This article is part of our FanDuel NHL series.
Florida succeeded Wednesday in punching its ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals, and Edmonton has a chance to do the same tonight in Game 5 of its series against Dallas. If you want to have a FanDuel lineup to go along with the game, then you'll need to select six players on a budget of $60,000. Your lineup will comprise five utility players and one MVP, who will give you 1.5 times the points at the cost of 1.5 times the salary relative to their price as a utility player.
SLATE PREVIEW
Despite Edmonton winning the last three games while outscoring Dallas 13-2, the Stars are painted as mild favorites to win tonight based on the odds. Dallas is at -130 on FanDuel's Moneyline. The Over/Under is at 5.5 goals with the over being -142.
MVP
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, EDM at DAL ($13,500): If you expect Dallas to bounce back tonight, then Jason Robertson ($13,200) would be a good alternative, but Nugent-Hopkins has been providing excellent value relative to his price, making him a nicely balanced MVP pick. He has two goals and nine points in the series, spread out over four multipoint games.
UTIL
Leon Draisaitl, EDM at DAL ($13,800): As you can already tell, the team I'm constructing is skewing toward the Oilers. If you like Dallas' chances better, then Mikko Rantanen ($12,000) would be a nice alternative to pair up with your substitution of Robertson over Nugent-Hopkins. That said, Draisaitl is a good bet to do well even if Edmonton falls short tonight. He has seven goals and 23 points across 15 playoff outings this year and has been held off the scoresheet just twice in that span. He's also slightly cheaper than Connor McDavid ($14,200), which is why I'm taking him – I needed that extra $400 to assemble the team I wanted today.
Evan Bouchard, EDM at DAL ($11,200): Bouchard has been fantastic in the 2025 playoffs with six goals and 17 points across 15 appearances. He was held off the scoresheet Tuesday, but the blueliner still has two goals and five points across four outings in the Western Conference Finals.
Jason Robertson, DAL vs. EDM ($8,800): Even on a roster that skews toward Edmonton, I like Robertson. He's a very good price relative to his offensive potential. Granted, he was limited to two assists across eight games from May 7-23, but he seems to have found his rhythm after scoring a goal in each of the past two games. If you took Robertson for the MVP slot in your more Dallas-oriented team, then you could consider Miro Heiskanen ($8,200) as a substitute here. Any Stars comeback will likely involve their top offensive defenseman.
Corey Perry, EDM at DAL ($6,400): With Zach Hyman (upper body) unavailable for tonight's action, Perry is projected to play alongside Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid. That makes Perry one of the best value picks you can find. He had a goal and an assist Tuesday, with both points coming on the power play. A strong alternative would be Mattias Ekholm ($6,000), but only if he's drawing into the lineup after recovering from his undisclosed injury.
Brett Kulak, EDM at DAL ($6,200): Kulak has been punching above his weight recently, supplying a goal and three points across his active three-game scoring streak. An interesting alternative would be Jeff Skinner ($3,600) if it turns out he's drawing into the lineup due to the absence of Hyman. Skinner is a risky play, even if he is in the lineup, but because of how cheap he is, you could construct a lineup that includes both McDavid (instead of Bouchard) and Draisaitl if you can swap out Kulak for Skinner and Perry for Ekholm. That'd be a really interesting construction if both Skinner and Ekholm are drawing in tonight, which at the time of writing isn't confirmed.
