NHL Betting: Best Bets, Player Props and Futures for the 2022-23 NHL Season

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Published on October 6, 2022

NHL Best Bets: 2022-23 Season Betting Preview

The 2021-22 season will kick off a little early with two international games between the Predators and Sharks starting Oct. 7 in Prague. RotoWire's AJ Scholz will take a look at league and player futures for the upcoming season, with odds courtesy of the DraftKings Sportsbook.

Division Winner Favorites

Atlantic Division: Toronto Maple Leafs (170)

Metropolitan Division: Carolina Hurricanes (180)

Pacific Division: Calgary Flames (190)

Central Division: Colorado Avalanche (-150)

AJ's Pick: There are little surprises in these odds, including the fact that Colorado is the heavy favorite to win their division. The Leafs have a lot of question marks in goal having completely reinvented their tandem with the additions of Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray. A similar reshaping occurred for the Flames who swapped Matthew Tkachuk for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar. Whether their squad actually got better in their offseason moves remains to be seen. Both clubs will have their rivals nipping at their heels with Toronto likely facing challenges from both the Panthers (+200) and Lightning (+300) for the division title.

All that to say, of the favorites to win their division, I would rather turn to Carolina at +180 to get nearly two-to-one value here. You won't have to give up a ton of juice when it comes to Colorado, so that's certainly a consideration but Carolina bringing back much of the same team that won last year's Metropolitan Division title.

AJ's Non-Favorite Pick: I mean, how do you not at least consider the Lightning at +300? That's fantastic value for a club that has appeared in three straight Stanley Cup Finals and has one of the best goalies in the league in Andrei Vasilevskiy. Ultimately, however, I am not completely sold on the changes made in Calgary and the Oilers finally upgraded their goaltending with Jack Campbell. Imagine not needing Connor McDavid and company to score 290 goals with a solid backstop. I'll grab the Oilers at +230 here.

Presidents' Trophy Picks

Colorado Avalanche (350), Toronto Maple Leafs (500), Florida Panthers (800).

AJ's Pick: Last season, the Panthers edged out the Avalanche by three points to take home the Presidents' Trophy but it's Colorado that finds itself as the favorite here. For the second straight yet, the club will enter the season with a new starting goaltender after letting Darcy Kuemper leave in free agency and signing Alexander Georgiev. The team will also have to overcome the potential loss of Gabriel Landeskog (lower body) for an undetermined timeframe. Despite those concerns, I'm sticking with the Avalanche at +350 in part due to the fact that the Central Division remains one of the weaker groupings in the league.

AJ's Longshot Pick: Check out this portion of my preseason longshot last year: "Over the past three seasons, nobody has scored more points than teammates Connor McDavid (318) and Leon Draisaitl (299) for the Oilers. The problem in Edmonton has always been the goalie duo..."

McDavid and Draisaitl both added over 100 points again in 2021-22 and they finally have a quality starting goalie. If you trust them enough to potentially win the division, might as well double down here at +1100.

Stanley Cup Winner Bets

Colorado Avalanche (380), Toronto Maple Leafs (700), Florida Panthers (900).

AJ's Pick: I was really tempted to keep rolling with the theme of this article so far and pick the Flames here who have the fourth-best odds at +1000. Still, it's the Avalanche's trophy to lose here. Even if Landeskog misses a significant amount of time, they still have Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar to power their offense. The only reason I didn't take them as my best bet in the Divisional section is that they don't return great odds in that spot. As I mentioned, the only real question mark is the fact that for the second straight year, Colorado enters the season with a brand new netminder. It didn't slow them down last year and I would expect it won't this time around either. Colorado +350 to lift Lord Stanley's Cup.

AJ's Longshot Pick: Historically, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin has played some of his best games when his opponents have gotten him angry. Well, now he is angry and motivated by his own team after a lengthy contract dispute during the summer. Tristan Jarry's regular season goaltending has been really good, he just needs to stay healthy in the postseason. Meanwhile, Kris Letang continues to age like a fine wine. Grabbing the Penguins at +2200 is a perfect long-shot bet.

Hart Trophy Winner Best Bets

Edmonton -- Connor McDavid +250

Toronto -- Auston Matthews +400

Edmonton -- Leon Draisaitl +800

AJ's Pick: I actually like the fourth option on this list and that's Nathan MacKinnon at +1000. At some point, they are going to have to give him this award. He's coming off a Stanley Cup, cashed in a huge eight-year contract extension and he's got four seasons with more than of 85 points. He will likely have to carry the load a little more than he already does at the start of the year with Landeskog injured but +1000 to take home the Hart, that's gret value to me.

AJ's Longshot Pick: The Panthers won the Presidents' Trophy won last season and added Matthew Tkachuk this year in the aforementioned trade. If they can stay on top of the Atlantic Division, the winger will almost certainly be among the top producers for his club. As such, grabbing Tkachuk at +3000 is fantastic value on a team that could realistically be one of the best in the league this year and it's not like he can't score. He racked up 42 goals and 104 points last season.

Vezina Trophy Winner Best Bets

NY Rangers -- Igor Shesterkin +250

Tampa Bay -- Andrei Vasilevskiy +500

NY Islanders -- Ilya Sorokin +1000

AJ's Pick: As you can see from the odds, this is pretty much a two-horse race and it could go either way between Shesterkin or Vasilevskiy. From that standpoint, I'll take Andrei Vasilevskiy at +500 since he gives you better odds. There has still been no real drop off from this team, three straight finals and should be in the mix for the Atlantic Division title.

AJ's Longshot Pick: Honestly, I think you are wasting your time trying to find something other than the two favorites here. But, if you want some other options you could consider netminders on teams that are expected to do well. Calgary's Jacob Markstrom (+1500), Carolina's Frederik Andersen (+2000), Edmonton's Jack Campbell (+3000) or Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky (+3000).

If you're looking to bet on the NHL this season, RotoWire has you covered from futures to NHL player futures and everything in between, including the latest NHL odds. RotoWire also has the most up-to-date NHL player props for every day of the season. Our NHL starting goalies page and NHL lineups page are the industry standard and help keep you in the know all season long.