NHL DraftKings DFS Picks: Main Slate (October 13, 2026)

Tuesday’s 12-game DraftKings NHL main slate gives us plenty of star power, but our first builds start with the Islanders and Lightning. Both offer inexpensive linemates who make a second scoring stack easier to afford. Colorado’s power play is the premium tournament alternative, while Ottawa and Seattle provide cheaper ways to complete a lineup.

Main slate: October 13, 2026. First lock: 7:00 p.m. ET. Seattle at Philadelphia opens the slate; Boston at San Jose is the final game at 11:00 p.m. ET. The four earlier games are outside this player pool. All salaries below are DraftKings Classic prices.

Pre-lock update: Makar is out; Bedard is set to return. Oettinger is a reported starter; Grubauer remains projected and Saros is likely. Recheck unconfirmed starters and line combinations before each game locks.

Main-Slate Schedule

• 7:00 p.m. ET: Seattle at Philadelphia
• 7:15 p.m. ET: Tampa Bay at New York Rangers
• 7:30 p.m. ET: St. Louis at Ottawa
• 7:45 p.m. ET: Vancouver at New York Islanders
• 8:00 p.m. ET: Pittsburgh at Chicago
• 8:15 p.m. ET: Minnesota at Winnipeg
• 8:30 p.m. ET: Colorado at Dallas
• 8:45 p.m. ET: Vegas at Nashville
• 9:00 p.m. ET: Toronto at Utah
• 9:45 p.m. ET: Calgary at Anaheim
• 10:30 p.m. ET: Edmonton at Los Angeles
• 11:00 p.m. ET: Boston at San Jose

Primary Stacks

Islanders first line vs. Vancouver

Bo Horvat ($6,800) + Kyle Palmieri ($5,200) + Emil Heineman ($3,200)
Combined salary: $15,200

New York gives us the best balance of matchup and manageable salary. Vancouver enters allowing five goals per game with a 52% penalty kill. Those are early-season numbers, so we should not project another five goals automatically. They are still enough to put the Islanders near the front of our shopping list.

Tuesday’s team preview still projects Heineman, Horvat and Palmieri together. Heineman makes the price work: the full line leaves $34,800 for the other six roster spots. We prefer buying three connected forwards to filling that final wing slot with an unrelated minimum-priced player.

For a power-play version, replace Heineman with Matthew Schaefer ($6,200). The total becomes $18,200. Horvat, Palmieri and Schaefer shared power-play shifts Saturday. Heineman had no power-play time, so the cheaper build is primarily an even-strength bet. Choose the version that fits the rest of the lineup rather than pretending they buy the same opportunities.

Tampa Bay first line at New York Rangers

Brayden Point ($5,900) + Nikita Kucherov ($8,500) + Gage Goncalves ($3,100)
Combined salary: $17,500

Tuesday’s NHL.com preview still projects Point between Goncalves and Kucherov. Point is the attractive middle piece: he is $900 cheaper than Horvat and $3,300 below Nathan MacKinnon. That discount lets us use Kucherov without sacrificing every other position.

Goncalves keeps the full line affordable, but his appeal depends on staying alongside the two stars. For a three-player power-play stack, use John Carlson ($5,600) instead, raising the total to $20,000. Carlson, Point and Kucherov each exceeded five power-play minutes Saturday; Goncalves had secondary usage. Recent deployment supports Carlson as the defenseman to pair with this group.

The Rangers are without Igor Shesterkin for the season. That improves our willingness to spend on Tampa, but we are not treating a replacement goalie as an automatic collapse. The lineup still needs goals from the players we roster. A four-man Point–Kucherov–Goncalves–Carlson group costs $23,100 and covers both even-strength and power-play paths.

Tournament Alternatives

Colorado power play at Dallas

Nathan MacKinnon ($9,200) + Martin Necas ($7,400) + T.J. Hughes ($3,200)
Combined salary: $19,800

Colorado is our more aggressive alternative to the two primary builds. MacKinnon, Necas and Hughes remain together on Daily Faceoff’s projected top power-play unit. That is projected deployment, not a final lineup announcement. Hughes makes the construction possible without forcing us into three expensive forwards.

At this price, we want Hughes for access to the premium unit, not as a stand-alone scorer with an assured floor. Keep him only if that assignment holds. Cale Makar ($7,800) is out tonight, so remove him from Colorado builds. We are keeping this as a forward-only tournament trio rather than forcing a defense replacement.

Dallas makes this a ceiling-first choice. Jake Oettinger was second star of the week after a 0.33 GAA and .983 save percentage. We would rather acknowledge that difficult matchup and stack Colorado deliberately than scatter expensive Avalanche one-offs through every build. This is an alternative construction, without an assumption that its ownership will be low.

Ottawa value line vs. St. Louis

Tim Stuetzle ($6,500) + Drake Batherson ($5,400) + Warren Foegele ($2,500)
Combined salary: $14,400

Foegele joined Stuetzle and Batherson at Monday’s morning skate. If Ottawa retains that alignment, a minimum-priced winger alongside two scoring pieces is useful in builds that spend heavily on Colorado or Edmonton.

