Welcome, RotoBallers. Hockey season has now entered the postseason which is the most exciting time to watch and partake in NHL DFS! As always, I'll give you the stats and info you need to build the best lineups possible for your GPP and cash game NHL contests on both DraftKings and FanDuel.
Today I'll be bringing you my NHL lineup picks, analysis, and advice for NHL DFS contests on DraftKings and FanDuel for Sunday, June 13th, 2020 at 3:00 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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Intro and Overview
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.
In the image above, you'll see that Sidney Crosby is skating in-between Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust and this line has skated together for most of the year. The idea behind staking forward lines is that if Crosby gets a goal, there is a higher percentage and chance that either Rust or Guentzel would get credited with an assist, therefore, resulting in more fantasy points.
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 on that site just because he can rack up additional points based on his style of play.
NHL DFS Analysis and Picks for 6/13
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- New York Islanders vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (-200) - 5.5U
NHL DFS Goalie Analysis Matrix
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
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).
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NHL DFS Core Plays- Showdown Edition
Captain Picks
- Andrei Vasilevskiy ($10,200 DK) - The dominance of Vasilevskiy continues and he is one of the top captain options for this showdown slate over on DK. He has won four of his last five starts and is 21-2-2 on home ice this year with four shutouts. Over his last five starts, Vasilevskiy has allowed a total of nine goals and he is in fantastic form heading into this first game against the Islanders.
- Nikita Kucherov ($11,000 DK/ 15,500 FD) - Another route to go with your captain choice would be Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov has registered seven points over his last five games while posting 17 total shots on goal during that span. He has provided such a spark to this Lightning's offense and continues to be one of the top fantasy options remaining in these Stanley Cup playoffs.
- Mathew Barzal ($9,200 DK/ 14,000 FD) - If you're wanting to get completely different, rostering Mathew Barzal would be one way to go in your tournament builds. Barzal is the most talented player for the Islanders and he is coming off of a really good series against the Bruins where he scored three goals and recorded three assists in six total games.
Value Picks
- Alex Killorn ($6,800 DK/ $10,000 FD) - Killorn has been in really good form lately as he has recorded a point in four straight games. He doesn't offer much upside when it comes to shots on goal but he has found a way to be effective on the power play so he would be one to really look at if you're wanting to power-play stack the Lightning.
- Kyle Palmieri ($5,600 DK/ $10,500 FD) - Palmieri has been one of the most dangerous Islander wingers in the playoffs as he enters this matchup recording a point in five straight games while averaging over three peripheral stats per game during that stretch.
- Casey Cizikas ($2,000 DK/ $7,000 FD) - Cizikas is one of my favorite value plays on this slate. He tends to see limited ice time as he skates down on the fourth line but this is a grinder line for the Islanders and he has found ways to produce points in just 12-13 minutes per game. He has registered a point in three of his last five playoff games with two of those points being goals.
Stacks (In order of preference)
- TBL 1- Palat/ Point/ Kucherov
- NYI 2- Beauvillier/ Nelson/ Bailey
- TBL 2- Killorn/ Cirelli/ Stamkos
Player Pool (In order of preference)
C- Point, Barzal, Nelson, Gourde, Pageau, Cirelli. Cizikas
W- Kucherov, Stamkos, Beauvillier, Eberle, Palat, Bailey, Killorn, Komarov, Palmieri, Zajac, Goodrow, Coleman
D- Hedman, Pulock, McDonagh, Sergachev, Dobson, Pelech, Leddy, Cernak, Mayfield
G- Vasilevskiy, Varlamov
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!
NHL Player News and Updates
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