NHL Best Bets for Thursday (11/21)

We’ve got a 10-game NHL slate for Thursday, Nov. 21, which means there are plenty of betting opportunities. Below is a list of my favorite NHL props and a few bonus NHL prop bets.

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Today’s Best NHL Bets

Carolina Hurricanes ML

(+110, BetRivers)

Sometimes the lines are just completely off, and that’s what I see here with the Hurricanes/Devils game. The Devils are listed as a favorite, but probably shouldn’t be considering they are facing a Hurricanes team that, without question, I view as one of the top five teams in the NHL. Playing back-to-back games can be concerning, but it shouldn’t be too big of a deal this early in the season. Regardless, the Hurricanes have great depth throughout their lineup and have the ability to score with any one of their four lines at 5v5 play. On top of that, the Devils have historically struggled against this Carolina team. They’ve lost eight of the last nine meetings, including four of five in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Martin Necas Over 0.5 Assists

(-115, Bet365/DraftKings Sportsbook/BetMGM)

Martin Necas has been arguably the best player in the NHL so far this season, and some people don’t even realize it. Hurricanes fans are even throwing Necas’s name out there for a potential Hart Trophy campaign just a couple months into the season. He has been given a bigger role on this year’s team thanks to the departure of Teuvo Teravainen, and he has been the team’s best facilitator game-in and game-out and gets to be the primary quarterback on Carolina’s top power-play unit. The oddsmakers have very slowly corrected his assist props, but it’s still out of whack. He has assists in 11 of his last 13 games, and we likely get a bit of a discount just because he didn’t get on the scoresheet Wednesday night against the Flyers.

New York Islanders ML

(-125, DraftKings Sportsbook/FanDuel Sportsbook/Bet365)

The Red Wings are coming off one of their worst California trips in team history. They went 0-3 against the California teams and have looked completely lost at times defensively. Over their last five games, they’ve only killed 69.2% of their penalties and have given up the second-most SOG in the league. If it wasn’t for Cam Talbot’s strong start to his Red Wings career, this season could have started off extremely ugly. Alex Lyon will get the start for the Red Wings and has clearly been the weaker of the two goalies. He also is a bit cold — only getting one start so far in the month of November and didn’t perform well at all in that lone appearance. The Islanders have dealt with some rotten luck considering they’ve been performing quite admirably since Mathew Barzal was placed on IR to begin the month. Two of their last three losses have been in overtime and they’ve had to face teams with winning records in each of the four games on this road trip. This Red Wings game will be the last game of this five-game road trip, and they should be in good position to finish on a high note.

Bonus Bets

Kyle Palmieri Over 0.5 Assists

(+165, DraftKings Sportsbook)

Kyle Palmieri continues to be mispriced on his assist prop considering he has hit it in six of his last eight games.

Jakob Chychrun Over 0.5 Points

(+150, DraftKings Sportsbook/Bet365)

With Alex Ovechkin out of the lineup, Jakob Chychrun actually steps into the top power-play unit where he is always going to be a threat to score. When he’s healthy, Chychrun is simply one of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL and has a knack for getting pucks to the net through traffic.

Goal Scorers

Jordan Kyrou
Josh Norris
Matthew Tkachuk
Carter Verhaeghe
Kirill Kaprizov
Maxim Tsyplakov
Tom Wilson
Jakob Chychrun
Kappo Kakko
Eric Robinson
Michael Kesselring