After wetting our beaks last night with two games, the NHL is back on Wednesday with a five-game slate that includes some good rivalries and star skaters hitting the ice for the first time in 2021. Here are my key skaters, favorite stacks, top positional skaters, and notable goalies for Wednesday’s slate!

NOTE: All pricing references pertain to DraftKings

Key Skaters

These are my top skaters on the slate or my “core” skaters if you will.

C Connor McDavid (EDM)

To those of you who are new to hockey McDavid is the best player in the world. He’s essentially the Mike Trout of the NHL without the injuries every season. While pointing out the Oilers’ captain as a top skater is incredibly obvious it’s worth noting here that Vancouver was very leaky defensively last season and McDavid has eight goals and 14 assists against them in 10 games. That’s very good, of course, and his 22 total points against Vancouver matched the high he had against any team last year.

W Brendan Gallagher (MTL)

I’m a big Brendan Gallagher guy and he’s someone that often gets overlooked among the stars of the league. Gallagher is routinely among the leaders in shots per 60 minutes (S/60), high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes (HDSC/60), and expected goals per 60 minutes (xGF/60). Gallagher is a great value at $5,100 as a floor play with upside. The shots on goal bonus on DraftKings helps him a lot and he’ll have quality scoring chances against Toronto who generally skates at a high pace.

W Mikko Rantanen (COL)

Rantanen had a prolific campaign last season with 66 points (30 goals) in 52 games for a dangerous Colorado Avalanche team. Colorado will be without top center and one of Rantanen’s linemates Nathan MacKinnon in this game due to a positive COVID test making Rantanen’s impact that much more important. Chicago was brutal defensively last season and while they’ve improved slightly, this is still a plus-matchup for Colorado’s top line even without MacKinnon – more on that trio plus more below.

Favorite Line Stacks

Colorado Avalanche

J.T. Compher, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar

The Avalanche minus Nathan MacKinnon are still pretty damn good considering the matchup ahead of them against the Blackhawks. While J.T. Compher will slide into the center spot on the top power-play line he’ll be centering the second even-strength line. Still at $3,900 he’s a nice value against Chicago who was heavily penalized last season. The savings between him and first even-strength line center (filling in for MacKinnon) Nazem Kadri ($5,200) is substantial. Rantanen and Landeskog and fixtures on the top even-strength line and power-play unit. All-world defenseman Cale Makar is coming off a 10 goal, 44 assists season and is one of the top defensemen in the NHL. Makar has four goals and 18 assists on the power-play last season.

Edmonton Oilers

Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman, Jesse Puljujarvi, Tyson Barrie

While it would be nice to throw Leon Draisaitl ($7,700) in here it’s very tough to build around him, McDavid, and others without punting all over the place. With that being said, McDavid, Hyman, and Puljujarvi all skate on the top even-strength line and Hyman is on the top power-play unit with McDavid. Joining them is Tyson Barrie at one of the points who’s coming off a 49-point season. Puljujarvi and Hyman are nice mid-range options to pair with the high salary of McDavid in a game that should be a lot of fun full of scoring chances on both sides.

Other Stacks to Consider

New York Rangers

• Mika Zibanajad, Alexis Lafreniere, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox

Vancouver Canucks

• Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, Alex Chiasson, J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes

Top Positional Skaters

*Not mentioned in “key skaters'” section. Last skater at each position is my favorite value

Center

• John Tavares (TOR)
• Evgeny Kuznetsov (WAS)
• Pierre Luc-Dubois (WPG)

Wing

• Patrick Kane (CHI)
• Artemi Panarin (NYR)
• Tyler Toffoli (MTL)
• Nick Ritchie (TOR)

Defense

• Cale Makar (COL)
• Adam Fox (NYR)
• Morgan Rielly (TOR)
• Quinn Hughes (VAN)
• Erik Johnson (COL)

Goalies

Connor Hellebuyck (WPG)

• Always among the league’s leaders in shots against. Helly led the league in shots against and saves made last season while logging five shutouts. When rostering goalies the most shots they face obviously the better as far as upside goes. That’s a major factor for me, more so than finding a “safe goalie” that will “likely” win. In some cases it’s more valuable to find a netminder that sees a shitload of shots rather than the goalie that will see 22 shots and pick up a win.

Igor Shesterkin (NYR)

• Igor gets will more than likely see a ton of shots as the Ranger defense is still one that will allow scoring chances. Shesterkin has a ton of talent and much of that was raw last season and it showed at times. I’m looking for him to take a major step up this season and at $7,600 he’s a nice play for a guy that should stop 30 shots.

John Gibson (ANA)

• Gibby has been in the same boat as Hellebuyck for much of the past two seasons. Rostering Gibson, though is a much more risky proposition as he is very much a boom or bust option. The veteran saw an average of 29.77 shots on goal per game last season and had three shutouts. Part of the bust is that he led the league in losses. Tread carefully.

GOOD LUCK!!