3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for 2/4/21

In daily fantasy hockey, stacking is a key strategy in tournaments. We want to correlate our lineups with up to four players to maximize our upside, as if one player on a line is scoring goals, it's likely that his linemates are getting assists as well. Ideally, we'll want players that will get a lot of ice time together on an even strength line and a power play line. Two good resources for line combinations are LeftWingLock.com and DailyFaceoff.com, so be sure to check those sites for up to date line information.

Thursday's slate has a cancelled game, but we still have 16 teams in action. Which teams do we want to stack?

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs aren't in first place in the North division like many expected, but they are just one point out of the top spot. Their top players have performed well this season. Mitchell Marner ($7,600) has 14 points in 10 games, good for the fifth most in the league. Auston Matthews ($8,700) has been remarkably consistent, with at least 17.6 FanDuel points in eight out of nine games. He's in the middle of a five-game goal-scoring streak. These two play on the power play together and are second and third in ice time per game for the Leafs, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The Leafs' second line, which includes John Tavares ($7,400) and William Nylander ($6,400), is also an option to stack. They've been good, as well, with Tavares having 10 points and Nylander getting 9 points. While they may lack the same upside as the Matthews-Marner combo due to less ice time, they also will be less popular because of that, and both come at a lower salary.

Unfortunately, these two duos do not play on the same power-play unit like they did last year, so it's not really viable to stack these four together. If you are using Marner and Matthews, Morgan Rielly ($5,100) goes nicely with them as a power-play quarterback who has seven points this campaign.

The matchup with the Vancouver Canucks is a great one for Toronto. The Canucks allow the most shots per 60 minutes and the most expected goals per 60. Last season, Vancouver was able to get away with poor defensive play because of great goaltending, but this season they have the eighth worst team save percentage in the league. This is why the Leafs have a big implied team total of 3.66 goals. The first line will be used by a high percentage of fantasy managers and rightfully so, and the second line will be an interesting way to go, as well.

Montreal Canadiens

No team has impressed more out of the gate than the Montreal Canadiens have. They are averaging 4.4 goals per game, the most in the league. The thing about Montreal is that they are a tricky team to stack, but they've been too good to be ignored. Unlike a team like the Leafs that rides their top guys, Montreal's forward ice time is more evenly distributed. They also don't have a lot of clean correlations that work on the power play and at even strength.

One of their best options is Nick Suzuki ($5,900), because he leads the team in ice time for forwards, plays on the top power play and has been good with 11 points in 10 games. You can play him with Jonathan Drouin ($4,500) for a power-play and even-strength combination that is affordable. An interesting way to play this stack is to add Tyler Toffoli ($6,400), who doesn't play with these guys at five-on-five but is on the same power play. Toffoli has been so good that he would be acceptable as a one-off play, but you also get the power play correlation to boost the ceiling of the stack. Toffoli has nine goals in his first 10 games with Montreal.

Then you can play one of Jeff Petry ($5,500) or Shea Weber ($5,900), both of whom are on this power-play unit. Petry will be more popular because of the discount and how good he has been this season, but Weber still possesses one of the best shots in the league and can score multiple goals from defense.

The reason you'll want some Montreal exposure is the matchup against the Ottawa Senators. It's somewhat surprising that the Canadiens have put up this great start with loads of offense and haven't yet played Ottawa. The Sens are allowing 4.8 goals per game and have just one win on the season. Montreal has the highest implied team total on tonight's slate, sitting at a whopping 4.03 goals. You can get this stack for an affordable combined salary, especially considering how many goals they are projected for in this game.

New York Rangers

The New York Rangers have struggled to find their feet so far and haven't been able to pick up where they left off the end of the last regular season. They are last in the newly formed East division with eight points in nine games. There has been some line juggling because of how they have been struggling, but it looks as if the first line that had success last season is back together.

Mika Zibanejad ($6,800) finished last year red hot but is ice cold to start this season. Even if you acknowledge that last season's 19.7% shooting was unsustainable, this season's 3.3% is also an outlier the other way, as Zibanejad is a 12.7% career shooter. This slump has seen his salary dip to $6,800 after he was in the $8,000s for months last season. He gets his old linemates back, and both Pavel Buchnevich ($5,400) and Chris Kreider ($5,700) are on the power play with Zibanejad. This line combination has been very good together historically, going back to when Buchnevich and Zibanejad first joined the Rangers in 2016. Adam Fox ($4,300) is the new power-play quarterback and remains very affordable, making him one of the best values at defense on the slate.

The Rangers will take on the Washington Capitals at home on Thursday. The Capitals have just one regulation loss of the season, but if you dig a bit deeper, their defense has not been good. They are in the bottom 10 in shot attempt rate, expected goals against rate, and goals against per game. The oddsmakers are wise to this, as the Rangers are somewhat surprising favorites in this game given their struggles this season. New York also has an implied team total of 3.28, which is the fourth highest on the night.

If you want to play this Rangers stack, hopefully some recency bias and a perceived tough matchup will keep their popularity down. If that's the case, we can take advantage of it and zig while others are zagging.

Nicholas Vazquez is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Nicholas Vazquez also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username hbyanksman. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.