NHL DFS DraftKings Picks October 8, 2026: Stacks, Values, Goalies and Lineup

Thursday’s October 8 NHL DraftKings main slate has 10 games and starts at 7 p.m. ET. We prefer Tampa Bay’s first power play and Montreal’s top line, with Colorado offering another premium ceiling. Buffalo’s second line is our favorite way to save salary without giving up a real scoring connection.

The distinction matters: some of our stacks share every even-strength shift, while others connect on the power play. We want multiple players benefiting from the same goal, not three expensive names who happen to wear the same jersey.

Top Stacks

1. Tampa Bay PP1 vs. Minnesota

Brayden Point $6,000 + Nikita Kucherov $8,800 + Jake Guentzel $6,400. Total: $21,200.

All three connect on Tampa Bay’s projected first power play. Point and Kucherov also share an even-strength line; Guentzel does not. We prefer this trio when betting on the Lightning converting penalties, with Point finishing inside and Kucherov creating the passing lanes. The expensive third piece needs that power-play scoring to justify the full commitment.

2. Colorado’s first line at Calgary

Nathan MacKinnon $9,000 + Martin Necas $7,000 + Artturi Lehkonen $5,000. Total: $21,000.

The projected even-strength trio gives us a playmaker, another puck carrier and a lower-priced finishing piece. MacKinnon and Necas also share PP1; Lehkonen is on PP2. Colorado is on the second night of a back-to-back, so this is a bet on its offensive concentration rather than a rest advantage. We prefer the full line to three unrelated premium one-offs in a tournament build.

3. Montreal’s first line vs. Nashville

Nick Suzuki $7,100 + Cole Caufield $7,400 + Chris Kreider $4,500. Total: $19,000.

This is our favorite balance of price and shared opportunity. All three are together on the projected first line and PP1. Suzuki’s playmaking, Caufield’s shooting and Kreider’s net-front role provide different ways to participate in the same goal. Kreider is not merely a cheap name filling out the stack; his shared deployment is why the savings matter.

GPP Stacks

Vegas first line vs. Toronto

Jack Eichel $8,700 + Mark Stone $7,500 + Ivan Barbashev $4,800. Total: $21,000.

All three share the projected top line. Eichel and Stone also connect on PP1, while Barbashev is the even-strength attachment. The tournament case is a multi-goal night from this line, not a claim that Vegas will be lightly owned. Use the complete trio when backing five-on-five scoring; prioritize the Eichel-Stone pair when emphasizing the power play.

Utah PP1 at Boston

Nick Schmaltz $5,900 + Clayton Keller $6,900 + Dylan Guenther $7,200. Total: $20,000.

Schmaltz and Keller skate together at even strength. Guenther plays on another line but joins them on PP1. That gives this trio a specific ceiling path through Utah’s penalties drawn and its top-unit finishers. It also directly opposes Boston-goalie builds. Do not pair the stack with Jeremy Swayman $7,500.

Carolina PP1 vs. Vancouver

Sebastian Aho $6,800 + Andrei Svechnikov $6,000 + Nikolaj Ehlers $5,400. Total: $18,200.

Aho and Svechnikov share an even-strength line, while Ehlers joins them on the first power play. Ehlers is on a different five-on-five unit, so we are buying special-teams overlap rather than calling this a full line. The lower combined price leaves room for a premium defenseman or a stronger second stack.

Value Stacks

Buffalo’s second line vs. Dallas

Noah Ostlund $3,200 + Zach Benson $4,200 + Jack Quinn $5,100. Total: $12,500.

Our favorite value trio shares the projected second line and first power play. That is unusually useful access for this combined salary. One productive power play can involve all three while leaving enough money for a premium stack. It is a smaller offensive bet than paying for Buffalo’s top-priced scorer, but the correlation is stronger than mixing players from different lines simply to save salary.

San Jose’s projected first line at St. Louis

Will Smith $5,900 + Mason Marchment $3,900 + Igor Chernyshov $3,700. Total: $13,500.

