NHL

3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for Friday 4/23/21

The Minnesota Wild have a good matchup and are looking to win their sixth game in a row. Which other teams should we look to stack on this slate?

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.

We close out the week with a small five-game slate, and two of them are repeats from what we saw on Thursday. Let's see which stacks we can use on this smaller slate.

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators are in a fight for their lives to make the playoffs. Right now, they are technically in the fourth spot in the Central Division for the playoffs, but the Dallas Stars have a slightly higher points percentage than them. Nashville was thought to be the main sellers at the trade deadline, but with their recent good play, they decided to stand pat and go for the playoffs. Even though they don't have a lot of names that inspire a ton of confidence, they make for a nice stack on Friday.

The Predators have settled into a consistent top two lines since Filip Forsberg went down with injury. Eeli Tolvanen ($4,700) has been their most productive forward, as the rookie leads their front men in points per game. Ryan Johansen ($4,600) isn't the same player he was a few years ago, but he does play on the first line and first power play, and he has five points in his last 10 games.

The third member of this line is Viktor Arvidsson ($5,700). Arvidsson is arguably the most dangerous member of the line, and his shot attempt rate is the 10th-highest in the league, according to Natural Stat Trick. The only unfortunate thing with Arvidsson is that he doesn't play on the power play with the others on his line, but he can make up for that with shot volume.

It's rare that a team that isn't high scoring can have two viable lines, but Nashville does. The second line duo of Mikael Granlund ($5,700) and Calle Jarnkrok ($3,700) are each tied for the team lead in goals with 12. They play together on the top power play, which makes them stackable with Nashville's best fantasy asset, Roman Josi ($6,700). Josi isn't having quite the same season as last year that saw him win the Norris Trophy, but he is tied for the lead in points for Nashville and has the seventh-most shots for defensemen in the NHL.

Both of these stacks are pretty easy to fit into lineups given the salaries of the players. And they are in play due to the opponent they will face tonight, the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago got their first win in the seven meetings this season with Nashville on Wednesday and still allowed four goals in the process. The Blackhawks rank in the bottom 10 in most defensive metrics this season, so playing against them is a good situation for most teams. Nashville's implied team total is sitting at 2.9 goals, and their players are good value pieces to add to lineups tonight.

Minnesota Wild

Throughout the history of the Minnesota Wild franchise, they have been known as a team that struggles to score goals. They are thought of as a defensive team because of the early days when they lacked the talent to play an exciting style of hockey.

This season, they're averaging 3.11 goals per game, the 12th most in the league. It doesn't seem that great, but it's better than the likes of the Blackhawks, the Montreal Canadiens, and the St. Louis Blues, which people probably wouldn't have expected going into this season.

The reason the Wild have been decent in putting up goals is because of two wingers. The first and most obvious one is Kirill Kaprizov ($6,500). Kaprizov has been exactly the kind of young talent Minnesota needed, and he already set the franchise rookie record for goals despite only playing 45 games so far.

Mats Zuccarello ($5,300) will play on the opposite wing of Kaprizov and has had a great second season with the Wild, leading them with 0.88 points per game. Victor Rask ($3,800) will center this line, and while he's not great, he's very affordable and plays with Kaprizov on the power play.

The Wild have a good matchup against the Los Angeles Kings tonight. The Kings' play has fallen off since early in the season when they were contending for a playoff spot, especially defensively. They've allowed the second-most expected goals per 60 minutes in the league. Kaprizov has seven points in seven games against the Kings this season, so he hasn't been slowed down by the Kings at all.

Minnesota isn't expected to be slowed down much in this game, as they have an implied goal total over three. They are riding a five-game win streak and could easily make it six in this matchup.

Boston Bruins

Two teams that were in this article last night are likely going to be popular tonight in the same matchup on a smaller slate. The Boston Bruins came through for us last night, while the New York Rangers did not, so we're going to discuss Boston again.

The Bruins handled the Buffalo Sabres fairly easily, winning 5-1. They've now won six straight games since the trade deadline, and playing the league's worst team could easily mean seven in a row.

The first line did most of the damage for Boston in the win last night. Brad Marchand ($8,100) had a goal and an assist and now has four goals in his last three games. His linemate, David Pastrnak ($7,600), also had the same goal and assist and is now on a five-game point streak. Patrice Bergeron ($7,700) wasn't able to get one of his five shots into the back of the net, but he did have an assist in the game.

This "Perfection Line" ran out together at even strength and on the power play, with Matthew Grzelcyk ($3,900) running the PP from the blueline. Grzelcyk was back in this role after missing some games with injury and picked up a goal and an assist. For this low salary, he's a great value addition to this stack.

The second line for Boston didn't play as much of a role in the 5-1 win. David Krejci ($5,300) did pick up a goal with an assist from Taylor Hall ($6,400), but it wasn't exactly a slate-breaking performance for fantasy. Still, it's worth going back to them and Craig Smith ($4,900), as they are fully correlated on the power play and might go overlooked after they weren't able to do much last night.

The difference between the Bruins last night and tonight is the goaltender they are facing. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will be making his NHL debut for Buffalo tonight. While he is a highly thought of goaltending prospect, he was a below-average goaltender in the AHL this season. Facing the likes of Pastrnak, Marchand and Bergeron in your first NHL start when they need the win isn't exactly easing into the NHL.

The Bruins are massive -360 favorites and have an implied team total of 3.5 goals, so they are definitely a team we should look to stack on this slate.


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.