NHL Daily Fantasy Tournament-Winning Strategies
This article is designed to help you build NHL DFS tournament lineups all season long that have a chance to grab the top-heavy prizes at the very top of the leaderboard. Join us in Discord before lock and check out the Top Shelf Plays for help building your lineups.
I analyzed 40 NHL classic tournament slates on DraftKings from last regular season. This data is from the largest-field tournaments on each slate, and all slates had 1900+ entries. Each day I took the largest GPP contest data I could get my hands on and gathered the data to look for winning trends. Slates with incomplete roster data were skipped. NOTE: Contest data isn’t available for FanDuel, but the tournament strategies section is applicable to all sites.
The Data
| Slate Size | Stack 1 | Stack 2 | Goalie Team | Other Skaters | Unique Teams | Summary | Entries | Date |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | Stack 2 | 1D | 3 | 4-4-1 | 4705 | 2/6/23 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Stack 2 | 1D | 3 | 4-4-1 | 3921 | 2/7/23 |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | Stack 2 | 1W | 3 | 4-4-1 | 5945 | 2/8/23 |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | Stack 2 | 1D | 3 | 4-4-1 | 2352 | 2/10/23 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Other | 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 2745 | 2/11/23 |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | Stack 2 | 1W, 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 4705 | 2/13/23 |
| 9 | 4 | 3 | Stack 1 | 1C, 1D | 3 | 4-3-2 | 4705 | 2/14/23 |
| 8 | 4 | 3 | Other | 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 4705 | 2/16/23 |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | Other | 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 7843 | 2/17/23 |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | Stack 2 | 1W, 1D | 5 | 3-2-2-1-1 | 3137 | 2/19/23 |
| 6 | 4 | 2 | Stack 1 | 1W, 2D | 4 | 4-2-2-1 | 7843 | 2/20/23 |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | Other | 2D | 5 | 3-3-1-1-1 | 11764 | 2/21/23 |
| 10 | 3 | 3 | Other | 1C, 1D | 5 | 3-3-1-1-1 | 4705 | 2/23/23 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Stack 1 | 1D | 3 | 5-3-1 | 3137 | 2/24/23 |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | Stack 1 | 1C, 2W, 1D | 5 | 5-1-1-1-1 | 2352 | 2/26/23 |
| 10 | 4 | 2 | Other | 2 | 4 | 4-2-2-1 | 4705 | 2/28/23 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Stack 2 | 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 4705 | 3/1/23 |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | Other | 1C, 1W, 1D | 6 | 2-2-2-1-1-1 | 3137 | 3/3/23 |
| 11 | 4 | 3 | Other | 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 4705 | 3/9/23 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Other | 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 3921 | 3/12/23 |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | Stack 1 | 1C, 1D | 4 | 5-2-1-1 | 2352 | 3/13/23 |
| 12 | 3 | 3 | Other | 2D | 5 | 3-3-1-1-1 | 3921 | 3/14/23 |
| 11 | 3 | 1 | Other | 5 | 7 | 3-1-1-1-1-1-1 | 3137 | 3/16/23 |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | Stack 2 | 2C, 1D | 4 | 3-3-2-1 | 2352 | 3/17/23 |
| 7 | 3 | 3 | Stack 1 | 1W, 1D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 2745 | 3/18/23 |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | Stack 2 | 2W | 5 | 3-3-1-1-1 | 3137 | 3/19/23 |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | Stack 1 | 3 | 5 | 3-2-2-1-1 | 3137 | 3/20/23 |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | Other | 2D | 5 | 3-3-1-1-1 | 3137 | 3/21/23 |
| 11 | 2 | 2 | Other | 4 | 6 | 2-2-2-1-1-1 | 2745 | 3/23/23 |
| 3 | 2 | 2 | Other | 4 | 5 | 2-2-2-2-1 | 1960 | 3/24/23 |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Stack 1 | 2D | 3 | 4-3-2 | 3137 | 3/27/23 |
| 10 | 4 | 2 | Other | 2 | 4 | 4-2-2-1 | 3921 | 3/28/23 |
| 3 | 3 | 2 | Stack 1 | 2W, 1C, 1D | 6 | 3-2-1-1-1-1 | 2352 | 3/29/23 |
| 11 | 3 | 3 | Other | 2D | 5 | 3-3-1-1-1 | 2745 | 3/30/23 |
| 11 | 3 | 3 | Other | 2D | 5 | 3-3-1-1-1 | 2352 | 4/1/23 |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | Other | 1W | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 2352 | 4/3/23 |
| 11 | 4 | 3 | Stack 1 | 2D | 4 | 4-3-1-1 | 3137 | 4/4/23 |
| 10 | 3 | 3 | Other | 1W, 1D | 4 | 3-3-2-1 | 1960 | 4/10/23 |
| 10 | 2 | 2 | Other | 4 | 7 | 2-2-1-1-1-1-1 | 2352 | 4/11/23 |
| 15 | 4 | 2 | Other | 1C, 1D | 4 | 4-2-2-1 | 2352 | 4/13/23 |
Key Takeaways
- 4-3 skater stacks won 12 out of 40 slates (30%).
