NHL DFS Picks for January 6, 2026: Top Stacks, Best Value Plays & Goalie Targets
Favorite NHL Day of the week, everyone, Tuesday, January 6, 2026.
It is a brilliant 10-game slate with a little bit of something for everyone, so let’s dive in.
Top Stack of the Day
Columbus Power Play 1 (Voronkov, Fantilli, Marchment, Marchenko, Werenski)
It’s a pretty great day when you have the 30th, 31st, and 32nd-ranked defenses on a slate, in a league that only has 32 teams. Well, San Jose is 2nd-to-last in almost every defensive metric you want to throw out there, and makes up for its defensive inadequacy by just plain not caring about it. When San Jose wins, it is because they boat race you and score a lot of goals; they aren’t stopping anyone. This brings us to the Blue Jackets, and for all of their flaws, of which they have many, they are still a league-average offense that has the underlying talent and potential to erupt at any time. The only hiccup I was expecting was ownership, thinking that they would be the chalk, but they are not, with only 5-13% expected. Sign me up.
Top Value Stack of the Day
Buffalo 1 (Krebs $3.0k DK, Thompson $7.3k DK, Doan $4.3k DK)
Buffalo has been on a nice run of late, and some of that is due in no small part to realizing that Josh Doan is actually good at hockey. He has been fantastic at 5×5 with Tage Thompson, and not coincidentally, the Sabres are a league-best 9-1 in their last 10, only recently having their 10-game win streak snapped. Vancouver is the 30th-rated defense in the league, and since trading Quinn Hughes, the team has put up about as much defensive resistance as one of those folded chairs you see at NBA draft workouts. The cherry on top: Thompson was $8,700 on 11/23/25 on DraftKings, and while playing great recently, he is all the way down to $ 7,300.
TOP C Value
Christian Dvorak, Philadelphia Flyers (4.1k DK)
We’ve been on quite a run lately, picking C values that have been putting up points and scoring goals, and we have another good one tonight in Dvorak. I already picked on the 30th-rated Canucks and 31st-rated Sharks, can I interest you in picking on the 32nd-rated Ducks? Anaheim is on a back-to-back and gave up seven goals to the Capitals last night in D.C. and took a quick trip up the I-95 to Philly. Although they probably won’t give up seven tonight, I can confidently say that they will not be posting a shutout and love Dvorak and PHI 1 tonight.
Top W Value
Denver Barkey, Philadelphia Flyers (3.0k DK)
Speaking of Philly, Barkey is now firmly entrenched on line 2 and is getting top power play time as well. Nobody told DraftKings this, however, as the promising rookie is still priced like he is getting bottom 6 minutes. I already mentioned that he gets to face Anaheim tonight, so I expect Barkey to continue to impress.
Top D Value
Tom Willander, Vancouver Canucks (2.5k DK)
Yesterday’s pick, Jamie Oleksiak, is the type of defenseman perfect for cash game lineups, as he has an extremely high floor. He demonstrated that again yesterday, by picking up 1 SOG and 3 BS for the 3+ BS bonus on DraftKings and a solid 8.40 points for $2,700. That is not the type of performance you will be getting out of the 20-year-old Swede Willander, who can just as easily post 20 DK Points as he can be 0. A true boom/bust option, Willander has been deputized onto PP1 for Vancouver as they throw in the towel on this season and look to the future. It is not often that we get a minimum-priced D-man on a team’s top Power Play, and I will be taking advantage.
Top G Value
Throw a dart!
Here is my suggestion for Goalie tonight: go to ChatGPT or Grok or Gemini or whatever your AI of choice is and have them throw darts at a board until you land on a goalie that fits the rest of your lineup. Nothing really stands out in terms of value; most of the games are close to pick’ems, and the biggest favorite on the night is a league-worst type goalie in Connor Ingram, whom I’m never touching. I’m expecting the best goalie tonight to be a head-scratcher, and unfortunately for me, I have no idea who that will be. I’m playing Jacob Markstrom as a slight road favorite, but as long as you play a goalie that starts today, I view it as a viable option.