RADIO
Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey season is back and I am thrilled to be covering this sport over at RotoBaller! As always, I will do my best to give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on DraftKings and FanDuel.
If you are new to playing NHL DFS, there are several things to know that will help you get caught up to speed. The first thing to know is that stacking lines is important and correlating your plays can pay off. In hockey, if someone scores a goal, there's a good chance that some on his team will receive an assist on that goal, so you want to build lineups around players skating together. The second thing is to make sure you look at the two sites and see the different ways to obtain points. On DraftKings, you get bonus points for 5+ shots or 3+ blocked shots so someone like Alex Ovechkin who is a volume shooter tends to be a better play there just because he can rack up additional points based on his style of play.
Today I'll be bringing you my NHL lineup picks, analysis, and advice for NHL DFS contests on DraftKings and FanDuel for Thursday, May 13th, 2020 at 8:00 PM. Be sure to also check out our awesome NHL tools including our Lineup Optimizer, Research Station, Projections, and DFS Cheat Sheets! Feel free to follow me on Twitter @jorgepucks as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions. Good luck RotoBallers!
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NHL DFS Analysis and Picks for 5/13
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- Minnesota Wild (-108) vs. St. Louis Blues (-108) - 6O
- Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames (-180) - 5.5O
- Los Angeles Kings vs. Colorado Avalanche (-420) - 5.5U
NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix
| Team | Rank GA | Rank SA | Rank GF | Rank SF | Total |
| Minnesota | 13 | 11 | 24 | 25 | 15.5 |
| St. Louis | 19 | 15 | 18 | 20 | 20.75 |
| Vancouver | 24 | 3 | 5 | 25 | 12.5 |
| Calgary | 16 | 26 | 7 | 16 | 18 |
| Los Angeles | 19 | 8 | 6 | 25 | 15 |
| Colorado | 3 | 31 | 31 | 2 | 16.25 |
The matrix above takes the averages of four categories and creates a rating scale to help you decide which goalies to use, which goalies to target against, and conversely which teams could be viable from a stacking standpoint. It looks at four categories: Goals Allowed (GA), Shots Allowed (SA), Goals For (GF), Shots For (SF). The higher the overall rating in the total column indicates that it is a more dangerous matchup for that team's goalie while it might be beneficial to stack against him. If the total is low, that means he is in a good matchup from a fantasy perspective and should be considered for your goalie selection. I match and sync this every day to the actual opponents that they are facing every slate so this is always slate specific.
NHL DFS Power Play Matrix
| Matchup | PP Rank | Opp PK Rank |
| Minnesota | 22 | 26 |
| St. Louis | 9 | 9 |
| Vancouver | 25 | 13 |
| Calgary | 18 | 24 |
| Los Angeles | 19 | 20 |
| Colorado | 12 | 7 |
The Power Play matrix is to help locate matchups that can be exploited should there be an odd-man advantage during the game. Just like the goalie matrix above, the teams are matched up based on their own power play percentage rank and their opponent's penalty kill percentage rank. When looking at this matrix, you will want to look for teams that succeed in the power play rank (lower the rank the better they are) while their opponent has a poor penalty kill rank (the higher the rank, the worse their penalty kill is).
Did you know RotoBaller has a Premium NHL DFS subscription? Like what you read today? You can show your support for Jorge by using the promo code JORGEPUCKS when purchasing an NHL DFS Premium Pass. You get 10% off, and exclusive access to all of our Premium NHL cheat sheets, DFS research tools, Premium Slack Chatrooms, Stack Builder, Correlation Matrix and Lineup Optimizer!
NHL DFS Core Plays
The Core plays below are the players that you should focus on incorporating into your cash game builds and tournament builds. When it comes to cash games, you want guys that offer high floors that rack up peripheral stats (shots, blocks, etc).
When it comes to tournaments, it is best to take a core play and see who their linemates are and build line stacks based on that. I will give 2-3 plays (varies on slate size) at each position at different pricing ranges so that you can have a variety of plays to choose from when building your cash builds or needing cornerstones for your tournament builds.