- 3-3 skater stacks won 9 out of 40 slates (22.5%).
- 4-3-1-1 build won 10 out of 40 (25%).
- Non-stacked goalie won 21 of 40 (52.5%).
- One stand-alone (“naked”) defenseman won 22 of 40 (55%).
- 4-man primary skater stack won 22 of 40 (55%).
- 3-man secondary skater stack won 24 of 40 (60%).
- 2-man secondary skater stack won 14 of 40 (35%).
- 3 unique teams won 7 of 40 (17.5%).
- 4 unique teams won 17 of 40 (40%).
- 5 unique teams won 11 of 40 (27.5%).
Tournament Strategies
- Correlation. It should be crystal-clear from the data that you need to build ALL of your NHL tournament lineups with correlation in mind. Line stacking is a widely-adopted strategy because of the fantasy scoring breakdown. A goal and two assists, plus the shot on goal, is worth 20 fantasy points if you have all three skaters in your lineup. DraftKings also has bonuses for a hat trick, 5+ shots, 3+ points, and short handed points. MLB DFS is very similar to NHL DFS in this way – hitter stacking is akin to line stacking, but the correlation is even more important in hockey because there can be two assists on every goal, as we just touched upon. Additionally, there are only five skaters on the ice at once, so you’re more likely to choose correctly when stacking, whereas in baseball you’re only allowed to stack a maximum of five hitters out of nine. It is much more difficult to choose the optimal DFS lineup by selecting individual skaters than to sacrifice a little bit of raw fantasy point upside in exchange for building highly-correlated lineups.
- Leverage. When you’re competing against thousands of other entries in a tournament, you should be trying to construct a lineup that has leverage on the field in some way. Simply put, your lineup needs a path to victory when the public is wrong. Predicting sports outcomes is difficult, and we can use the betting lines to determine where we can take a stand in tournaments so that when the “chalky” plays fail, the payoff is worth the risk we took. In hockey, the two easiest ways to get leverage on the field in a tournament are to use a stack opposing the top goalie of the slate or to use the third or fourth line instead of the first or second.
- Stacks. Start your lineups by mixing and matching the lines you want exposure to. Some lines are too expensive to pair up in the same lineup. A simple spreadsheet can be used to calculate the total salary of a given line. Think in terms of teams, instead of individual players and roster positions, when cultivating a player pool. Consider adding a power play defenseman to a stack. Based on the data above, it’s usually a good idea to have a second team stack of two or three skaters.
- Final Pieces. The data shows that it’s not necessary to roster a goalie from the same team as your stacked lines in order to win a tournament. Choose a goalie that you think has a chance to win the game and not allow many goals, as these are the main sources of fantasy points. A cheap defenseman is often the last lineup decision to be made, building around your stacks and fulfilling the “players from three different teams” roster requirement.
