Best hockey DFS stacks and plays for August 8

The Stanley Cup Qualifying Round is nearly over, with just the Columbus Blue Jackets/Toronto Maple Leafs series left to be decided. We here at FTNDaily want to keep the excitement level high and continue to provide you with an informational edge for DFS on the two-game Saturday slate that will determine the No. 1 seeds in both the Eastern and Western Conference first round.

Vegas Golden Knights vs. Colorado Avalanche (Round Robin) – 3 p.m. ET
Philadelphia Flyers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (Round Robin) – 8 p.m. ET

If you’re playing catchup on DFS hockey, check out my Basics of DFS Fantasy Hockey, and you can check out our Eastern Conference and Western Conference breakdowns.

Make sure you tune into our Discord for updates on line changes.

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Saturday stacks

Colorado Avalanche Line 1 and PP1
- Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Vladislav Namestnikov, Cale Makar
- MacKinnon, Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Makar

Tampa Bay Lightning Line 1 and PP1
- Line 1: Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Victor Hedman
- PP1: Kucherov, Point, Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson, Hedman

Philadelphia Flyers Line 2
- Travis Konency, Kevin Hayes, Scott Laughton, Ivan Provorov/Travis Sanheim
Vegas Golden Knights PP1
- Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Reilly Smith, Shea Theodore

With only a two-game slate, you may need to get funky in big tournaments, looking to use all or part of the big power play stacks rather than the straight lines; in cash and smaller tournaments you can play a little more straight up. PHI2 looks like chasing a big game but they are cheap to help you squeeze in the big lines, plus Philadelphia is the road team which means Tampa will be able to use their better defensive units against PHI1, leaving PHI2 to face the lesser defensive lines.

Solo plays

Gabriel Landeskog
Nazem Kadri
Anthony Cirelli
Alex Tuch (value)
Chandler Stephenson (value)
Vladislav Namestnikov (value DK)
Joel Farabee (value, PHI1 and PP1 for $2,500 on DK, $3,600 on FD)

Top defenders

Shea Theodore
Victor Hedman
Cale Makar
Nate Schmidt (value)
Ryan Graves (value)
Travis Sanheim (value)

Showdown slate specials

Philadelphia Flyers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

I will be avoiding the goalies in this game, but if you feel strongly about using a goalie, I would lean to Andrei Vasilevskiy over Carter Hart, who has struggled against the Lightning this year.

Caption suggestions

Nikita Kucherov ($15,300) or Tyler Johnson ($6,000) – TB heavy lineups
Kevin Hayes ($11,700) or Joel Farabee ($4,500) – PHI heavy lineups

Punt options

Ondrej Palat ($6,000)
Scott Laughton ($4,600)
Tyler Johnson ($4,000)
Joel Farabee ($3,000)

Vegas Golden Knights vs. Colorado Avalance

I like Colorado a lot in this matchup, as they show up with the better offense and defense in my rating system, and with Max Pacioretty still out for Vegas I feel that Colorado should be able to contain the top two Golden Knight lines. Vegas can win this game, but it’ll likely be behind VGK3 and their defense if they do.

Caption suggestions

Nathan MacKinnon ($16,200), Philipp Grubauer ($15,600) or Vladislav Namestnikov ($5,700)
Mark Stone ($13,500), Alex Tuch ($7,800) or Chandler Stephenson ($6,000)

Punt options