The first DFS Saturday of the NHL season has arrived! It seems like just yesterday we were building showdown lineups for 3-0 games. Actually, come to think of it that was me last night for the first half of the Bears-Commanders NFL game, oops. Shifting back to hockey, the first Saturday is loaded with all teams in actions except for four. For the main slate at 7pm EST we've got 12 games to sift through.

Before getting into that though, let's run through a quick refresher on some key NHL DFS points. First off and most importantly, know the rules of the game/site you're playing. I primarily play on DraftKings but whether you're playing on there, Fanduel, Yahoo, or any other site they each have their own quirks in rosters, scoring, and contests.

Once you have a grasp on the rules of your site, focus on the scoring and be aware of how that has an effect on your roster. For example, on DraftKings goals are worth 8.5 points, assists 5.0 points, and shots 1.5 points. Plus, there is a three-point bonus for five or more shots. On Fanduel those same stats are worth 12.0 points, 8.0 points, and 1.6 points respectively with no bonus awarded for shots. At quick glance you notice both sites reward shots roughly the same number of points, however on Fanduel goals and assists are worth significantly more points than they are on DraftKings. So, when you're playing on Fanduel you really need to focus on goals and assists however on DraftKings you can cover up some of that with shots.

My last point which I have touched on many times over the years in past articles and will do so again as this season moves along, is to correlate your lineups for playing large field tournaments. By that I mean stacking three, four, even five players from the same team in the same lineup. It may sound risky but that's exactly what makes it the preferred way to attack large tournaments. In order to win those, which should be your only goal when playing tournaments (the payout structures are very top heavy and are not sustainable just minimum cashing), you want to have all the pieces of a team when their top line or top power play unit go off for three or more goals on a night. Landing on that one team in your lineups is hard, but it's not harder than trying to pick the one perfect player from eight different teams in one night.

With that foundation, let's run through some lineup ideas for this slate. DraftKings will be the primary focus of this information but you can apply the concepts to any site.

Top-Tier Stack to Pay Up For

Sure, it would be great to just play the big guns in Toronto, Boston, and Edmonton all together in a lineup and call it a night, but that's simply not possible given the salary cap nature of the game. Decisions have to be made. On this night, I'm going to side with Toronto. I think Boston will be the most popular but with David Pastrnak playing on the second line, it's not the cleanest stack. Edmonton has by far the toughest matchup of the three playing in Calgary, so that leaves Toronto. It took Auston Matthews ($8,700) six periods to get his first goal of the season and now that he's broke the ice, I'm expecting at least another here. I like stacking him with Michael Bunting ($4,100) who he skates with at even strength and has an affordable price tag that helps to offset some of Matthews'. Mitch Marner ($7,500) makes for a great stacking partner as well, or to add to make it a three player one.

Mid-Tier Stack to Target

For a middle of the road stack in terms of salary tonight, consider the St. Louis Blues. Targeting players facing teams coming in on a road back-to-back is one of my favorite strategies and while it may be more effective later in the season as wear and tear starts to build up, it can still work this time of year when players aren't quite into game shape yet. This will actually be the Blue Jackets third game in four days and also while he may not have much of an impact on their defense, it's worth noting Patrik Laine is going to miss this contest too. This will be the Blues first game so we haven't seen them yet this season but I'm expecting the line of Robert Thomas ($4,600), Pavel Buchnevich ($5,400), and Vladimir Tarasenko ($6,900) to get the most run and pack the most scoring punch.

Cheap Stack to Build Around

Cheap stacks like this are nice to find as they allow you to get up to the big boys with the rest of your lineup and when they hit, your lineup is set up for success. While I think the Red Wings will be much improved this season, they're also coming into this one on a road back-to-back. The Devils had a bit of a stinker on Thursday in Philadelphia so I'm expecting a better performance here in the home opener. I think Jack Hughes ($6,400) is set for a real breakout season and I want to be early on that, so I'm looking at him here. For stacking look at his line and power-play mate Ondrej Palat ($3,700) as well as Jesper Bratt ($4,800) who is also on the man advantage. If you've got the space, you can also tack on Dougie Hamilton ($6,200) who is always in play for the five shot scoring bonus on DraftKings.

As games start to pile up and some more data accumulates, I'll add in a few more options to look at each week. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel so you can follow my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of dozens of team accounts and beat writers providing important updates throughout the day. Best of luck with your lineups!