We prefer the $11,900 Stuetzle–Batherson pair when we can afford a more secure third scorer elsewhere. Add Foegele when the savings accomplish something specific, such as upgrading a defense slot to Schaefer. The full line is an even-strength construction; it should not be sold as three members of one power-play unit. Ottawa is also on the second night of a back-to-back, so today’s lineup check matters before we commit to the discount.

One-Offs and Salary Savers

• Matthew Schaefer, NYI ($6,200): Our preferred defense spend in Islanders builds. His price keeps more salary available for a second forward stack. The power-play version above is the stronger fit if we are specifically attacking Vancouver’s penalty kill.
• Matias Maccelli, NYI ($2,900): A different route to the same matchup. The Islanders have used Maccelli on their top power-play unit. We like him as a cheap attachment to Horvat or Schaefer if that role holds, rather than assuming he belongs to Horvat’s even-strength line.
• Matty Beniers, SEA ($4,300) + Mackie Samoskevich, SEA ($3,500): A $7,800 secondary pair. Seattle projects both with Jared McCann. Adding McCann ($6,500) makes the line $14,300. The pair is useful when a full expensive second stack would weaken both defense slots.
• Adam Larsson, SEA ($3,800): A practical defense saver. He played 24:43 with three blocks Sunday and only five seconds of power-play time. We are buying minutes and a route to peripheral points. Do not expect the offensive ceiling of Carlson or Schaefer.

Goalie Tiers

Oettinger is a reported starter. Grubauer remains projected, while Saros is likely rather than confirmed. Verify the remaining starting assignments before using either.

Best matchup-based fit: Philipp Grubauer, Seattle ($7,900), projected

Seattle’s team preview lists Grubauer in its projected, unofficial lineup. Daccord missed morning skate for maintenance; that alone does not confirm Grubauer. If confirmed, he is our first look for balanced builds. Philadelphia is winless through seven games and has been outscored 28–6. The concern is ceiling: a quiet opponent can produce fewer saves even when the goalie plays well. Grubauer is $600 cheaper than Ilya Sorokin, which helps preserve the skaters. Joey Daccord also costs $7,900 and is an alternative only if Seattle announces him instead.

GPP: Jake Oettinger, Dallas ($7,600), reported starter

RotoWire reports Oettinger will start, citing Stars radio analyst Bruce LeVine. He is the direct tournament alternative to Colorado-heavy builds. MacKinnon’s group creates both save opportunity and real damage risk. The salary discount is useful if Dallas contains that offense; it will not rescue the lineup if Colorado finishes its chances. We would use him in a separate build from Avalanche stacks rather than asking both sides of that conflict to deliver.

Value: Juuse Saros, Nashville ($7,200), likely

Daily Faceoff lists Saros as likely after he left morning skate first. That is a starting signal, not confirmation. Saros saves $700 from Grubauer and $1,300 from Sorokin. Nashville lists him at a .915 save percentage through four games, but the appeal here is the price and potential save work against Vegas. This is a higher-risk tournament saving, not the safest goalie simply because he is cheaper. Avoid pairing him with a Golden Knights stack, and confirm the start.

DraftKings GPP Lineup Example

Conditional construction: use only if Grubauer is announced as Seattle’s starter and the cited forward lines hold.

• C: Bo Horvat, NYI, $6,800
• C: Brayden Point, TBL, $5,900
• W: Kyle Palmieri, NYI, $5,200
• W: Nikita Kucherov, TBL, $8,500
• W: Gage Goncalves, TBL, $3,100
• D: John Carlson, TBL, $5,600
• D: Adam Larsson, SEA, $3,800
• G: Philipp Grubauer, SEA, $7,900
• UTIL: Emil Heineman, NYI, $3,200

Total: $50,000. Salary remaining: $0.

The lineup combines a full Islanders forward line with Tampa’s three forwards and Carlson. Heineman and Goncalves provide the savings; Carlson adds the stronger power-play connection. Larsson supplies a cheaper defense slot, and there are no skaters opposing our goalie.

If Grubauer does not start, rebuild the goalie choice before Seattle’s 7:00 p.m. ET game. If either cheap winger loses his line assignment, revisit the entire stack rather than keeping him just to preserve this exact salary total. Late-game flexibility is useful only in contests that permit late swap; check the contest’s rules.

Final Checks Before Lock

• Confirm Heineman with Horvat and Palmieri, and Goncalves with Point and Kucherov.
• Confirm Carlson’s top-unit role and Hughes’ power-play assignment before using those stacks.
• Connor Bedard is set to make his season debut tonight against Pittsburgh, per NHL.com’s Tuesday update. Our core and sample lineup remain unchanged; verify his final availability and role before adding Chicago exposure.
• Verify every goalie. A probable designation or a name appearing in the player pool is not a confirmed start.