The kickoff of the NHL Season is now upon us and what better time to play some DFS! We have a two-game hockey slate on tap today on all three sites- DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo Fantasy. It all kicks off at 7:30 pm ET with the Lightning at the Rangers and ends with the a 10:00 pm ET match up between the Golden Knights and Kings. We get a chance to see the elite goalies in the league with Igor Shesterkin and Andrei Vasilevksiy squaring off, and there will be plenty of skill sin these two games with Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Anze Kopitar and Jack Eichel all in action To get projections and to build multiple lineups we have NHL Projections and the NHL Lineup Generator. Now let's get to it and here are my core plays for today's games.
Lightning at Rangers
In this game that features the consensus top two goalies in the game, there should still be plenty of forward to pick from. For the Rangers, you can pair either Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad or Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin, as both sets should see similar minutes and all four will be on the top power play. If you’re looking for some value, you can also mix in Vitali Kravtsov who will be playing with Trochek and Panarin five-on-five, and see time on the second power play. For the Lightning, you will want to stick to their top line if you’re going to stack as they really lack offensive depth at this point in time, so this leaves you looking at some combination of Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov. Alex Killorn can also be a nice value play as he is going to see a good amount of time on Tampa Bay’s top powerplay unit.
On defence, you have some top-end options with Victor Hedman, who is a threat to hit the shot, block and points bonus, or Adam Fox who is capable of getting you multiple points as well as mixing in some shots and blocked shots. If you’re looking for value on defence in this game you can look at Mikhail Sergachev who is capable of putting up points and shots, or Ryan Lindgren who provides less upside, but could provide a nice amount of blocked shots.
Looking at the goalies, if I had to pick one, I would take Igor Shesterkin in this one. The Rangers are slight favourites at home, and Shesterkin last season posted a 0.940 save percentage at MSG depending on the site you play on you could be getting him at a nice discount as well. With that said though we know that Andrei Vasilevskiy is no slouch and even as the most expensive goalie on most sites he is still very capable of hitting his value.
Golden Knights at Kings
Lots of things have changed during the off-season for Vegas. Max Pacioretty is gone, as is the previous head coach Pete DeBoer. This has brought change for their lines. We will see Jack Eichel at the top, and instead of him playing with Mark Stone, it looks like he will be with Reilly Smith and Phil Kessel. Smith in particular will be of interest as he will also be on the top power play, but I wouldn’t shy away from Kessel at his price as he has shown that he can still be a productive player. I wouldn’t expect too much offence from the rest of Vegas’ lineup, though, as we don’t know how the minutes will break down between the second and third lineups as it looks like new coach Bruce Cassidy is really trying to balance his top-three lines as much as possible.
For the Kings, they brought in Kevin Fiala from the Wild, who should help inject more offence (he is coming off an 85-point season), and will play on the top line with Anze Kopitar and they could be a formidable combination, alongside Adrian Kempe from the start. I also would keep an eye on Victor Arvidsson who shot more than he ever has this year, and with him playing with Philip Danualt and Trevor Moore there should be plenty of shots there for him to take this season as well.
In the past, Vegas’ defence has been a solid source of points in DFS games. It looks like Cassidy will use Shea Theodore on the top power play to start the year, which will greatly add to his value, but Alex Pietrangelo is a player that will get points, shots and blocked shots, and it looks like you could get a good value from Alec Martinez to start the season as he has a low price and is known for blocking lots of shots. For the Kings, Drew Doughty is back in the lineup and will continue to see a lot of minutes and the top powerplay, but we did see Sean Durzi put up good numbers when Doughty was out,
Logan Thompson played well for Vegas last season in 27 games posing a 0.917 save percentage in that time. I might shy away from him early in this season though, as we don’t know how the changing systems could affect the young goalie. As for the Kings, based on last year’s usage I would expect Jonathan Quick to be in goal. He put up a 0.912 save percentage on the road last season, but with Quick turning 37 soon, and Cal Peterson under contract long-term, it wouldn’t be a big surprise if Peterson got the start. I would feel comfortable with either as it could take Vegas some time to come together with their lineup almost completely shuffled.
Check out our list of the best, and most trusted sports betting and fantasy sports promo codes from the top legal sites in your state.
Dominate your NHL DFS contests today with our Player Projections, Lineup Generator & DFS Tools
| Position | Top Tier | Mid-Tier | Value-Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| {{position.position.alias}} | {{position.top.name}} | {{position.mid.name}} | {{position.value.name}} |