Thursday’s slate features three players riding hot stretches into favourable spots, and these are our top NHL player prop bets today — built around a scorching top line in Edmonton, a Rangers winger in the midst of a career-best stretch, and a Detroit rookie benefiting from an expanded role. Here’s the breakdown of each pick at the best NHL betting sites and the reasoning behind it.
Vasily Podkolzin to record a point
Podkolzin has been one of the league’s biggest early surprises, riding shotgun with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on a line that has combined for 37 points through six games. The 25-year-old winger has seven goals and two assists, giving him a point in five of Edmonton’s first six contests and a six-game point streak heading into Thursday’s matchup with Utah.
The Oilers have yet to lose in regulation at 5-0-1 and lead the NHL with 4.83 goals a game, a pace that keeps Podkolzin’s line on the ice during heavy offensive-zone time. His role alongside two of the league’s most dangerous playmakers gives him a direct route to scoring chances even on nights when he isn’t finishing himself.
Utah arrives with a capable power play but a penalty kill that has shown cracks, and with Edmonton getting plenty of man advantages this season, Podkolzin’s spot on the second power-play unit adds another avenue to extend his point streak against the Mammoth at Rogers Place.
Podkolizin to record a point
Alexis Lafreniere to score
Lafreniere has been New York’s most dangerous weapon to open the season, posting seven goals and three assists through his first eight games, a pace that ties him for second in NHL goal-scoring. He was named the league’s Third Star of the Week after scoring twice in a 4-1 win over Tampa Bay on Tuesday, extending his point streak to five games.
The Rangers have scored at a 3.38-goals-a-game clip while converting on better than 21 per cent of their power-play chances, and Lafreniere has been a fixture on New York’s top unit alongside J.T. Miller. He has also found the net in four of the Rangers’ last five road games against Metropolitan Division opponents, a trend that bodes well on the road at Prudential Center.
New Jersey has been porous defensively at times this season, allowing 3.67 goals per game (24th in the NHL), and with Lafreniere skating heavy minutes in all situations, his combination of shot volume and finishing touch makes him a strong candidate to add to his goal total Thursday against the Devils.
New Jersey’s goaltenders have combined for an awful .865 SV% through the first six games.
Emmitt Finnie over 1.5 shots on goal
Finnie has settled into a featured role since Detroit moved him to centre, flanked by Alex DeBrincat and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard on what head coach Todd McLellan called the Red Wings’ best line “by a country mile” after the trio combined for four goals in Tuesday’s overtime loss to New Jersey. Finnie himself has two goals, one assist and three points in his first six games, with his lone multi-point outing coming in that same contest.
Beyond his five-on-five role, Finnie has added time on Detroit’s second power-play unit and its penalty kill, a workload bump that should translate into more looks at the net. Philadelphia, meanwhile, is winless through eight games and has allowed a league-high 34.63 shots against a game this season.
With Detroit looking to snap a three-game skid at home and Finnie entrenched in all situations on a line that’s been generating offence, the matchup against a struggling Flyers defence sets up well for him to clear 1.5 shots on goal at Little Caesars Arena.
