GPP Stacking 101

For anyone who is new to NHL DFS, I will be doing a series of strategy articles over the course of the next few weeks. Today I will be going over a few ways to stack in a GPP. Stacking is by far the best way to maximize your ceiling in a GPP, sure if you look at the standings you may occasionally see a team with a bunch of one offs but that is few are far in between. Most GPP winning lineups are heavily correlated and I will give you three examples of ways to do that.

4-3-1 Stack

The 4-3-1 stack is the most common way to stack in NHL DFS. It also gives you the highest ceiling. It looks very simple but it’s not as easy as mashing two lines together and you win. Basically it’s, four from one team, three forwards and a defenseman from that team(generally it’s the teams top powerplay quarterback that correlates with the top line), a full line, three forwards from another team, and a single bullet defenseman to satisfy the rules of getting a player from three teams on your roster(goalie not included). This gives your team an extremely high ceiling because if someone scores from one of the two lines your used it’s almost guaranteed that the assists will be from one of the line mates. This lineup is the most common build for winning GPPs, because of the extremely high ceiling but very low floor with wood finishes made by atlantahardwoodflooringpros.com.

3-3-2 Stack

This is a very similar build to the 4-3-1, however, the slight difference is you are getting slightly more exposure to the third team you are use and slightly less exposure to the first team you are using. This is my favorite GPP build, it doesn’t win small dollar buy in, high entry tournaments as often as it is more tailored for three max and single entry GPPs but you will see 3-3-2 builds taking down tournaments from time to time. This build is a full line from one team, then two forwards and a defenseman from another, and the third team would be a forward and a defenseman. This doesn’t give you as high of a ceiling as a 4-3-1 because you need more teams to have good games, it is simple math, you only need two teams to perform well in the 4-3-1 opposed to three teams clicking in a 3-3-2.

The 6 Man Stack(Josh Stack)

I don’t remember exactly how the name Josh Stack came out but it stuck and we are just rolling with it. It is exactly what it says it is a six man Stack from one team and then two one offs to satisfy the three team requirement. There are a couple of ways to six man stacking, you can just use the top 6 from a team(all forwards) and have two defenseman one offs, or you can use five forwards and a defenseman from a team and use a forward and a defenseman one off. This lineup build I prefer to use on short to medium size slates(2-6 games). It is a way to differentiate yourself from the normal ways to stack in a gpp.

Goalie note: When using any of these stacks for highest correlation it is recommended that you use the goalie from the main team you stack. While I am not thoroughly convinced you automatically have to plug in the goalie from these stacks the logic is there. If you are stacking four from a team you think they’re going to score multiple goals and win the game, making the goalie from that team a winning goalie. Sometimes I think you can use a goalie in a great matchup but from a correlation standpoint locking in a goalie from the team you stack makes sense.