NHL Best Bets 4/21/2025

Well the first three days of playoff action have not disappointed. At all. The matches are great and so are the story lines. So let’s find some props at a discount to exploit before the books catch up. We had a 56-49 record over the last 33 articles of my Betting News NHL best bet articles with a positive unit size due to plenty of plus money plays cashing. Now it’s time to bring it to the playoffs.

We will be breaking down NHL best bets here at Betting News all playoffs long! Each article will look for VALUE, as in straights you can take to build up your bankroll or pieces you can use to beef up your parlays. All bets will be -135 or better odds. And while we will focus on NHL player props, there are times we will take sides and totals. So keep your eyes peeled here as we will drop these throughout the week.

And if you haven’t already be sure to check out some of my favorite futures and awards. So time to lace them up and get ready to ride with Betzky for my favorite NHL Playoff Series best bet.

1. Taylor Hall + Andrei Svechnikov Point +205 on BetOnline:

Let’s kick this off with some 2x odds. The Carolina Hurricanes absolutely dominated the banged up New Jersey Devils in game one. And tonight it will not be any easier for the Devils. They lost both shutdown defenseman Brandon Dillon and top defenseman Luke Hughes in game one. Their goaltender Jacob Markstrom had to make 44 stops in that game, and allowed 4 goals. The Hurricanes absolutely swarmed the Devils and beat them with speed, tenacity and depth.

Today we are going to hone in on the Hurricane’s 2nd line of Taylor Hall, Andrei Svechnikov and Jesper Kotkaniemi. This line has strong two-way play and oozes offensive talent. Each member of this line had a point in game one, and the ex-Devils Taylor Hall had two points. This line wont be facing the Devils top forward or defensive group which should allow them to exploit their matchups.

All three of these players have excelled against the Devils. So lets stack them for extra value or you could take each individually. Either way they help make up some of our NHL best bets tonight.

Get 50% up to $750 Deposit on BetOnline for this pick

2. Tampa Bay Lighting Money Line -120 on BetOnline:

The Battle of Florida will begin tonight. This may be the most anticipated series and I predict that the Tampa Bay Lightning will best the previous Stanley Cup winners the Florida Panthers tonight. Not only do the Lightning have home ice advantage, but they are more rested, have stocked up their forward depth and will be taking on a Panthers team who have been a bit out of sort over the last weeks of the season.

The Panthers have been without Matthew Tkachuk since the Four Nations break. And while one could argue that this means he should be fresh and ready for a big series, there are many unknowns that come with this. Tkachuk is a game time decision, but will certainly have some rust to knock off tonight. The Panthers will also be down top defenseman Aaron Ekblad who was suspended for 20 games and will miss the first two games of the series. There feel like there are some unknowns that will need to be sorted out before the Panthers can really start rolling.

But more importantly out of the ten playoff games played so far, a road team has only won once. There is truly some home ice advantage that we are seeing right now, and I’m happy to continue to ride that. We are getting such a great price on the Tampa money line that it’s hard to not want to ride it as an NHL best bet. Florida started to skid a bit at the end of the season allowing the 18th most goals against and taking the 13th most penalties in the last 10 games. And while these are both midpack stats, their offense completely fell off, dropping them to the 31st ranked team for goals for per game over the last ten games. Tampa on the other side had the 7th best offense, 8th best power play and 22nd ranked goal against per game over the last ten games.

Give me the fresher Florida team, who are ready to make a long run again after a 1st round loss last season. The Lightning ended the season better than the Panthers and are running with all the momentum in the world for game one.

Get 50% up to $750 Deposit on BetOnline for this pick

3. Ryan Hartman o1.5 SOG +105 on BetOnline:

Ryan Hartman is not a household name. But in the playoffs the depth and role players of teams can make huge impacts. And Hartman is one of those players, looking to help bring his Minnesota Wild team out of the fist round agains the Vegas Golden Knights. While he is on the 3rd line and doesn’t play on either power play unit, that only helps bring this price into the plus money category. Essentially the books think Hartman’s limited role will stop him from shooting.

Well that’s just not the case. Over the last 10 games Hartman has hit his 1.5 shots on goal prop 8 times. He is better on the road hitting in 70% of ALL road games this season. And he has averaged 4.5 shot attempts in the last 10 games. But it is Hartman’s head to head history against Vegas that makes this an NHL best bet.

In the last 13 games Hartman has played against the Golden Knights he has hit his 1.5 SOG prop 11 times. Hartman averaged 5.2 shot attempts when playing Vegas and has even hit his 2.5 SOG line in 8 of those 13 games. In game one Hartman had 3 SOG off 9 attempts. And while he only had 14.6 minutes of ice time, he had 3 blocked shots and a hit and was a +2 despite the loss. This type of performance should give their coaching staff all the confidence in the world to boost Hartman’s TOI. At 1.5 this prop feels like an can’t miss discount.

Get 50% up to $750 Deposit on BetOnline for this pick

Interested in More Content?

More NHL Content on Betting News:

• NHL Betting Guide
• NHL Futures Best Bets – Atlantic Division
• NHL Futures Best Bets – Metro Division
• NHL Awards – Hart Trophy
• NHL Awards – Norris Trophy
• NHL Awards – Vezina TrophyNHL Best Bets 3/18/2025