NHL DFS Center Picks
- Elias Lindholm, CGY ($7,000 DK / $6,600 FD) - With MacKinnon being out for the Avs, the big pay-up option is available on this slate so one of the better mid-range options is Elias Lindholm. Lindholm has two goals and three assists in six games against the Canucks this season and should flourish against a defensively bad Canucks squad.
Other centers to consider:
- High Priced- O'Reilly, Kopitar
- Mid-Tier- Miller, Horvat, Kadri, Eriksson Ek
- Value- Hartman, Jost
NHL DFS Forward Picks
- Kirill Kaprizov, MIN ($7,300 DK / $7,200 FD) - Kaprizov continues to produce and is turning into one of the brightest young stars in the game for Minnesota. He has recorded double-digit DK performances in nine out of his last 10 games played and has taken a total of 25 shots on goal against the Blues in seven games this season.
Other wings to consider:
- High Priced- Rantanen, Landeskog, Perron, Fiala, Tkachuk
- Mid-Tier- Boeser, Gaudreau, Zuccarello, Iafallo
- Value- Mangiapane, Kempe, Pearson, Kyrou, Schwartz, Dube, Parise
NHL DFS Defenseman Picks
- Mark Giordano, CGY ($6,700 DK / $6,300 FD) - Giordano continues to carry such a solid floor that he is tough to ignore when building cash game lineups. He has recorded 36 peripheral stats over his last five games and is coming off of a multi-point performance where he recorded a goal and assist while seeing 23 minutes of ice time.
Other defensemen to consider:
- High Priced- Makar
- Mid-Tier- Spurgeon, Hughes, Hamonic, Krug, Parayko, Dumba, Edler
- Value- Brodin, Andersson, Schmidt, Stone
NHL DFS Goalie Picks
- Jacob Markstrom, CGY ($8,200 DK / $7,800 FD) - Markstrom tended the net on Sunday against the Senators and only allowed one goal on 20 total shots faced and with one more game left in the regular season, he could draw the start for the Flames on Thursday night against the Canucks. Markstrom is 19-19-2 on the year with a 2.66 goals allowed average and a .905 save percentage while also being 4-2 against Vancouver this season. In those six games that he has started against them, Markstrom has posted a 2.25 goals allowed average and has racked up a .935 save percentage as he has stopped 187 out of 200 total shots faced.
Other goalies to consider:
- High Priced-
- Mid-Tier- Binnington
- Value- Grosenick
Note: If you do roster a goalie listed above, it is sometimes best to make a hedge lineup in tournaments and take the opposing offense against them in case he gives up a few goals while that opposing team carries lower ownership. Also, make sure that the goalie listed above is starting and if not, make sure to pivot!
Favorite NHL DFS Line Stacks
- COL 1
- Landeskog/ Jost/ Rantanen (Makar, D-men add on)
- The Avs have something to play for tonight as a win would propel them over Vegas and lock them into the top of the West while also capturing the President's trophy. The Avs will be on home ice which gives them the line matching advantage which means the Jost line would likely avoid the stingy defensive Kopitar line which is a major benefit to the Avs. Colorado is coming off of a dominant performance against the Kings on Wednesday as they recorded six goals in a 6-0 shutout win. The Jost line generated a full-strength goal while generating eight scoring chances and three high-danger chances in just eight minutes of ice together so they could be in line for more opportunities and chances against the youthful depth of the Kings roster.
- Landeskog/ Jost/ Rantanen (Makar, D-men add on)
Other Stacks to consider: CGY 1, STL 1, MIN 2
Key Abbreviations:
xGF/60= expected goal for per 60 minutes of ice time
GF/60= goals for per 60 minutes of ice time
SC/60= Scoring Chances per 60 minutes of ice time
If you have any additional questions, make sure to reach out to me on Twitter or in our NHL room at the RotoBaller slack chat!
