For the NHL daily fantasy player, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we have a nice nine-game slate on tap for us on this DFS Saturday. Personally, I consider the 7-9 game range the sweet spot, as it's not too many games that you get bogged down looking for fantasy plays, but not too few that you struggle to find value or low-owned plays. The bad news is after Saturday we have eight consecutive days with three games or less on the slate. While the four-day All-Star break doesn't begin until Thursday, for whatever reason the league has only scheduled 2-1-3-2 games respectively from Sunday through Wednesday. With some major down time on the horizon, let's go all out on this Saturday slate and try to go into the break on a positive note. As always, be sure to give the tool at DFS Central a look for another perspective. As for me, these are some of the spots I'll be targeting for tonight. The player prices are from DraftKings, but the information and concepts can be applied to any site.

Top-Tier Stack to Pay Up For

I'll start this off with the disclaimer that Edmonton is probably the obvious play for this section given their home matchup with the Blackhawks. However you don't need me to tell you that Edmonton has some good scoring threats so I'm going to spend this time giving an alternate top-tier option. For tonight I'd consider Tampa Bay. Over the last nine games the trio of Nikita Kucherov ($7,800), Steven Stamkos ($7,300), and Brayden Point ($6,700) have combined for a whopping 42 points – that matches the total of the top Edmonton line. Kucherov in particular has 16 points over that stretch, the most in the league. Their matchup tonight is against a pretty solid Kings team but I'm hoping that keeps the ownership down on the Bolts for tournaments. Los Angeles is on a road back to back here and since the calendar flipped to 2023, the Kings goalie tandem of Jonathan Quick and Pheonix Copley has a combined save percentage of .885 – well below the league average.

Mid-Tier Stack to Target

Only three teams have allowed more goals this season than the Sharks, and they come into tonight's game on the dreaded road back-to-back. In fact, this will be the Sharks' fifth road game in a row on their East Coast swing and they've yet to pick up a win. The Penguins top line is always in play but for this one I'm looking at the second line to try and save a few dollars in salary. Over the last six games each skater on that line consisting of Evgeni Malkin ($6,200), Rickard Rakell ($6,200), and Jason Zucker ($4,700) have scored exactly three goals. Add in another nine assists between the trio and we have some pretty nice production of late. While this is the second line, Malkin and Rakell both skate on the top power play which we always like to see. Kris Letang ($5,500) has just returned to the lineup as well, is priced down, and has four points and nine shots in just two games so he is worth adding on to the stack or taking the place of Zucker.

Cheap Stack to Build Around

The Kraken have cooled off a bit going 2-3-1 in their last six games after having put together an eight-game win streak. But with their losses coming to Edmonton, Tampa Bay, Colorado, and Calgary, it's hard to really fault them. They'll get what should be a much easier opponent in tonight's game in a Blue Jackets team who has won only five of their last 21 games entering Friday. We'll target the duo of Andre Burakovsky ($4,700) and Jordan Eberle ($4,500) for our stacks as they're quite affordably priced and skate on both the top line and top power play together. Vince Dunn ($5,200) has emerged with 18 points over his last 14 games at defense and makes for a third option to the stack in the absence of Matthew Beniers.

Goalies

I typically like to correlate my goalie in my lineups with one of my stacks, but if you're looking for a standalone option, consider Karel Vejmelka ($7,600). Vejmelka has stopped 68 of 69 shots over the last two games, racking up 30.0 and 33.1 DraftKings points respectively. He also draws a plus matchup against a Ducks team who can put shots on goal but have some trouble finishing.

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!