixing up their forward lines a good amount recently -- likely due to the bad start -- so we are lacking 100% correlation when it comes to ice time. The stack we want to look at tonight is the first power-play unit, which now has skaters on three different forward lines. We start with Tyler Seguin ($7,700), the center on the first forward line, then we have Joe Pavelski ($5,900) on the first forward line, Jamie Benn ($6,900) on the second forward line, and Alexander Radulov ($6,400) on the third forward line.

They are certainly all over the place, but in theory you spread your exposure over nearly all of their offense. By that I mean if there is a goal scored from the second forward line, Benn could have a hand in it, but you won't be double-dipping as you would if they were all on the same line. It's a bad start for the Stars, but they are in a matchup you should be looking to exploit every night.

Colorado Avalanche

On a four-game slate it can be tough to stack a road underdog, but the Colorado Avalanche are on fire this season.

Through eight games, the maximum potential points are 16 -- 2 points per win in the NHL -- and the Avalanche have 15. Colorado is looking strong so far, and they face a traditionally tough test tonight, as they are on the road to take on the St. Louis Blues. The Blues made their style of play known last season by limiting opponents' shot attempts, playing tough around the net, and having plenty of depth scoring. Some of that is true this season and some of it is not. They come in 15th in the league in Corsi Against but are allowing 11.16 High-Danger-Scoring-Chances per 60 minutes, which is the fourth-most in the league. They aren't giving up a ton of shot attempts but are rather giving up a ton of valuable scoring chances.

This is from a smaller sample size -- I get that -- but we have a damn-near unstoppable offense against a defense that doesn't have it figured out yet. While I would love to get up to the first forward line, the second forward line offers the needed value on this slate and should be considerably lower-owned. The second forward line consists of Nazem Kadri ($5,000), Andre Burakovsky ($4,600), and Joonas Donskoi ($3,300). As you can see, this isn't expensive at all, and you do get some correlation, with the latter two players on the second power-play together, while Kadri is on the first unit.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are massive -190 home favorites and have the highest implied goal total on the slate, so it'd be silly not to mention them tonight.

With John Tavares going out with a broken thumb, it has opened up some value on a normally very expensive team. Yes, the first power-play is still very expensive and very good, but taking a bit of savings with the second forward stack can help your roster flexibility overall on a four-game slate. Mitchell Marner ($7,900) has 11 real-world NHL points through nine games and is the best player on this line. He skates with Alexander Kerfoot ($4,600) and Ilya Mikheyev ($4,200), who are both very affordable tonight.

They are up against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which means we should be set up for a faster-paced game, as both teams are in the top-six in Corsi For this season, aka shot attempts created per 60 minutes.