These three are together on San Jose’s projected first line. Smith and Chernyshov also share PP1; Marchment is on PP2. We prefer Chernyshov as the third piece because he keeps both the even-strength connection and access to Smith’s power-play chances. This is a bet on that deployment, with Macklin Celebrini $8,600 still listed day-to-day in the lineup report rather than treated as cleared.

Best One-Off Plays

Nathan MacKinnon $9,000: Our preferred single premium forward. His first-line and PP1 roles let shooting and playmaking contribute without requiring a complete Colorado stack.

Nikita Kucherov $8,800: The best Tampa Bay one-off, with first-line creation and PP1 passing feeding his multi-point ceiling.

Cale Makar $7,400: The premium defense choice with Colorado exposure. He quarterbacks the same first power play as the two expensive forwards.

Lane Hutson $5,700: Our preferred midrange offensive defenseman. Montreal’s PP1 assignment connects him to Suzuki, Caufield and Kreider without paying for another high-priced winger.

Rasmus Dahlin $6,800: Buffalo’s first-unit quarterback. Pairing him with the value line adds a defense slot to the same power-play scoring opportunity.

One-Off Values

Chris Kreider $4,500: Montreal’s top-line and PP1 role gives a net-front finisher more useful scoring access than a similarly priced depth winger.

Josh Norris $4,000: A projected first-line attachment to Tage Thompson $8,100. Norris is on PP2, so the cheaper price does not buy identical special-teams opportunity.

J.J. Moser $3,300: Top-pair minutes and PP2 work give him secondary assists and blocks as useful low-cost scoring routes.

Owen Power $3,800: Second-pair minutes, PP2 and penalty-kill work offer a mix of assists and blocks. Dahlin retains the better power-play assignment.

Gage Goncalves $3,100: The cheap even-strength linemate of Point and Kucherov. That attachment is more useful than treating him as an unrelated bargain.

Ryan McDonagh $2,700: Penalty-kill workload makes him a blocks-first saving, not an offensive-defense substitute.

Goalies

Best: Ilya Sorokin $8,100 vs. Chicago

Likely. Not announced starter. Sorokin has stopped 61 of 63 shots through two starts, and the goalie report lists him as likely. He is our preferred balanced play: a home-win path with enough potential saves to support the price. The tiny early-season sample is a positive, not a forecast of another near-perfect game.

GPP: Jeremy Swayman $7,500 vs. Utah

Expected. Not announced starter. Utah’s skilled top unit can provide save volume, giving Swayman a strong score if Boston wins a competitive game. He saves $600 from Sorokin. Use him in builds without Utah skaters; he is our example-lineup goalie.

Value / Deep GPP: Kevin Lankinen $6,900 at Carolina

Expected. Not announced starter. Our aggressive salary-saving choice. Carolina’s attack can create a busy save night, and a Vancouver upset would combine those saves with the win bonus. The same matchup creates substantial goals-allowed risk. Do not pair him with a Carolina stack.

Our DraftKings Lineup

Slot	Player	Salary
C	Brayden Point	$6,000
C	Nick Suzuki	$7,100
W	Nikita Kucherov	$8,800
W	Chris Kreider	$4,500
W	Artturi Lehkonen	$5,000
D	J.J. Moser	$3,300
D	Owen Power	$3,800
G	Jeremy Swayman	$7,500
UTIL	Gage Goncalves	$3,100

Total: $49,100. Salary remaining: $900.

This tournament example uses Tampa Bay’s projected first line, a Montreal first-line/PP1 pair and a Colorado one-off. The lower-priced defense slots preserve those forward connections. Swayman does not face any of our skaters. We would rather keep this structure and leave $900 than spend the balance on an unrelated downgrade in role.

Swayman is an expected starter, not an announced starter. All skater combinations above are projected.

More research: NHL Daily Lineups and our NHL DFS coverage.