3 Daily Fantasy NHL Stacks for Thursday 11/18/21

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.

Like on Tuesday, we've got an 11-game slate tonight. Let's try to identify the best stacks of the night.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting on the right track and starting to play the way people expected them to play this season. They've won four games in a row and nine of their last 10. The next step would be to get the offense going, and they should be able to with the talent they have.

Auston Matthews ($9,600) had a goal and an assist on Tuesday and has real-world points in four consecutive games. He's reunited on the first line with Mitch Marner ($7,700), and the two played very well together last season. Marner was fourth in the league in assists, largely because he played with Matthews. The third option on this line is Nick Ritchie ($3,500), who's a good pick for salary relief when stacking the Leafs' top line.

The move of Marner to the first line means that William Nylander ($7,800) slides down to the second line to play with John Tavares ($8,500). This line is also in play as a stack, as these two represent Toronto's top two scorers on the season.

The Leafs will play the New York Rangers at home on Thursday. While the Rangers appear to be sitting pretty with their 10-3-3 record, some of their underlying metrics are concerning. They rank second from the bottom in expected goals allowed per 60 minutes and scoring chances allowed per 60, according to Natural Stat Trick. Toronto pummeled the Rangers in their previous meeting this season, producing 3.13 expected goals before coming up as hard-luck losers in overtime.

If Toronto can play like that again, they should be able to produce goals. They have a healthy implied total of 3.39 goals, so they should be able to produce some fantasy points.

Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames have been a pleasant surprise this season. Many people expected them to be a low-scoring, defensive team under head coach Daryl Sutter, and that hasn't been the case. They average more than three goals per game and have had forwards who we can stack.

The top line for the Flames has been one of the best lines in hockey to start the season. Elias Lindholm ($7,600) leads the team with 17 points and has been a solid first-line center. Johnny Gaudreau ($6,800) is behind him by one point and should be due for positive regression. He is on the top power play and has been on it all season, yet he has just one power-play point this campaign. Calgary's power play is in the top 10 in the league, so him getting just one point is likely some kind of fluke. The last piece of the stack is Matthew Tkachuk ($7,000), who leads the team in shots on goal and has seven goals on the season.

The Flames will face the Buffalo Sabres on the road. The Sabres have been decent this season but have been riding their luck. Tuesday's game was a great example of that, as they won 2-1 but got completely dominated in all shot metrics. The Flames should be able to dominate them the same way in this game.

Calgary's implied total is the fifth-highest on the slate, and they have the upside to score a lot of goals. They've scored four-plus goals in seven of their 16 games this season, making them an explosive offense we can target.

Florida Panthers

We know that the Edmonton Oilers are a great stack tonight and every night, but we are going to talk about the Florida Panthers here. Even with Aleksander Barkov going down, they are still an interesting stack in this game.

The way Florida has changed their lines to make up for the loss of their top center is actually pretty fantasy-friendly. Sam Bennett ($6,200) is playing on the top line with Jonathan Huberdeau ($7,400) and Anthony Duclair ($6,100). These three are also on the first power play, so we finally get a Florida line that has full correlation. Aaron Ekblad ($6,400) leads the team in shots on goal, so he's a great piece on defense to add to this stack.

Florida takes on the New Jersey Devils . The Devils are pretty average in most defensive metrics, so they aren't anything Florida should struggle with. New Jersey's penalty kill is eighth from the bottom in the league, so the power-play stack can definitely exploit this weakness.

With Barkov on the shelf, fantasy players may overlook the Panthers, but they shouldn't. Florida carries the second-highest implied total and has the ability to break the 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.