NHL DFS Main Slate Picks for October 31, 2026

Saturday’s four-game DraftKings NHL main slate starts at 7 p.m. ET: Pittsburgh at Montreal and Toronto at Vancouver, followed by Columbus at Dallas and Calgary at Colorado. The 10 p.m. Calgary–Colorado game is part of this slate.

Colorado is my first full-line stack. Dallas offers a power-play-based tournament alternative, while Alex Newhook makes Montreal’s top line affordable. Toronto remains a priority, especially through Gavin McKenna’s salary, without requiring every lineup to pay for both Auston Matthews and William Nylander.

Top stack: Colorado’s first line

Nathan MacKinnon $9,000 + Artturi Lehkonen $5,500 + Martin Necas $6,500. Total: $21,000.

Colorado has 43 five-on-five goals. Calgary played Friday; Colorado last played Wednesday. MacKinnon has 22 points. Avalanche matchup preview. The rest advantage matters more to me than an old head-to-head scoring average. Calgary has to defend a fast, expensive line after playing and traveling, while Colorado can attack without depending entirely on power-play chances.

Lehkonen–MacKinnon–Necas was Colorado’s listed top line for its previous game. Latest official Avalanche line combination. Lehkonen’s 10-goal start includes seven high-danger goals and 15 high-danger shots. Colorado’s scoring-area breakdown. That supports a genuine complementary role: he can finish the chances created by the more expensive playmakers.

The drawback is concentration. This trio uses 42% of the salary cap, and Lehkonen’s recent finishing cannot simply be carried forward at the same rate. I prefer buying the full line only when the remaining roster has credible value. Otherwise, MacKinnon–Lehkonen is the $14,500 starting point.

GPP stack: Dallas power play

Wyatt Johnston $6,300 + Mikko Rantanen $6,200 + Miro Heiskanen $5,800. Total: $18,300.

Dallas’ power play is 20.0%; Columbus’ penalty kill is 74.3%. Stars matchup data. Those are small early-season samples, but the weakness aligns with how this stack is designed to score.

Johnston, Rantanen and Heiskanen are listed together on the first power play. Rantanen and Johnston also share the projected second line. Dallas deployment. Heiskanen makes this a special-teams stack rather than three forwards from one line. Jason Robertson $7,700 is the higher-priced shooting alternative, and Roope Hintz $5,200 is a less expensive first-unit attachment.

Rantanen has 16 points in 13 games, while Dallas has allowed ten goals across its last two losses. Recent Dallas results and production. I am willing to buy the offensive role without assuming the Stars control the entire game. This is a tournament alternative because it tells a different scoring story from Colorado’s even-strength line, not because a low ownership figure has been established.

Value stack: Montreal’s top-line discount

Alex Newhook $3,100 + Cole Caufield $6,700. Total: $9,800. Add Juraj Slafkovsky $5,400 for the $15,200 full line.

Newhook moved alongside Caufield and Slafkovsky at Wednesday’s practice; the October 31 game projection retains that trio. Canadiens practice report · Current game projection. Newhook and Caufield then scored twice each in Dallas. Thursday’s game recap. The useful development is the role at $3,100, not an expectation that Newhook scores twice again.

Newhook has averaged only 1.1 shots per game through 13 appearances. Pittsburgh has conceded roughly 28 shots and 3.4 goals per game in that same early-season window. Newhook and opponent statistics. The matchup creates opportunity, but his limited individual shooting makes him more appealing attached to a scorer than as a stand-alone floor play.

Newhook is on the projected second power play; Caufield and Slafkovsky are on the first. Montreal deployment. The stack’s main connection is at even strength. It costs $5,800 less than Colorado’s full line, a meaningful amount that can improve both defense slots.

One-offs and Toronto combinations

Auston Matthews $8,800 is my main alternative at expensive center. William Nylander $7,500 is a strong stand-alone winger or power-play partner, but is not currently projected on Matthews’ even-strength line. Jack Roslovic $5,000 is a projected Matthews linemate. Gavin McKenna $3,600 supplies the cheaper first-power-play connection; NHL.com now projects him with Matthews and Roslovic at even strength. Toronto line combinations.

Vancouver has conceded 33.9 shots per game in the matchup page’s recent window and its listed penalty kill is 65.4%. Toronto–Vancouver matchup. That supports multiple scoring routes for the Leafs. Matthews–Nylander–McKenna costs $19,900 and emphasizes the projected first power play. I would not describe those three as a settled even-strength line.

Kent Johnson $4,600 is the inexpensive one-off against Dallas. He has seven goals in 11 games, but Dallas has killed 93.5% of penalties. Matchup / Johnson’s production. His recent finishing is attractive; the opponent is why I prefer a limited one-off to building heavily around Columbus.

Value forwards

Newhook $3,100 is the center salary saver. McKenna $3,600 is my preferred cheap winger because the projected first power play offers a connection to the expensive scorers alongside his projected even-strength role described above. Gabriel Landeskog $3,700 is the Colorado alternative, projected with Brock Nelson and Nicolas Roy in the October 31 NHL lineup. He offers access to the same favorable team environment without paying for all three top-line forwards, but should not be treated as part of that top-line stack.

Defense

• Cale Makar $7,400: the premium Colorado ceiling option. Adding him to all three top-line forwards creates a $28,400 four-player commitment, so the rest of that lineup must be deliberately inexpensive.
• Miro Heiskanen $5,800: my preferred midrange correlation play in Dallas stacks because of the first-unit power-play connection.
• Devon Toews $3,800: an affordable Colorado attachment. He is a different role and price tier from Makar, not a claim of equal power-play opportunity.
• Brent Burns $3,300: a lower-cost Colorado defenseman who had two assists in the previous game. Avalanche recap. Josh Manson’s ankle injury leaves the defense short a regular, but does not automatically give Burns Makar’s offensive minutes. Manson injury report.

Goalies: top, GPP and value

Top: Anthony Stolarz $8,000. Daily Faceoff lists him as confirmed, attributing the start to Luke Fox. Goalie reports. Vancouver’s limited attack and Toronto’s scoring matchup make this my first win-oriented option. The risk is a low-save win or Toronto conceding high-quality chances despite controlling possession.

GPP: Jacob Fowler $7,900, projected. Fowler has a .942 save percentage through seven starts. NHL morning preview. That is impressive form, not a sustainable baseline to assume. Montreal has not supplied a confirmed start in the reports reviewed, and Dobes won Thursday. Fowler is my alternate goalie path for a Montreal-led lineup, not a reason to roster both him and a Pittsburgh scoring stack.

Value: Jet Greaves $7,300, projected. He saves $700 versus Stolarz and benefits if Dallas’ recent offensive inconsistency continues. Dallas averages 26.3 shots per game, so this is not an automatic 35-save opportunity. Team shot rates. Use Greaves in builds that fade the Dallas power-play stack. His start remains unconfirmed.

NHL.com projects Arsenii Sergeev in goal for Calgary rather than Dustin Wolf. I am leaving Wolf out of the goalie pool. October 31 NHL projected lineups.

Lineup construction and example

This build spends on Colorado’s complete first line, pairs Newhook with Caufield, and uses McKenna to access Toronto at a low price. Toews and Burns are the tradeoff: affordable defense rather than an expensive power-play quarterback.

Total: $49,500. Remaining: $500. Five Colorado skaters make the team exposure substantial. A quiet Avalanche night can sink the build, and the two cheaper defensemen do not recreate Makar’s ceiling. A more balanced version starts with the Montreal trio and uses the savings for Heiskanen or Makar rather than simply adding another expensive forward.