NHL DFS DraftKings Main Slate Picks & Stacks: October 5, 2026

Monday’s DraftKings NHL main slate has four games, and the small size makes correlation and lineup confirmation especially important. Tampa Bay draws a struggling Philadelphia team, Pittsburgh has opened the season scoring at a furious rate, and San Jose brings one of the league’s hottest young stars into Dallas.

Slate Context

Philadelphia has been outscored 13-4 through three games, while Tampa Bay comes off a 3-1 win. Pittsburgh has scored 13 goals in two games. San Jose is 2-0-0 with Macklin Celebrini already at five assists, while Dallas is 0-2-0 and has scored only one goal. Ottawa will be without Jake Sanderson, weakening its defense and puck movement against Boston.

Top Stack: Tampa Bay

Nikita Kucherov $8,300 + Brayden Point $5,800 + Jake Guentzel $6,300

Kucherov and Point share even-strength shifts, while Guentzel joins them on the first power play. That gives the trio two ways to combine for points against Philadelphia: Point finishing Kucherov’s chances at five-on-five, or the top unit converting a penalty.

Brandon Hagel $6,800 offers the same first-unit power-play access while skating with Guentzel at even strength. Gage Goncalves $2,800 is the cheaper alternative alongside Point and Kucherov on the projected top line; his appeal is those linemates, not simply being inexpensive.

GPP Power-Play Stack: Pittsburgh

Sidney Crosby $7,000 + Rickard Rakell $6,000 + Erik Karlsson $5,700

Crosby and Rakell give us a forward pairing, with Karlsson linking the stack on the first power-play unit. Winnipeg is on the second night of a back-to-back, so Pittsburgh has a rest advantage as well as a route to scoring across all three roster spots on the same goal.

Value Stack: Pittsburgh’s Second Line

Tommy Novak $3,900 + Evgeni Malkin $5,700 + Egor Chinakhov $4,500

Novak’s $3,900 price is the attraction here: he joins Malkin and Chinakhov on the projected second line after a two-goal, three-point game against Montreal. Their shared even-strength shifts give this $14,100 trio a connected scoring path, rather than three cheap players who need separate things to go right.

Leverage Power-Play Stack: San Jose

Macklin Celebrini $8,500 + Will Smith $5,900 + Igor Chernyshov $3,600

Celebrini and Smith skate together at even strength, while Chernyshov joins them on the first power play. Chernyshov is the inexpensive finishing piece here, not a third member of their even-strength line.

Celebrini has five assists through San Jose’s 2-0-0 start and is already driving offense at an elite rate. Dallas will attract interest because of its established stars and home setting, but the Stars have opened 0-2-0 with only one goal. Instead of assuming an immediate Dallas rebound, a correlated Sharks stack offers a legitimate tournament path.

Dallas: Rebound Spot, Not Automatic Chalk

Jason Robertson $7,200 + Wyatt Johnston $6,700 + Mikko Rantanen $6,200

Dallas has too much offensive talent to dismiss because of two games. Robertson offers shot and goal ceiling, Johnston is a strong center anchor, and Rantanen’s $6,200 salary is attractive for his talent. If the field assumes Dallas must bounce back at home, San Jose becomes even better leverage.

Roope Hintz at $4,700 and Thomas Harley at $4,100 are strong ways to get Dallas exposure without paying for the full premium trio.

Boston vs. Ottawa

David Pastrnak $7,800 remains one of the slate’s best one-off ceiling plays. Boston is at home and Ottawa is without Jake Sanderson, removing a major minute-eating defenseman from the matchup.

Tim Stützle $6,500 + Drake Batherson $5,600 is more attractive as a tournament mini-stack than a core stack. Boston’s goaltending has started well, and Sanderson’s status matters to Ottawa’s puck-moving environment.

Best One-Off Forwards

Nikita Kucherov $8,300: elite ceiling in our favorite team environment.

Macklin Celebrini $8,500: expensive, but five assists in two games and a role that touches everything San Jose does offensively.

David Pastrnak $7,800: shot-driven ceiling makes him easy to use without a full Boston stack.

Kyle Connor $7,700: already has two power-play goals and remains Winnipeg’s premier finishing option.

Jason Robertson $7,200: our preferred Dallas one-off if we do not fully stack the Stars.

Mid-Range and Value Forwards

Brayden Point $5,800: Point plays with Kucherov at even strength and on the first power play. His finishing role gives him direct access to Tampa’s best chances without Kucherov’s $8,300 price.

Evgeni Malkin $5,700: Malkin has scored in both Pittsburgh games and shares his projected line with Novak. Their early chemistry gives him a real scoring case, although his second-unit power-play role keeps him below the Crosby-Rakell combination for power-play stacks.

