What a whirlwind week it's been in the NHL with perhaps the most active trade deadline I can remember. Even for someone like me who keeps pretty close tabs on player news, it was tough to keep up with all the moves. If you have the time, I suggest going back through our Ramblings columns from the past few days to get caught up on these moves, as they add some valuable perspective as well.

As for DFS, if there was ever a day I am happy to see a small-ish slate, it would be today. With so many new faces in new places, it can take a few games to see how new lines and power play units will take shape and knowing that information is of course very important in daily fantasy. With all that said, we have a manageable eight game slate for tonight and it's important to note that the slate starts at 6 pm EST instead of the standard 7 pm EST that we're used to. So get those lineups in early! Now let's look at some places to target. All player prices are from DraftKings, but the information and concepts can be applied to any site.

Top-Tier Stack to Pay Up For

The Senators have been rolling of late with five goals or more in four straight games, all wins. The top line of Brady Tkachuk ($7,500), Tim Stutzle ($6,700), and Claude Giroux ($5,700) have been responsible for a majority of that scoring. This trio has combined for eight goals and 12 assists in just those last four games alone. If that wasn't enough, they draw the plum matchup of Columbus on home ice tonight. Only the Ducks, Canucks, and Sharks have allowed more goals this season than the Blue Jackets. I'll fire up Ottawa confidently tonight in the hopes their high scoring ways can continue for at least one more game.

Mid-Tier Stack to Target

For the majority of the last two games the Leafs lines have been put in a blender. And considering they've only scored twice in each of those contests, I'd expect that shuffling to continue tonight as well. Given this uncertainty, I'm going to shy away from relying on a stack as they're presently shown and instead focus on individual players. The guy on the top of my list here is Mitch Marner ($6,600) who's racked up 12 points over the last six games. This production coupled with the fact he's the cheapest of the big four in Toronto makes him a no-brainer for my Leaf stacks in this one. After Marner, John Tavares ($6,900) is my next pick as you get him at a $1,700 discount as compared to Auston Matthews ($8,600) meanwhile Tavares has outscored Matthews in DraftKings points in five of the last seven games. From here, consider Ryan O'Reilly ($4,200) or Morgan Rielly ($5,100) to round out your stack, either of which keeps the cumulative salary of this stack well below that of Ottawa's and worthy of the "mid-tier" section they fall in this week.

Cheap Stack to Build Around

Nashville was a team who clearly they decided were sellers at this year's deadline, shipping out players like Tanner Jeannot, Mikael Granlund, and Mattias Ekholm among others. There isn't a whole lot left on the forward front however that creates opportunity for the next men up. In this case, that's likely players like Thomas Novak ($4,300), Philip Tomasino ($3,700), and Cody Glass ($3,500). This trio has combined for seven goals and 16 assists over the last seven games which is better production than you'd likely have expected. Novak has been the best of the bunch with five goals and six assists during that stretch. At basement level prices and a good matchup against the lowly Blackhawks, these are good pieces to plug into your lineups to fit the more expensive higher-end plays covered above.

Goalies

Between the pipes I'm typically looking to stack my goalie with one of my stacks from that lineup. However, if looking for a standalone option, I'd consider Filip Gustavsson ($7,300). Gustavsson scored 32.8 DraftKings points last time out and has reached double digits in seven straight starts. He also gets a matchup with the Flames who've allowed the most DraftKings points to goalies this season.

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. Also, give a look to our tools at DFS Central to see who our formulas are liking for this slate. Best of luck with your lineups!