NHL

3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for Thursday 12/9/21

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 updated line information.

We've got a 10-game slate, with some of the best offenses in tough matchups. We may have to look in different spots to find our stacks tonight.

St Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues have sort of cooled off since a hot start, but they still are second in the Central Division. They've dealt with injuries and COVID all season long and have some players missing from the lineup. They are still averaging 3.28 goals per game, and the Blues have a good matchup tonight.

St. Louis has one of the deepest forward groups in the league, so even with some players missing, they are still stackable. The first line of Ryan O'Reilly ($5,900), Jordan Kyrou ($6,000) and Brandon Saad ($5,300) is an easy-to-jam-in stack that makes sense. Kyrou leads the team in points and plays with O'Reilly on the top power play.

The second line is also in play for the Blues. It's an all-Russian line with Vladimir Tarasenko ($7,100), Pavel Buchnevich ($6,100) and Ivan Barbashev ($4,100). While Tarasenko started the year off great and has since not played as well, Buchnevich has stepped up. The newcomer to the team has six goals and 35 shots on goal in his last 10 games. Buchnevich and Barbashev play together on the second power play, while Tarasenko is on the top unit.

The Blues will face the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit has been performing above expectations, but they still struggle defensively. They are in the bottom 10 in most defensive metrics, including allowing the second-most high-danger chances per 60 minutes. St. Louis has the highest implied team total on the slate, so either of their first two lines make for good stacks.

Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets have been on a bad run of late. They are just 3-6-1 in their last 10 games and are down to sixth in the Central. They are still one of the best teams to stack, especially when they have their lines set up like they are currently.

The Jets have moved their lines around a lot this season, but we've now got a fully-correlated first line. Kyle Connor ($8,500) is tied for seventh in the NHL in goals and third in shots on goal. He's playing with Mark Scheifele ($7,200), who started off the season slowly due to being on the COVID list but has 10 points in his last 10 games. Blake Wheeler ($5,400) doesn't have a goal this season but has six assists in his last three games while playing with this line.

The Jets make the trip out west to play the Seattle Kraken for the first time. The Kraken have looked like an expansion team at times this season, including on Monday when they lost 6-1. They've allowed 3.56 goals per game, the fourth-most in the league.

Winnipeg has an implied total of 3.05, the third-highest on the slate. Another piece to add to this stack is Nate Schmidt ($4,200), who has taken over the power-play duties with Neal Pionk suspended.

Minnesota Wild

We liked the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, and they didn't deliver the performance we hoped for. They won 4-1, but it didn't come with the fantasy outings we wanted from the first line. Tonight they are in another good spot, so we can stack them up again.

The first line will remain the same for the Wild. Mats Zuccarello ($6,000) was the best player on the top line on Tuesday, as his two assists brought him to 20 points in 19 games this season. It was a quiet game for Kirill Kaprizov ($8,700), but he did extend his point streak to six games with an assist. Ryan Hartman ($6,600) did not have a point, but he played more than 20 minutes and will continue to play on the top power play with two great playmaking wingers.

The Wild will see the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. The matchup is pretty neutral as the Sharks rank in the middle of the pack in most defensive metrics. We can run out the Wild first-line stack with some confidence, as the team is third in the league goals per game with 3.72.

Minnesota's implied team total is 3.21, the second-highest on the slate, so this is certainly a stack we want to target.



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.