NHL

4 Daily Fantasy Hockey Stacks for 1/9/20

The Florida Panthers carry one of the highest implied totals tonight, and they offer great offensive options. Which other teams should you stack on this 11-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.

Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers are holding 3.48 implied goal tonight and should be a viable option in all formats.

That 3.48 implied team total is the third-highest on tonight's 11-game slate, as they are at home to host the Vancouver Canucks. The top forward line for the Panthers would be the spot to target. They are expensive, so you will need to find some savings elsewhere in order to fit them into your lineup.

That line consists of Jonathan Huberdeau ($7,300), Evgeni Dadonov ($6,200), and Aleksander Barkov ($7,200). They are all on the first power-play grouping together and bring full ice-time correlation, which gives you the most potential upside. Huberdeau has four points in his last five games, Dadonov has five points in that time, and Barkov has zero. A bit of a dip in production for Barkov, but as the top-line center -- who sees nearly 20 minutes of ice time per game -- he is due for some positive regression.

When it comes to the Canucks' defense, they aren't particularly strong in most areas and have been struggling as of late -- allowing 15 goals over their last three games. This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise since we find the Canucks in the bottom-10 for Corsi Against, expected goals allowed, and the number of High-Danger-Scoring-Chances allowed per 60 minutes.

Florida is a home favorite with a high implied team total, and their top line gives us full correlation. The Panthers check all the boxes tonight.

Tampa Bay Lightning

We all knew this was going to happen at one point -- it was just a matter of when.

That, of course, being the Tampa Bay Lightning turning around their season and going on an eight-game win streak to vault themselves to second in the Atlantic Division. It was a rough first part of the campaign for Tampa, and to put things into context, they come into tonight's game with 13 losses on the season. They had 16 losses all of last year. Granted, they were a record-setting team a year ago, but they were in a major slump to start the 2019-20 season. Now, they have rattled off eight straight wins, scoring three or more goals in six of those games.

Tonight, the Lightning are carrying a 3.42 implied goal total against the Arizona Coyotes, who are seemingly getting into higher-scoring games as of late -- always a good sign for fantasy production. Arizona is the seventh-worst in the league in terms of Corsi Against, so we should see solid offense from both teams.

Tampa's first forward line is very, very expensive, but they have some of the highest upside on any given slate. Brayden Point ($7,200), Steven Stamkos ($8,500), and Nikita Kucherov ($8,100) come in with a staggering 21 points and 32 shots across their last five games. They are one of the most expensive stacks, but they can win you a tournament.

New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are hosting their cross-river rivals tonight -- the New Jersey Devils -- in what could be a very high-scoring game.

We have an over/under set at 6.5 in this game, and if history tells us anything, we should see it hit the over. Seven of the last 10 games between these two teams have hit the over, according to KillerSports, giving us plenty of fantasy points to grab here in this one.

The Devils come into the game having allowed the fourth-most goals in the league and have all three of their defensive pairings rated 20th or worse. The Rangers are at home -- which means they have the last line change -- so we want to target their top line, as they should be in more favorable matchups.

Chris Kreider ($6,200), Pavel Buchnevich ($4,300), and Mika Zibanejad ($7,600) are the three skaters on the top forward line -- and all see power-play time, just not together. Kreider and Zibanejad are on the first power-play unit, while Buchnevich is on the second. You lose a bit of correlation with this stack, but you have exposure to both man-advantage units.

Vegas Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights are in a good spot and could be popular, but this specific stack might not be.

Vegas has been without top-line forward Jon Marchessault for a few games, and that means their lines are changed up a bit. They have William Karlsson ($5,900), Chandler Stephenson ($3,600), and Reilly Smith ($5,300) on the top forward line. As you can see, they are relatively modest in prices compared to some of the other stacks we've touched on. But, both Karlsson and Stephenson are listed as centers on FanDuel, and most DFS players don't double-stack that position. This is why this stack should be lower-owned. This is clearly a tournament-only option, though, so if you want a bit more safety, pay up for the Panthers or Lightning.

Going for lower ownership is be a risk-reward scenario in tournaments, but with 11 games on tonight's slate, it can help jump you near the top of the leaderboards if you're low-owned stack hits.