As the calendar flips to November the first month of the NHL season is in the books. How about some early fantasy MVP's? Well of course Connor McDavid leads the way but that's a surprise to no one. Some other notable performances early on are the resurgence of Erik Karlsson and his ten goals on the year (trailing only McDavid), David Pastrnak who's 19 points and eight goals are top four in each category, and Jesper Bratt whose 17 points are more than the likes of Nikita Kucherov, Matthew Tkachuk, and many others drafted much earlier. Lots of season left to play but great starts and some likely happy owners for those who may have drafted them.

Shifting back to DFS, in what's been the theme of the week we've got another big slate coming off a tiny one. The schedule from Monday forward has been three games, 12 games, two games, 13 games, two games, 14 games. As someone who likes to play NHL DFS every day, I sure wish they'd spread things out a bit more. Nonetheless we have to play the hand we're dealt. Tonight, that means a ten game slate which includes all the games starting at 7pm EST or later. Here a few spots I'm targeting. The player prices are from DraftKings but the information and concepts can be applied to any site.

Top Tier Stack to Pay Up For

While Edmonton and Colorado are in action today, neither falls on the main slate. A few top ones that do are Toronto, Boston, and Florida in which two of those will square off with each other as Toronto takes on Boston. However, for my DFS lineups my favorite of the high-priced options tonight is Tampa Bay. The Sabres are one of the feel-good stories around the league early on, but tonight's matchup finds them on a road back-to-back which is always a spot I look to play against. After practicing Friday, it appears Victor Hedman ($6,900) could rejoin the lineup and should come at a nice ownership discount if the majority of the field avoids him for injury concerns. I like stacking him with Nikita Kucherov ($7,700), Steven Stamkos ($7,800), and Brayden Point ($6,200) to give me all the big scoring threats from the Lightning's top lines and power play unit. If Hedman were by chance to miss another game, simply plug in Mikhail Sergachev ($6,400) at a lower cost.

Mid-Tier Stack to Target

If looking strictly in terms of goals allowed the best matchup on the slate belongs to the San Jose Sharks. Their opponent tonight, the Anaheim Ducks, lead the league in that category and are coming off a whopping 13 goals allowed in just their last two games. The Sharks meanwhile have been showing some offense with 15 goals scored over their last four, led by Erik Karlsson ($7,800) which as I mentioned in the open is sitting at 2^nd on the goals scored list as of Friday morning. He's a must on any Sharks stack as is Timo Meier ($7,100). From there you have some viable stacking options that help pull down the average cost in Tomas Hertl ($4,400) and Logan Couture ($4,200).

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Cheap Stack to Build Around

Playing guys facing the Coyotes certainly shouldn't be a newsflash to anyone but given the Capitals mediocre start and lackluster scoring (only eight goals in their last five games) it's possible they go overlooked on this slate. John Carlson is on Injured Reserve so taking his spot on the power play of late has been Erik Gustafsson ($2,700). At just $200 more than the cheapest price DraftKings allows, one assist or a handful of shots is all you're really looking for and anything else is a cherry on top. That price also helps to average out the tag on Alexander Ovechkin ($7,600) allowing you to fit him and someone like Evgeny Kuznetsov ($4,000) with almost any stack on the slate.

Goalies

When it comes to goalies, I like to correlate mine with one of my stacks. However, if you're looking to just pluck a one off, I'd consider Carter Hart ($7,300) who figures to get the start in Ottawa and has posted at least 18 DraftKings points in six of his seven starts.

If you're looking for a few more options, another perspective, or some tools you can use to optimize and build lineups – give our DFS Central a look. 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!