3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for Thursday 3/3/22

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.

This Thursday slate has lots of good options to stack. Let's see if we can pinpoint the best three.

Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers will take the ice tonight for their first game since Saturday. They are now the only team to average over four goals per game. No team in the salary cap era (since 2005-06) has averaged more than four a game. This historic offense will have a great chance of scoring lots of goals again tonight.

The Panthers don't make the stacks easy to choose from. The first line is relatively affordable with Aleksander Barkov ($9,400) centering Carter Verhaeghe ($5,500) and Mason Marchment ($5,600). This line is a fine stack but offers no power play correlation. If wanting to use this line, consider playing Aaron Ekblad ($6,800) on defense to get some correlation on the power play with Barkov.

At least the second line has two players on the top power play. Jonathan Huberdeau ($8,700) is two points off the league lead in scoring. He's playing with Sam Bennett ($6,800) and Anthony Duclair ($5,900), who are second and third on the team in goals, respectively. Huberdeau and Duclair link up on the power play, along with Barkov. We've even seen these guys line up together at five-on-five in games sometimes, so they are fine to stack together, as well.

Florida is at home against the Ottawa Senators tonight. Ottawa has allowed the most shot attempts and second-most expected goals per 60 minutes this season. The Panthers lead the league in both shot attempts and expected goals per 60, so it's fair to say they match up well with the Senators.

The Panthers' implied team total is up to 4.21 goals at the moment. We've seen them exceed that many times this season, and it would surprise no one if they did it in this matchup.

Colorado Avalanche

Ranking right behind the Panthers in goals per game are the Colorado Avalanche. In fact, Colorado's 3.98 goals per game would be second in the salary cap era behind only Florida this season. The Avs also get perhaps an even easier matchup than the Panthers.

Colorado has found success changing up their lines a bit. They moved Andre Burakovsky ($5,700) up to play with Nathan MacKinnon ($9,900) and Mikko Rantanen ($8,900). Burakovsky has three goals and MacKinnon four in the three games since this line was put together. Rantanen had a six-game point streak snapped in the last game, so he's been in good form recently, as well.

This shift in lines has seen Gabriel Landeskog ($9,000) move down to the second line. It hasn't slowed him down at all, though, as he has four goals in the three games. Nazem Kadri ($9,300) has continued his career season with four assists in the three games with the new lines. These guys link up with MacKinnon and Rantanen on the first power play, too. They will likely be less popular than the first line and you can play Alex Newhook ($4,500) with them as salary relief.

Colorado will play the Arizona Coyotes tonight. Arizona allows the second-most shots per game and third-most goals per game in the league. Colorado has scored 11 goals in three meetings with Arizona this season, even if the last time they had a disappointing 3-2 shootout loss.

Colorado's implied team total comes in just behind Florida's at 4.19 goals. We've seen them break many slates over the past few seasons, and this sets up as a spot for them to do it again.

Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames have to be considered a juggernaut at this point. They've won 12 of 13 games and sit on top of the Pacific Division. They've averaged 4.23 goals per game in that stretch, as well, making them one of the best offensive teams in the league of late.

It was clear from the beginning of the season that Calgary's top line was going to be a force. Johnny Gaudreau ($8,400) has rediscovered his 2018-19 form and is sixth in the league in points. Matthew Tkachuk ($8,400) has been less of a pest this season and focused more on scoring. He's 2nd on the team and 11th in the NHL in scoring. Elias Lindholm ($7,700) continues to quietly be a great center. Since this 12 wins in 13 games started, he has 10 goals and no fewer than 9.6 FanDuel points in any game.

The second line can be stacked, as well, and is a nice complement to another stack. Mikael Backlund ($4,800) had a goal, an assist, and four shots on goal in his last game. Andrew Mangiapane ($6,800) is on another goal-scoring heater, with eight in his last 10 games. Blake Coleman ($5,300) has chipped in with seven points in his last 10 games, as well.

Calgary will face the Montreal Canadiens at home on Thursday. Montreal had their nice little run under new coach Martin St. Louis, but that came crashing down to earth when they lost 8-4 on Tuesday. They have allowed the most goals per game in the league and have little hope of slowing down the freight train that is Calgary.

The Flames' implied team total is actually higher than that of the Avalanche or the Panthers. These are three great stacks in incredible spots, but the Flames' first line is the only one that offers full power play correlation.

Others to Consider: Minnesota Wild, Edmonton Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning

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.