NHL is a line-stacking sport. Goals come in bunches, and the players on the ice together share them. DFS Hero supports NHL on DraftKings and FanDuel in classic and single-game formats, with line and power-play data in the Player Pool and line-aware stack rules in Build Settings.
Sites and formats
| Site | Format | Roster | Salary cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| DraftKings | Classic | C, C, W, W, W, D, D, G, UTIL (9 players) | $50,000 |
| DraftKings | Showdown | CPT, FLEX, FLEX, FLEX, FLEX, FLEX (6 players) | $50,000 |
| FanDuel | Classic | C, C, W, W, D, D, UTIL, UTIL, G (9 players) | $55,000 |
| FanDuel | Single-game | MVP, UTIL, UTIL, UTIL, UTIL, UTIL (6 players) | $60,000 |
Slot rules that matter:
- UTIL takes a C, a W, or a D on both sites. It never takes a goalie.
- The FanDuel Single-game pool holds C, W, and D only.
- The CPT and MVP slots score 1.5 times the player's points and cost 1.5 times the salary.
Team and game limits:
- DraftKings classic needs at least 3 teams. The goalie does not count toward that floor.
- FanDuel classic allows at most 4 players from one team and needs at least 3 teams.
- Showdown and Single-game allow at most 5 players from one team.
The Player Pool
NHL adds these columns to the grid:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Start | For a goalie: a green check for a confirmed starter, a yellow circle for an expected starter, a gray X for a goalie who is not starting. The cell stays empty for a skater and for a goalie with no starter news yet. Classic and single-game slates. |
| Line | The player's even-strength line. |
| PP | The player's power-play unit. |
| Goals | Projected goals. |
Sort by Line and then by PP. Favor same-line skaters who also share a power-play unit; that pairing carries the most correlation.
Build Settings
Sport Rules
Open Build, then expand SPORT RULES on the Basic tab.
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Defenseman Per Team | Allows only one defenseman from a team in a lineup. | Off |
| Exclude All Fourth Line Players | Removes every fourth-line skater from the pool before the build. | Off |
| UTIL Position | Limits the UTIL slot to the positions you pick: C, W, D. | Off |
| Skaters vs Goalie | Limits how many centers and wingers a lineup can roster against its own goalie. Auto, the default, allows 1 on slates of 2 games or fewer and none on bigger slates. Manual sets your own Allow number, 0 to 5; it starts at 0, which allows none. Defensemen never count. | Auto |
Min Unique Players goes up to 8 on both sites.
Stacks
- A Position Stack rule pairs a position with other positions on the same team, the opponent, or the same game. NHL rules add a Lines picker with 1, 2, 3, pp1, and pp2, so a rule can read "a C with at least 2 skaters from the same line". When you leave the picker empty, the rule applies to every line.
- Quick Stack shows a Stack Mix table of preset shapes from 5-2 down to 2-X, plus a No stack row. Give each shape a Weight. The weights of the checked rows must total 100%.
Showdown and Single-game slates use the Showdown Distribution table instead. No stack is on by default. StackIQ can arm the first two rules from its team table.
Min/Max
On classic slates, MAX PLAYERS PER TEAM and GENERAL PER TEAM default to a maximum of 7 on DraftKings, the most the site allows. DraftKings needs skaters from at least 3 teams, so one team can give at most 6 skaters and its goalie. FanDuel classic caps at 4 per team. On both sites the setting can only go lower.
Features that apply
| Feature | NHL support |
|---|---|
| Late Swap | Classic slates on both sites. Turn on Maintain stacks to keep a line together. |
| StackIQ | Classic slates on both sites. |
| Game Sim | Classic and single-game slates on both sites. |
| Hero Chat pivots | Yes, on the Power plan. |
Stack shapes
The standard NHL GPP lineup carries one full line stack of 3 forwards plus the defenseman who runs their power play, and a second smaller stack of 2 forwards from another team. The 5-2 and 4-3 shapes in Quick Stack are the common large-field shapes. The 3-3 shape spreads risk across 2 games for smaller fields.
Tips
- Use StackIQ to compare team totals and ownership before you pick the stacks. The Own% column shows which line and power-play stacks the field will crowd.
- Start the goalie from the team with the best win odds in cash contests. In a GPP, set Skaters vs Goalie to Manual and raise Allow when you want a cheaper goalie with a stack against the goalie's opponent, and only when the total is low.
- Turn on Exclude All Fourth Line Players when a fourth-line role cannot pay off at the price; a fourth-liner promoted to a power-play unit is the exception.
- Turn on 1 Defenseman Per Team unless you stack the power play on purpose.
- After the early games lock, run Late Swap with Maintain stacks on. The solver keeps the line together when it replaces a scratched player.
Related
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