3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for Wednesday 10/13/21

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.

Last night, we had an appetizer of just two games. Tonight, we get the main course with a great five-game slate. So let's look at what stacks we can use on Wednesday.

Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers were one of the best teams to stack last season. They have some of the most talented offensive players in the league, who are capable of slate-breaking performances in any game. We saw some truly epic performances out of their top guys, and there's no reason that they can't produce something similar tonight.

Of course, any Oilers stack begins with Connor McDavid ($8,800). His 105 points in 56 games took the league by storm, as he led the league in scoring by 21 points over second place. The player in second was Leon Draisaitl ($8,700), who bounces back and forth from being McDavid's left wing and centering his own line. It looks like he will play on McDavid's wing tonight, and the two players playing together at even strength often produce devastating results.

It's tricky to decide who to play with these two superstars. Jesse Puljujarvi ($4,200) is slated to be on the right wing for them and could see power play time, but that's not guaranteed. You could stack Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ($6,400) and Zach Hyman ($5,800) with them to form a four-forward power play stack. Defenseman Tyson Barrie ($5,900) is a good option, as well, as he led all defensemen in points due to his role on the power play.

You'll definitely want exposure to last season's top power play in the league, especially against this Vancouver Canucks defense. Vancouver was brutal on the back end last season, allowing the third-most high-danger chances and most expected goals per 60 minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick. If anything, their offseason moves made their blueline worse, as they took on Oliver Ekman-Larsson's horrible contract while dumping off some of their own bad contracts.

The Oilers' implied team total is currently the highest on the slate, so this stack is definitely the top one to target tonight.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are always a team that seems to be a great target at the beginning of the season. They've been getting out of the gate fast and scoring lots of goals, usually facing off against an inferior Canadian rival. That is the case again tonight.

Unfortunately for the Leafs, Auston Matthews will not be available while he still recovers from wrist surgery.

That will slide John Tavares ($7,200) up to the top line in his stead, and Tavares is certainly capable of producing in that role. He'll have one of the best playmaking wingers on his right in Mitch Marner ($7,700), who was fourth in the league with 67 points last season. They'll be joined by newcomer Nick Ritchie ($3,500), who quietly had a good season with the Boston Bruins last year, chipping in with 15 goals.

Morgan Rielly ($6,100) is the defenseman that you can play with this line, as he would add power play correlation to Tavares and Marner.

Toronto will face the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season, the Montreal Canadiens. But this isn't the same Montreal team that made a run to the Stanley Cup Finals. They will be missing Carey Price, Shea Weber, and Phillip Danault, who were all key cogs in the defensive machine that allowed Montreal to shut down the Leafs and other teams in the playoffs.

Toronto should be able to overcome the goal-scoring funk they were in when these teams last played in May, and their 3.35 implied goals suggest that they will.

Chicago Blackhawks

If we are going to look for a contrarian stack that will be less popular than Edmonton, Toronto, and maybe the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, we can look to the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks made a ton of moves this offseason in an attempt to make another run with what's left of their core from the days when they were winning Stanley Cups. Whether or not that works remains to be seen, but they could be in a good spot tonight.

One constant for the Blackhawks even through their rough past few seasons has been Patrick Kane ($7,900). He finished fifth in points last season, despite shooting just 7.9%, well below his career mark of 11.9%. His good season also allowed Alex DeBrincat ($7,300) to have a bounce-back year, as he finished third in goals in the NHL behind only McDavid and Matthews.

Chicago was a black hole at the center position last season, but this offseason they acquired Tyler Johnson ($3,600) and will move him back to center and put him with these two dynamic wingers. Johnson will play with both Kane and Debrincat on the top power play, so his $3,600 salary is a bargain.

It's not an easy matchup by any means for Chicago against the Colorado Avalanche, but it's not as tough as it could be. The Avs will be without superstar Nathan MacKinnon, who is one of the best players at transitioning the puck from one end of the ice to the other. Devon Toews is out injured and Ryan Graves is no longer on the team, so that's two of last season's top four defenseman missing. They will also be debuting Darcy Kuemper in goal, who produced negative goals saved above expected last season.

Chicago is a fun team to stack because Kane and Debrincat have nearly as high of a ceiling as any duo in the league. You can play Kane, Debrincat, Johnson and the newly-added Seth Jones ($5,900) as the power play quarterback for an all-American stack of four.

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.