This article is part of our DraftKings NHL series.
The NHL playoffs have been pretty great. Not only are we guaranteed a champion that hasn't hoisted the Cup since Y2K, we have a Game 7 for the second round in a row. Vancouver hosts Edmonton at 9 p.m. ET on Monday for the honor of last Canadian team standing. For DFS purposes, you have a salary allotment of $50,000 for six players. One is your Captain, who earns 1.5 times the points, but with an elevated salary. For this winner-takes-all matchup, here is the lineup I landed on.
CAPTAIN
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, EDM at VAN ($11,400): I decided to eschew Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid and instead load up on guys who play alongside those two. That allowed me to balance out my lineup a bit. I had Nugent-Hopkins as my Captain for Game 6, and he paid off with a goal and two assists. That now gives him 13 points over his last nine games, including five on the power play.
FLEX
Zach Hyman, EDM at VAN ($9,200): Hyman's 10 goals in the playoffs are tops in the NHL. After a three-game drought, Hyman lit the lamp in Game 6 while putting four shots on net. In the playoffs, he's put 45 shots on target, and Arturs Silovs will be playing in the biggest game of his life for the Canucks. He has a .879 save percentage in this series.
Evan Bouchard, EDM at VAN ($8,800): It's not a coincidence my first three players all play alongside McDavid and Draisaitl on Edmonton's famed top power-play unit, the one that has played a key role in the team converting 36.8 percent of their opportunities. Bouchard and his big shot have tallied multiple points in three of his last four games. He's tallied six power-play points in the postseason after having a whopping 35 in the regular season.
Quinn Hughes, VAN vs. EDM ($7,800): Sure, I opened with three Oilers, but Vancouver is at home, and it has plenty of offensive upside. Stuart Skinner was pulled and replaced by Calvin Pickard, a 32-year-old journeyman. Let that sink in. While Skinner may be back in the lead role, he had a .905 save percentage this season. He has a .881 save percentage in the playoffs. Hughes hasn't scored like Bouchard in the playoffs but he had 38 power-play points during the regular season en route to 92 total points.
Elias Lindholm, VAN vs. EDM ($7,400): There have been some murmurs about the play of Elias Pettersson in the playoffs, but Vancouver's other Elias, Lindholm, has delivered the secondary scoring the team hoped for when it traded for him. That's especially been true in this series, where the Swede has three goals and three assists. Lindholm is now the second-line center for the Canucks and on the wing for the first power-play unit. That opportunity could help him get on the score sheet once again.
Dakota Joshua, VAN vs. EDM ($5,200): Joshua is primarily out there throwing hits for the Canucks, but he has some offensive skills. He tallied 18 goals this season in 63 games. Joshua also has two three-point games in the playoffs, including in Game 1 of this series. Sure, it's not likely he will replicate that, but at this salary, even one point against Skinner and the Oilers would suffice.
