Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for Tuesday 10/12/21

In daily fantasy hockey, stacking is a key strategy in tournaments. We want to correlate our lineups with up to four players to maximize upside. 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've only got two games on opening night, but we can still find different ways to stack the four teams on the slate.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning repeated as champions, finishing off the Montreal Canadiens in five games to capture their second consecutive Stanley Cup. We knew that they were going to lose some important players due to the salary cap, and their entire third line is now gone. However, the top two lines remain how they were in the playoffs, and they could be dominant once again.

Tampa's most dynamic offensive player is Nikita Kucherov ($8,600). He didn't play a game in the regular season but dominated the playoffs with 32 points in 23 games. The next highest scorer was linemate Brayden Point ($7,600), who had 23 points, 14 of which were goals. These two play together at even strength and on the power play, with Kucherov being the distributor and Point getting a lot of high-quality chances from the slot area. The other member of this line is the underrated Ondrej Palat ($5,900), who won't play on the power play with Kucherov and Point but is still an option in stacks.

The Tampa Bay second line also is one of the stronger stacks tonight. Steven Stamkos ($7,500) and Alex Killorn ($5,100) both play together on the second line and on the explosive first power-play unit. They'll be centered by Anthony Cirelli ($4,300), who, like Palat, is a decent option but without the power play correlation. If you want extra power-play correlation, Victor Hedman ($6,700) will be the defenseman on the top unit and is always viable as the power-play quarterback on one of the best units in the NHL.

You can get creative when stacking Tampa tonight. You can play up to four teammates on FanDuel, so getting four on the power play makes sense. Kucherov, Point, Stamkos, and Killorn are the preferred four-man stack, as you get correlation between two players at even strength, plus the power play. You can also mix in Hedman instead of one of the forwards. As Tampa Bay will likely be a popular team tonight, mixing in some different combinations is a good way to get unique.

The Lightning have a high 3.28 implied team total on tonight's slate going up against a Pittsburgh Penguins team that's without some of their best forwards. The last time we saw the Penguins, goaltender Tristan Jarry was struggling in the playoffs. If that's the case again, Tampa Bay could feast and get their title defense off to a great start.

Vegas Golden Knights

It's wild to think that the Vegas Golden Knights are in just their fifth season as a franchise and have made the conference finals in three of their first four seasons. They'll bring back a similar lineup to what they had last season when they were one of the best teams in the league.

Vegas' first line was the line to roster last season. It consists of their top two scorers Max Pacioretty ($7,300) and Mark Stone ($7,000), but Chandler Stephenson ($3,600) continues to be one of the best values as well for a very low salary. Pacioretty and Stone are on the top power-play together, and while Vegas' power play was not strong last year, they have a chance to be better this season with new players playing on the unit.

The second line is the line that carried them in their first season. Jonathan Marchessault ($5,700), William Karlsson ($5,400), and Reilly Smith ($4,600) have unique chemistry from playing together for the past four seasons. This season, they should play together all on the power play, and that wasn't always the case last season. Of course, players that correlate perfectly on the power play and at even strength is what we look for in an ideal stack.

Like Tampa, Vegas is going to be popular tonight, so we want to find different ways to stack them compared to the rest of the field. One way to do that is to play two players who play on the third line and correlate on the top power play. Newcomers Evgeni Dadonov ($4,200) and Nolan Patrick ($3,400) could add something to a Vegas power play that was bottom 10 in the NHL last season. You can play these two with Stone and Pacioretty to get four forwards from the same power-play unit, and Dadonov and Patrick might be sneaky tonight.

Another way to get sneaky is to play the second line with Alec Martinez ($4,600) rather than the popular Alex Pietrangelo ($6,400). Martinez was showing his offensive chops a lot in the postseason, as he scored four goals. He also led the NHL in blocked shots last season, so his floor and ceiling could be as high as Pietrangelo's, but for $1800 less. He is less likely to appear on FanDuel rosters tonight.

The second-to-most-recent expansion team will face the league's newest one tonight -- the Seattle Kraken. Seattle could be without a handful of players due to COVID protocols on Tuesday. If any team knows not to underestimate the expansion team, it should be Vegas. The Golden Knights have the highest implied team total on the slate, sitting at 3.30 goals. You'll want to get exposure to them tonight, and getting some in a unique way could be the key to taking down an opening night tournament.

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.