Roope Hintz $4,700: Hintz skates with Jason Robertson and joins Dallas’ first power-play unit. He gets access to the Stars’ premium offensive opportunities at a substantially lower salary than Johnston or Robertson.

Travis Konecny $4,900: Konecny’s projected first-line and first-power-play roles keep him central to Philadelphia’s scoring chances. A poor team start has not removed those opportunities, and his price is far easier to cover than the premium wings.

Trevor Zegras $3,600: First-unit power-play work gives Zegras a more useful offensive role than most players this cheap. His passing offers an assist-driven scoring path alongside Philadelphia’s primary finishers.

Bargain Bin: Gage Goncalves $2,800

Goncalves’ projected spot beside Point and Kucherov gives him access to chances created by elite linemates. One productive even-strength sequence can do far more for this salary than it would for a $6,000 winger.

One-Off Defensemen

Erik Karlsson $5,700: Karlsson runs Pittsburgh’s first power play with Crosby and Rakell. That gives him a direct assist path if the Penguins turn Winnipeg’s penalties into goals.

Miro Heiskanen $5,500: Heiskanen joins Robertson, Hintz, Johnston and Rantanen on Dallas’ first power play. He gets access to their finishing without requiring a goal of his own to deliver a useful offensive night.

Value Defensemen

Thomas Harley $4,100: Harley contributes at even strength, on the penalty kill and on the second power play. That gives him both defensive-workload and secondary scoring paths, although Heiskanen retains the better power-play assignment.

Travis Sanheim $3,300: Sanheim’s top-pair and penalty-kill workload should keep him involved against Tampa’s attack. Blocked shots can support his score even if Philadelphia spends long stretches defending.

Cam York $3,200: York offers regular even-strength minutes at a low salary, with blocks and secondary assists as his main routes to value. He is a cheaper workload play, not a first-power-play substitute for Karlsson or Heiskanen.

Best Goalie: Andrei Vasilevskiy $8,200 vs. Philadelphia

Projected starter.

Vasilevskiy is our first choice against a Philadelphia attack with four goals in three games. Tampa Bay offers the cleaner win path, and this matchup gives him a better chance of keeping goals allowed low than the more explosive Pittsburgh-Winnipeg game.

GPP Goalie: Jeremy Swayman $8,000 vs. Ottawa

Confirmed starter.

Swayman has won both starts with a .947 save percentage, and Boston has named him its starter. He saves $200 from Vasilevskiy and offers a different route to a strong goalie score through Boston winning a tight game rather than needing an offensive blowout.

Value Goalie: Dan Vladar $7,200 at Tampa Bay

Confirmed starter.

Vladar is the aggressive salary-saving pick because Tampa Bay can supply a busy night of saves. A Flyers upset would combine that workload with the win bonus at the bottom of the goalie price range, but the Lightning attack makes him a considerably riskier play than Vasilevskiy.

Long-Shot Alternative: Clay Stevenson $7,600 at Pittsburgh

Projected starter.

Stevenson has a save-heavy ceiling against a Pittsburgh offense that has scored 13 goals in two games. The appeal is an upset with substantial save volume, not a comfortable matchup: Winnipeg is playing its second game in two nights.

Confirmed Pittsburgh Starter: Sergei Murashov $8,400 vs. Winnipeg

Murashov will make his season debut behind a Pittsburgh team that has scored 13 goals in two games and catches Winnipeg on the second night of a back-to-back. The salary is higher than Swayman and Vasilevskiy, so he is more useful when a Penguins-heavy build is already betting on Pittsburgh controlling the game.

NHL Daily Lineups: lines and starting goalies

Availability Notes

Jake Sanderson: Out. Remove him from the player pool and give Boston’s top offensive pieces a modest matchup boost.

Rasmus Ristolainen: Back in Philadelphia’s projected lineup.

Favorite Construction Paths

Cash/single-entry lean: start with Tampa exposure, one premium one-off such as Celebrini or Pastrnak, then use the $3K-$4K defense tier to protect forward ceiling.

Large-field GPP: Pittsburgh three-man correlation plus a San Jose mini-stack creates a path that can beat Tampa-heavy builds if Philadelphia keeps that game competitive.

Leverage build: Celebrini-Smith-Chernyshov with one or two Dallas bring-backs. It embraces the possibility that San Jose’s start is real rather than automatically buying a Stars rebound.

Our Favorite Plays

Point and Kucherov are our preferred offensive pair, with Guentzel adding first-power-play finishing. Pittsburgh offers two distinct alternatives: Crosby, Rakell and Karlsson for power-play upside, or the cheaper Novak, Malkin and Chinakhov line. At goalie, Vasilevskiy has our favorite matchup, Swayman is the confirmed alternative, and Vladar is the low-cost upset play.