NHL DFS Opening Night | September 29, 2026: DraftKings Stacks, Goalies & Best Plays

NHL opening night gives us a four-game DraftKings main slate beginning at 7 p.m. ET: Montreal-Toronto, Rangers-Bruins, Vancouver-Edmonton and Chicago-Vegas. Florida-Carolina starts at 5 p.m. and is outside the supplied main-slate pool. NHL DFS is correlation-heavy, so our tournament builds begin with line stacks and power-play overlap before we add one-offs, value and goalie.

How we are approaching NHL DFS

• Prioritize three-man forward stacks when salaries work. Two-man stacks are fine when they preserve a premium one-off or better goalie.
• Power-play overlap matters. A line becomes more valuable when its skaters also share man-advantage time.
• Defensemen are not filler. Favor power-play quarterbacks, shot volume and blocked-shot paths.
• Goalie is projection plus leverage. A high-shot underdog can beat a low-volume favorite if the saves and win arrive together.
• One-offs need independent ceiling through shots, goals and power-play work. Low ownership alone is not enough.

Favorite stack: Toronto 1

Auston Matthews $8,200 + Matthew Knies $5,500 + Jack Roslovic $4,600

Our favorite opening-night stack. Matthews supplies elite shot and goal ceiling, Knies gives us net-front scoring access and Roslovic keeps the stack affordable. Darren Raddysh $5,700 is the preferred defenseman addition because of the power-play correlation.

Raw-ceiling stack: Edmonton

Connor McDavid $8,500 + Leon Draisaitl $8,000 + Zach Hyman $6,700

Edmonton is the expensive ceiling stack. We do not need McDavid and Draisaitl together in every build. Two or three correlated Oilers plus Evan Bouchard $6,700 can capture most of the power-play ceiling without destroying the rest of the lineup.

Leverage stack: Montreal 1

Cole Caufield $7,100 + Nick Suzuki $6,700 + Chris Kreider $4,900

This is our favorite direct leverage against Toronto ownership. Caufield brings shot and goal upside, Suzuki drives the line, Kreider adds net-front scoring and Lane Hutson $5,300 supplies defense and power-play correlation.

Value stack: Vancouver 2

Brock Boeser $5,000 + Marco Rossi $4,100 + Liam Ohgren $2,600

Our salary-saving GPP stack. We do not need Vancouver to be the better team. We need this line to account for two or three goals while the salary savings buy elite pieces elsewhere.

Vegas against Chicago

Jack Eichel $7,700 + Mitch Marner $6,900 + Mark Stone $6,400

Chicago opens without Connor Bedard, which makes Vegas one of the cleanest team environments. Shea Theodore $5,400 gives us defense and power-play correlation. Vegas should be popular, so coherent stacks matter.

Best one-offs and values

• David Pastrnak $7,800: elite shot volume and multi-goal ceiling.
• William Nylander $7,500: premium Toronto alternative.
• Brock Boeser $5,000: favorite mid-range one-off.
• Marco Rossi $4,100: affordable center with enough role to work outside the full stack.
• Liam Ohgren $2,600: correlated punt.
• Frank Nazar $4,300: Bedard’s absence raises his offensive importance.

Goalie breakdown

Opening-night pricing includes multiple goalies per team. Do not assume every priced goalie starts. Final starter confirmation is mandatory before lock.

Carter Hart, $8,300

If confirmed for Vegas, our preferred win-equity spend-up against Chicago without Bedard.

Igor Shesterkin, $7,400

Our favorite tournament goalie if confirmed. The $7,400 salary creates a better lineup than the expensive favorites and his save ceiling is elite.

Jeremy Swayman, $8,000

Strong middle ground at $8,000 in a competitive Rangers-Bruins game.

Jakub Dobes, $7,600

Our favorite high-variance value if Montreal confirms him. Toronto can generate enough shots to create a large save total, but the goal risk is obvious.

Kevin Lankinen, $7,000

Pure large-field leverage at $7,000 if he draws Edmonton. A high-save upset would simultaneously bury popular Oilers stacks.

CTS opening-night core

Toronto 1 is our first stack, Edmonton is the raw-ceiling alternative, Montreal 1 is the preferred leverage stack and Vancouver 2 is the salary-saving moon shot. Pastrnak and Boeser are our favorite one-off profiles. At goalie, wait for confirmed starters before treating anyone as core.