NHL Betting and Odds

NHL odds are the prices a sportsbook sets on hockey outcomes: who wins, by how much, how many goals are scored, and who lifts the Stanley Cup. You can bet on hockey legally in every province through the crown sportsbook, and in Ontario and Alberta also with a provincially licensed private book. What follows explains the markets and how to read a price. It does not tell you who to back.

Upcoming NHL games

The schedule below comes from our league feed and lists dates and matchups only. We do not attach picks, predictions or prices to it, because odds change by the minute and differ between sportsbooks. Check the current line on your sportsbook before you decide anything.

Reading an NHL moneyline

The moneyline is a bet on which team wins the game. In North American notation a minus sign marks the favourite and a plus sign the underdog. A price of -175 means you risk $175 to win $100; +150 means a $100 stake wins $150. Unless the bet says otherwise, overtime and the shootout count toward the result for moneyline, puck line and total bets in hockey.

Many sportsbooks also offer a 60-minute line, sometimes called the three-way or regulation line. It settles on the score after regulation only, so you can back the visitor, the home team or a tie. Because a tie is a live outcome, each team’s price is longer than on the standard moneyline. Mise-o-jeu in Quebec sells the same idea as a 3-outcome match winner, which excludes overtime, next to a 2-outcome version.

The puck line

The puck line is hockey’s version of a point spread, and it is almost always set at 1.5 goals. The favourite at -1.5 must win by two or more; the underdog at +1.5 wins the bet if it wins outright or loses by one goal. A game decided in overtime can only end with a one-goal margin, so in that case +1.5 wins and -1.5 loses. That is why puck-line prices on a favourite are often plus money even when its moneyline is heavily minus.

Totals and period bets

A total (over/under) is a bet on the combined goals scored by both teams. Most NHL totals are set between 5.0 and 6.5 goals. A half-goal line cannot push; on a whole-number line such as 6.0, exactly six goals returns your stake. How a shootout counts toward a total varies by operator, so read the hockey section of your sportsbook’s rules before you bet a game that may go past overtime.

Period bets split the game into thirds. You can usually bet a moneyline, a three-way result or a total on the first, second or third period alone, settled on goals scored in that period only. Player props, such as goals or shots for one skater, and team props are offered too, with each book setting its own settlement rules for scratches and injuries.

Stanley Cup odds and other futures

Futures are bets settled weeks or months after you place them. In hockey the main ones are Stanley Cup odds, conference and division winners, and team regular-season points totals. Sportsbooks open Stanley Cup markets for the next season well before it starts; FanDuel Sportsbook, for example, lists Stanley Cup odds for 2027.

Two things make futures different from single-game bets. Your stake is tied up until the market settles, and the margin built into a long list of teams is usually larger than in a two-way game market. If you add up the implied probabilities of every team in a Stanley Cup market, the total will be well above 100%. We do not quote current futures prices on this site: any number we printed would be stale within days.

From NHL odds to implied probability

Every price can be turned into the chance of winning that the sportsbook is charging you for. Convert to decimal odds first, then divide 1 by the decimal price. Using made-up example prices, -175 becomes 1 + 100/175 = 1.571, which is an implied probability of 63.6%; +150 becomes 2.50, or 40%. Together those two sides add up to 103.6%, and the extra 3.6 points is the book’s margin. Our odds calculator does these conversions for any price and explains parlay maths.

Lines move for ordinary reasons: confirmed starting goaltenders, injuries, travel and back-to-back games, and the volume of money on each side. A moving line is information about the market, not a signal that one side is certain.

Where to bet on the NHL legally in Canada

• Ontario: OLG’s PROLINE+ online (19+) and PROLINE tickets at retailers (18+), plus private sportsbooks registered by the AGCO and contracted with iGaming Ontario.
• Quebec: Mise-o-jeu from Loto-Quebec, online and at retailers (18+).
• British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan: PlayNow sportsbook on BCLC’s platform.
• Alberta: Play Alberta (AGLC) and, since 13 July 2026, private books registered by AGLC with an Alberta iGaming Corporation agreement (18+).
• Atlantic Canada: Pro-Line from Atlantic Lottery.
• Western retail: Sport Select tickets from the Western Canada Lottery Corporation in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Licensed NHL sportsbooks we have reviewed:

Your province’s page explains the legal options in more detail: see Ontario and Quebec, or the overview of sports betting in Canada.

Keeping hockey betting in proportion

Between the regular season and the playoffs, hockey offers a bet on most nights for the better part of the year. Decide on a weekly budget before the season, use the deposit limits your sportsbook offers, and treat losses as the cost of entertainment, not money to win back. Betting is 19+ (18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec). Help and self-exclusion options are on our responsible gambling page.