How to bet on the NHL: Live betting, futures, parlays and more

For those new to betting or in need of a refresher, this how to bet on the NHL guide will run you through the markets that hockey-loving bettors like to wager on.

How to bet on the NHL

If you are looking to pick the winner of a game, you can bet on a team to win on the moneyline or puck line. For those more interested in bets that don't involve the winner or loser of a contest, you can bet on game totals and player props.

Don't fret if you missed putting in your bets before the game started, either, because live betting is a popular way to wager on the NHL.

You can also bet on events down the road, such as which team is going to win the Stanley Cup or which player will take home the league's MVP award. That's known as the futures market. We will take a look at all of these different markets starting with how to bet on NHL moneylines.

Moneyline

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A moneyline wager is a favourite among NHL bettors and one of the simplest ways to make a bet. When wagering on the moneyline (listed as ML for short), you are placing a bet on the team that you think will win the game straight up. That’s it. 

Each team will be assigned a different set of odds based on their probability of winning. That will ultimately determine the potential payout. A team that is favoured will have a minus (-) sign before its odds, while the underdog will have a plus (+) sign. 

Odds will vary considerably between matchups based on the level of success among teams. For instance, the Edmonton Oilers, one of the league's top contenders, will typically be the favourite in the majority of their games, meaning you would see a minus sign before their odds.

If the Oilers were to close at -150 favourites, it means that oddsmakers have put their chances of winning the game at 60 percent.

If there are bigger discrepancies between teams, the favourite is playing at home, or the underdog is missing a key player, then the odds can lengthen even higher and you could see a moneyline favourite at -300 or -400.

Odds of -400 would peg a team’s implied probability of winning at 80 percent, requiring a larger wager to return even a small profit. 

The following shows what your return would be (how much you would win) depending on the odds and how much you wagered.

Puck line

Think of the puck line like the point spread. In higher-scoring sports like basketball and football, the spread is one of the most popular betting choices. It helps level the playing field in a sense, giving bettors an option to wager on a big underdog since they would be given a cushion (a certain amount of points they can lose by).

It also allows bettors, who want to pick a side, to not be forced into a decision where their only options are selecting a lesser team on an unlikely moneyline play or a big favourite that would have little value because their odds of winning are much greater.

It also helps a sportsbook create action on both sides by making the odds more aligned.

In sports like hockey and baseball, where there is less scoring, a large point spread wouldn’t work because the typical margin of victory is much smaller. But you can bet on a small spread in hockey and that’s called the puck line and the handicap is generally set at 1.5.

The puck line is popular because sometimes a moneyline bet doesn’t make a lot of sense.

For example: If the Calgary Flames were hosting the Arizona Coyotes and you were confident in a Calgary blowout, you would get better odds and a greater return if you chose the Flames -1.5 (to win by two or more goals) than you would by picking them to win straight up.

The Flames would be large favourites and there wouldn’t be much value to be found on a moneyline play.

It gives bettors an opportunity to potentially get a favourite at plus-money odds or to back an underdog without needing that team to win. But remember: The favourite would not only have to win but win by at least two goals for your bet to cash.

The +1.5 underdog, on the other hand, can lose and you would still win your bet if you backed them, but they couldn’t lose by more than one goal.

Also, like point spreads, there are alternative puck lines. So you could select the handicap to be 2.5 or even 3.5. You can find good value here if you expect a favourite to blow out a last-place team, for instance. 

How to bet on NHL totals

Along with the moneyline, wagering on the total amount of goals scored in a game is among the most popular hockey betting markets. You will see totals referred to as the over/under or O/U. All three terms are interchangeable. 

Betting on the total is also straightforward. You will be given a number of goals that the two teams have to combine to go over or under and you can wager on either option. The total for most NHL games is set between 5.5 and 6.5.

You can bet on alternative totals as well. For instance, you will have the option to place a bet on a 4.5 or 3.5 total and while you’d be playing it safe and your probability of winning would increase if you bet the over (compared to say a 5.5 standard O/U total), the odds would alter as well and your potential payout would decrease substantially.

Or it would increase substantially if you bet the under on an alternative total and cashed the bet. 

Here’s an example of what the odds could look like for different totals: 

You can also bet on team-specific totals as well and place a bet on how many goals you think the Leafs will score in a contest, for instance. 

How to bet on NHL props

Player props involve betting on individual outcomes in a game. You can place a bet on how many goals you think Auston Matthews will score in a contest, how many shots Quinn Hughes will put on net, or how many power-play points Connor McDavid will record. 

Goal props are presented in a few different ways. You can bet on whether a player will score the first goal of the game, the last goal of the game or score at any time during the contest. Expecting a star like Matthews to have a big game? You can also bet on him to score two goals or even a hat trick.

You can also place bets on assist and point totals for a particular game. While the player prop market is more robust in other sports, there are still plenty of options for bettors to choose from in addition to the game-specific outcomes. 

There are markets for game props, too. These include over/unders on total shots on net for the contest, total faceoffs, and the highest-scoring period.

Futures betting

The futures market involves betting on outcomes that will happen… in the future. While it’s not as robust as the daily markets that bettors can choose from, this is a great way to bet if you’re willing to play the long game. Good value can be found here. 

When all 32 teams theoretically have a chance to win the Stanley Cup ahead of the season, the odds are going to look a lot different than what they would once the playoff field is set. The same goes for season-long awards. Teams and players will separate themselves as contenders and favourites as the season goes on, ultimately shortening their odds. 

For instance, the Boston Bruins could be had for around +3,000 to win the Cup ahead of the 2022-23 season. But their odds shortened to +330 at the start of the postseason.

Let’s say the Bruins had gone on to win the Cup, which we know they didn't, a bettor who placed a $100 wager when Florida was at +3,000 would have won $2,670 more than the person who bet on the club at +330. 

Other common futures markets that bettors can wager on are the MVP, the O/U on a team’s win total, the Calder Trophy, the Vezina, division winners and more.

The futures market is open throughout the season, so you can place these types of bets at any time but the odds are constantly changing based on performance and injury.

Parlays

A parlay consists of making two or more bets on a single ticket and wagering once. Every bet on the parlay, known as legs, must be correct in order for you to win your ticket. Even if you get everything on the parlay right except for one play, you will lose the bet.

The more bets you attach to a single ticket decreases your likelihood of winning but parlays are attractive to some because the payouts are bigger than a single-game wager. 

An example of an NHL parlay looks like this: 

The combined odds of this parlay are +587. If you predicted all three of those outcomes correctly, you would win $587 (a total payout of $687) on a $100 bet. 

You can build a parlay like the above example, where you mix markets and matchups, but you can also make a same-game parlay bet. Here, you could combine a moneyline, over/under, player prop, and so on, from one specific contest.

An example of this would be betting on the Jets to win, Mark Scheifele to score, and Winnipeg to record more than 3.5 goals. Again, like any parlay, these types of bets are riskier for the bettor because the probability of winning decreases the more bets you tack on to the ticket.

Live betting 

In-game betting provides users with options to bet on games as they play out in real time. Among the markets you can bet on are the moneyline, over/under and puck line. 

Live betting can offer great value if a big favourite falls behind early and becomes an underdog on the ML as a result. Under that scenario, you would net a higher return by betting on them mid-game than you would have before the contest started if they went on to win.

The odds constantly change throughout a game. This is especially true after goals are scored.

Markets will sometimes close during a power play or late in the game, but this is another way you can bet after the puck drops.