Over the past decade or so, the NHL has strengthened its foothold in the U.S. sports betting landscape. It’s still nowhere near the big three in terms of market share (football, basketball, baseball), but in 2024, hockey earned 11% of the “handle,” and that’s progress. 

Hockey is a fast-moving, hard-hitting sport, and having some action on the game only adds to the excitement. Developing a NHL strategy for successfully betting on hockey starts with first understanding the options available to you at every major sportsbook. Knowing the various bet types before diving into your first set of player props is key to long-term success. 

What is the best way to bet on hockey? 

Moneyline betting, where you predict which team will win the game, is by far the most popular type of NHL bet in today’s market, but there are several other options, including the puck line, totals, props, and futures, which I’ll go into below. 

Pro Betting Tip: One thing to keep in mind as bettors is that we’re not always interested in the most popular type of bet; we want the most profitable bet! 

NHL Wagering Options 

Here’s a breakdown of the top betting options, with strategy to consider, and tips on what I look for when handicapping the games.

1. NHL Moneyline Betting: Pick a Side

As stated, in moneyline betting, you are looking to pick the winning team. The oddsmaker will list a game like this: 

Boston Bruins +120 

Florida Panthers -140 

The Bruins are the underdog in this scenario, which is why they are listed with a ‘+’ symbol. Risking $100 on Boston will return $220, including your stake (a profit of +$120). 

Florida is the favorite, also known as “the chalk,” so with the Panthers, you would need to lay $140 to win back $240, including your stake (a profit of $100). 

Pro Betting Tip: A third approach for moneyline chalk bettors is to risk your set unit amount on favorites, rather than the juiced amount to win $100. Assuming your unit size is $100, you would bet $100 on Florida at -140 and expect to profit +$71.43 — winning back $171.43 total, including your stake. Anything can happen in sports betting, and favorites lose all the time. By risking a set unit amount, you maintain control over your exposure, rather than handing that power to the sportsbook. 

2. NHL Over/Under Betting: Set Your Goals 

Commonly referred to as totals, betting on the OVER or UNDER requires you to assess the matchup and predict if the total number of goals scored will be greater than or less than the oddsmaker’s line. The odds for a game will look something like this: 

Flyers vs. Penguins: OVER 5.5 (-125) | UNDER 5.5 (+105) 

Totals are the second-most common type of NHL betting, and along with the full-game total, most books will offer odds on ‘Period Totals’ and ‘Team Totals’. The risk of betting on period totals is that you must anticipate the game flow, which can be challenging in such a fast-paced sport. Similarly, with team totals, you are now isolating your pick to the performance of just one team, often at the expense of higher juice. For these reasons, among others, I primarily focus on the entire game in my NHL totals, which have returned a profit of +$52,280 for my clients since 2018. 

3. NHL Puck Line Betting: Risk & Reward 

Beyond the first two options, moneyline betting and totals, another popular wagering option that can offer great value is puck line betting. This is similar to run line betting in baseball, or spread betting in football or basketball. This is an example of how it will look at your book: 

Boston Bruins +1.5 (-180) 

Florida Panthers -1.5 (+150) 

Florida is the favorite in this example, and the book is asking you to lay -1.5 goals on the favorite, meaning you think they will win the game by two goals or more. If the game goes to overtime, meaning a single goal will decide it, all chalk bets are dead. 

With a puck line dog (Boston), you are getting +1.5 goals, which means you can win two ways. One, if your team wins outright, you win. Two, if your team can stay close and lose by just a goal, you also win by a “cover”. 

While many hockey games are decided by one goal, the chances of the favorite potting an empty netter in the final minutes are a risk that puck line dog bettors must endure, and it can make watching the late stages incredibly stressful. 

4. NHL Futures Betting: Big Paydays, Long Waits 

The first three betting types are ones you can find on a day-to-day basis, but this next one is quite common with bettors before the season even starts. “Futures” are long-term bets, typically based on the outcome of a season. Examples include betting on “Team Win Totals” or predicting the Stanley Cup champion. The odds on such bets can be very lucrative, but the sportsbook has carefully calculated the implied probability into its pricing. After all, there can be only one Cup winner at the end of the season! 

One of the bonuses for futures betting is that the circumstances of the season will occasionally present an opportunity for keen bettors to “hedge” against their earlier bets, guaranteeing a profit. One drawback of futures betting is that it ties up your money at the book, and even if one of your bets is guaranteed to win, like in the case of a team going OVER its win total well before the season ends, the books will hold your investment until the season is over. 

5. NHL Prop Bets: The Fantasy Crossover 

Short for proposition betting, this wagering style has quickly become one of the more popular amongst younger bettors. It introduces an element of fantasy sports to the market, offering the advantage of setting your bets nightly. NHL player props instantly add more incentive for fans to follow the games closely because every time your guy touches the puck, there is a chance to win. 

The U.S.-based sportsbooks and betting apps have become highly intuitive, catering to the types of props people are interested in. They offer preset props and parlays that require little effort and always involve the top superstars from each team. 

An example of a single prop bet is “Connor McDavid to score at least one goal,” and the odds on such a bet would be around +200. 

That +200 payback will attract many eyeballs, but books will pair the McDavid prop with two more scoring props from the same game, creating a +850 (for example) payback as long as all three “legs” of the bet come through. It’s a fun and sometimes profitable betting style, but it’s a slippery slope, and not a strategy that I recommend following. 

6. NHL Parlay Betting: High Hopes, Long Odds 

The props piece above is the perfect segue to this next section. NHL parlay betting involves placing multiple bets on one or a combination of games, and all bets must win for the ticket to be successful. The multiplier effect means bettors can hope to risk a little and win a lot, but the odds are usually skewed heavily against the bettors. Why else do you think big sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel are always advertising parlay bets so aggressively on social media? 

While NHL parlays are incredibly popular, and I do recommend them occasionally as part of my premium package, they account for only a small fraction of my betting portfolio. 

Perspective: In the past year, parlay bets accounted for less than 5% of my total bet recommendations. 

7. NHL Live Betting 

Once the puck drops, oddsmakers and their algorithms quickly get to work on formulating "live" odds that will fluctuate throughout the game. With bars full of screaming fans, fists clenched tightly around their mobile devices, this type of betting has been the perfect ingredient for sportsbooks to pad their overall handle on the game, smoothing out the edges to ensure a profit, regardless of who wins. 

Bettors who are watching the game often think it gives them an advantage over the book, and they’ll be quick to pounce, either by doubling down on their initial bet or sometimes even betting against it. And while there can be opportunities here, emotion often gets the better of fans, and they’ll pay little to no attention to the inflated tax, or “juice,” that books charge on live bets. 

As someone who sends all of my Pro Picks well before game time, live betting is not something I specialize in. I’ve known people who cashed easy tickets with live bets, but I’ve also seen bettors destroy their bankrolls chasing what felt like sure things during the heat of the moment. 

Pro Betting Tip: Sure things, or “locks” as they are often referred to by scamdicappers, do not exist in pro sports. I’ll never promise a lock with my hockey bets because the puck can bounce in funny ways, and anything can happen. There is no such thing as a lock. 

I’ve covered the most popular NHL betting options above. While there are others, such as regulation or “3-way” betting and period betting, with a firm understanding of this list, you are ready to take your hockey wagering to the next level. 

Final Faceoff: Key Takeaways 

Hockey may not get the betting spotlight that football or basketball do, but that’s precisely why it can offer savvy bettors more value. From moneylines and puck lines to props and futures, the NHL menu is diverse and profitable if you know how to attack it.