Well despite what appeared to be a successful week of hockey on the fantasy sites, with larger than normal contests filling often times well in advance of lock, the return of the NBA has the NHL contest sizing right back to "normal". That shouldn't be a surprise as the fantasy sites always put hockey on the back burner, but it's still frustrating for the daily player.

While the contest entry sizes are down, the size of the player pool is not as we have seven games on the slate, the most on a Saturday since before the All-Star break. However, it will be a rough one for those on the east coast like me, with four of the seven games not starting until 10 pm EST or later. Maybe that makes up for those on the west coast watching hockey with their cereal last weekend.

In addition to this article, be sure to give a look to the DraftKings DFS Player Evaluator over in the Frozen Tools for another perspective. Here are some spots I'll be targeting; all prices are from DraftKings but plays can be applied to any site.

Primary Stacks

Colorado – This will be a matchup between two teams on a back-to-back that I expect Vegas will have a harder time handling. With Robin Lehner having been moved to IR, you can expect to see Logan Thompson in net here. Despite playing fairly well in his previous starts this season, he hasn't seen a team like Colorado. The top line for Colorado with Nathan MacKinnon ($8,700), Mikko Rantanen ($7,300), and Gabriel Landeskog ($6,400) is always the preferred option but to save some salary and have the ability to fit in other pricier stacks, I like looking at Nazem Kadri ($7,200) and one of Andre Burakovsky ($4,000) or Valeri Nichushkin ($4,300) stacked with Devon Toews ($5,300). This gives you access to the top line via Kadri and Toews while coming in at a fraction of the cost.

Calgary – We're stuck in one of those cycles where Calgary just seems to be in play in every Saturday so they find their way into the article once again. This will be a team eager to get back out on the ice after the embarrassment that was Thursday, where they lost to the Canucks 7-1. Back at home, I'm expecting a much better effort tonight against a Wild team that has allowed 26 goals over their last six games. Look at the lethal top line of Elias Lindholm ($6,800), Johnny Gaudreau ($7,200), and Matthew Tkachuk ($6,300) with Tyler Toffoli ($3,900) as a salary relief option on the top power play.

Ottawa – I'm much more nervous picking against Montreal now as compared to a week or so ago, as they've been playing really well since Martin St. Louis took over behind the bench. However, despite the good form of late this is still a team that has had problems keeping pucks out of the net all year. I really like the price tag on Tim Stuetzle ($4,100) here and Brady Tkachuk ($6,500) is always a good option because of how often he shoots. Stacking those two with someone like Adam Gaudette (5v5) ($2,700) or Connor Brown (PP1) ($4,000) makes a lot of sense if you think the Canadiens regress a little here.

Secondary Stacks

Toronto – I don't need to go into too much detail on what makes the Leafs a good play, as simply Auston Matthews ($9,200) is a threat to score multiple goals every game he's on the ice. Detroit has given up five goals and seven goals in two of their last three and gave up seven to this Leafs team in their last meeting a few weeks back. Matthews can be played on his own or stacked with his linemates of Mitch Marner ($8,000) or Michael Bunting ($5,100). If you want a lower owned scoring option, William Nylander ($6,100) is in play.

Los Angeles – I'm not big on playing teams on a back-to-back, but I'll make an exception here for the Kings because the price is certainly right. On a slate featuring many of the league's highest-priced players, a top line with an average price per player under $5,000 can help stretch our lineups a long way. Anze Kopitar ($5,600), Adrian Kempe ($4,800), and Alex Iafallo ($4,500) are the players I speak of and Drew Doughty isn't much more at ($5,600).

Vegas – Keeping with the value theme, the Golden Knights come in to this matchup with some depressed price tags due to the matchup against Colorado. Shea Theodore stands out at just ($4,900) as does Max Pacioretty ($6,200). Those two players were a combined $3,800 more expensive just two weeks ago so we're getting quite the discount here. Jack Eichel ($6,400) is the obvious third man on this stack.

Here a few others stacks to look at for your lineups:

Mike Hoffman ($3,600), Brendan Gallagher ($3,500), Chris Wideman ($2,500)

Mathew Barzal ($5,100), Anders Lee ($3,700), Kyle Palmieri ($3,000)

Cheap Power Play 1 Plugs

C – Jean-Gabriel Pageau ($2,600), Ryan Johansen ($2,900), Mikael Granlund ($3,900)

W – Evgenii Dadonov ($3,200), Robby Fabbri ($3,300), Alex Killorn ($4,400)

D – Jared Spurgeon ($4,700), Rasmus Andersson ($4,800), Noah Dobson ($5,200)

Goalie Picks

Anton Forsberg ($7,400)

Jacob Markstrom ($7,900)

Darcy Kuemper ($7,700)

Semyon Varlamov ($7,100)

Andrew Hammond ($7,200)

Be sure to double check your lineups before lock for any last-minute scratches or goalie changes. If you follow me on Twitter @SteveDotzel you can subscribe to my "DFS-NHL" list which is comprised of several team beat writers tweeting the most recent news in real-time. You can also reach out to me personally and I'll do my best to answer any questions I can. Hope to see you on top of the leaderboards!