NHL Lineup Optimizer
Cap-legal FanDuel Classic lineups off our nightly projections. Stack a team, lock or fade anyone, and export straight to FanDuel.
One book at a time: DraftKings NHL lineup optimizer · FanDuel NHL lineup optimizer
- C＋ tap a player to add
- C＋ tap a player to add
- W＋ tap a player to add
- W＋ tap a player to add
- D＋ tap a player to add
- D＋ tap a player to add
- UTIL＋ tap a player to add
- UTIL＋ tap a player to add
- G＋ tap a player to add
4 games· filter the pool to one game, or stack a team
How the NHL DFS lineup optimizer works
Nine players, $55,000. The solver is exact. It checks every cap-legal combination, so the lineup it hands back is the highest-projecting one on the slate, not a greedy guess. It also enforces the two rules people forget: no more than four players from one team, the goalie included, and no skater facing your own goalie. Ask for several lineups and each one stacks a different club, best offenses first. That's where real variety comes from. Re-rolling the same solve just gets you the same lineup.
The projections come from the same per-60 rates behind our NHL player prop boards. We take each skater's shots, goals, assists and blocks, adjusted for the opponent and the game's projected score, and simulate his night 4,000 times. FanDuel pays no bonuses, so a skater's number is the plain sum of his goals, assists, shots and blocks — no thresholds to price. The simulation still runs, because the floor and ceiling beside each projection are percentiles and need a distribution. Goalies are simulated as one game: shots faced, saves, goals against and the result, so a shutout is always a win.
How good is it? In a walk-forward test over the first 60 nights of the 2025-26 season, our skater projections missed by 4.49 DraftKings points on average. A player's season-to-date average missed by 4.52. That's a real edge and a small one, and we're still tuning it. Hockey is noisy: one bounce is 8.5 points. Treat the numbers as a sharper starting point, not a promise.
Goalies
The goalie is the biggest single call on an NHL slate, and the starter isn't confirmed until the morning skate. Every goalie in the pool carries a start chance. Until a club confirms, only its most likely starter is eligible. We reprice every hour in the four hours before puck drop, and a confirmed starter goes to 100%.
NHL DFS optimizer — FAQ
What is the best free NHL lineup optimizer for FanDuel?
MatchWiz's NHL lineup optimizer is free and runs on our own projections, scored under FanDuel's rules rather than DraftKings' — shots, goals, assists and blocks for every skater, and saves, goals against and win chance for every goalie, simulated game by game. It builds cap-legal FanDuel lineups with team stacks, player locks and excludes, exposure limits across multiple lineups and a salary floor, then exports to FanDuel's upload CSV.
How does the FanDuel NHL roster work?
Nine players under a $55,000 cap: two centers, two wingers, two defensemen, two UTIL and one goalie. UTIL takes any skater, so you can run four centers or four defensemen if the slate wants it — one more flex seat than DraftKings gives you. The hard rule is the club cap: no more than four of your nine from one team, goalie included. Nine seats at four per club means every FanDuel lineup spans at least three teams whether you plan it or not.
How does FanDuel score NHL, and how is it different from DraftKings?
Skaters get 12 per goal, 8 per assist, 1.6 per shot on goal and 1.6 per blocked shot. Goalies get 12 for a win, 0.8 per save, −4 per goal against and 8 for a shutout. The big structural difference: FanDuel pays no bonuses. No hat trick, no 5-shot, no 3-block, no 3-point, and nothing for losing in overtime. So a FanDuel projection is exactly the sum of its parts, while a DraftKings one carries four bonus probabilities on top.
Should I use the same lineup on FanDuel and DraftKings?
No — and not just because the cap differs. FanDuel values a goal at 7.5 shots where DraftKings values it at 5.7, so the two boards rank players differently: snipers gain on FanDuel, volume shooters gain on DraftKings. The rosters aren't interchangeable either. DraftKings wants three wingers and one UTIL; FanDuel wants two wingers and two UTIL, with the goalie in the last column. A lineup built for one lands in the wrong slots on the other — and FanDuel's four-per-club cap can reject a DraftKings stack outright. Build each one on its own tab.
Why does my FanDuel stack stop at four players?
FanDuel caps you at four players from one team, and the goalie counts. So a four-skater stack rules out that team's goalie, and pairing a goalie with his own skaters leaves room for three. The optimizer enforces it while it solves, not afterward — ask for five and it tells you no lineup is legal rather than handing you one FanDuel would reject at upload.
Why won't the optimizer pick the backup goalie?
A goalie's projection is what he scores IF he starts. Before the starters are confirmed, a cheap backup can look like the best value on the slate and still play one night in five. So by default only each club's most likely starter is eligible. Turn off "Likely starting goalies only", or lock the goalie you want, to override it. Once a club confirms its starter, his start chance goes to 100% and the rest drop to zero.
Where do the FanDuel salaries come from?
From a public mirror of FanDuel's players list, refreshed every morning. FanDuel publishes no salary API — its own endpoint turns away an unauthenticated request — but the mirror matches FanDuel's list player for player. If the FanDuel tab reads TBD, tonight's slate isn't priced yet.
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Projections and salaries for research. Not betting advice. DraftKings isn't affiliated with MatchWiz.