Connecticut had almost 20 years of its own NHL team, up to the moment the Hartford Whalers relocated to North Carolina in 1997. But rather than fizzling out, hockey has remained a big part of the sports landscape in the state.
There are two Connecticut teams in the AHL, and three separate cities with active pro hockey teams. The people of Connecticut haven’t forgotten about hockey — and now they can bet on it.
Connecticut online sportsbooks have a variety of ways to bet on hockey, from simple moneyline and puck lines to bets on goal scorers, assists or what happens in a single period. Check the latest NHL odds and lines direct from CT online sportsbooks below.
Today’s best NHL odds
Best CT sportsbooks for NHL odds
Once Connecticut legalized sports betting, major online sportsbooks wasted no time posting NHL odds. Here are the sites where you can bet on hockey in Connecticut at the moment:
FanDuel Connecticut
FanDuel Sportsbook has a deal with the Mohegan Sun Casino Resort — the organization that also owns the Connecticut Sun WNBA team. You can create an account with FanDuel from anywhere, but you need to be in Connecticut to place an NHL bet.
If you don’t feel like betting online, you can also head to the casino itself, where a luxury sportsbook is under construction, including a 140-foot video wall. FanDuel’s NHL betting selection includes odds on the following:
- Daily game lines and alternate lines (moneylines, puck lines, over/unders)
- Stanley Cup futures
- Other futures — Presidents’ Trophy/total team points/team to make the playoffs
- Conference/division winner futures
- Player/coach award futures
You may also find NHL odds boosts on the dedicated boosts page.
DraftKings Connecticut
You’ll rarely get one without the other, and DraftKings has followed FanDuel in partnering with a local Native American tribe to launch in Connecticut. In this case, it’s with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, with the physical book located at the tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino.
Like FanDuel, the DraftKings betting app is fully loaded with NHL betting options and sign-up bonuses that you can use to bet on hockey. The sportsbook even signed a deal in October 2021 to become an official partner of the NHL, which means NHL data will be integrated into the sportsbook app, with stats and betting trends also available.
SugarHouse Connecticut
SugarHouse Connecticut is the third sportsbook to have launched in the state. Rush Street Interactive — the parent company of SugarHouse — signed a deal with the Connecticut Lottery and has announced a plan to open 15 retail sportsbooks around the state.
In addition to NHL betting, SugarHouse has markets for top Russian and European leagues.
How to bet on the NHL online in CT
Whichever book you choose, the process for creating an account will be pretty similar. You’ll need to provide all of the following details:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Username
- Password
- Full address
- Phone number
- Final four digits of your Social Security number
Basically, the sportsbook needs to be able to verify your age and identity before you can legally place a bet. This means you may also need to send some additional documentation if the sportsbook can’t verify everything, like a copy of your passport or driver’s license.
Every sportsbook also comes with a welcome bonus for new members. You may need to type in a special promo code during the registration process to claim this, or you may be able to do so after you’ve signed up.
These bonuses are normally either bonus bets (which are eligible for you to use on the NHL), or a deposit matching bonus.
Placing NHL bets online is simple and intuitive. Sportsbooks typically display the most popular hockey bets first, so at a glance, you’ll probably see the moneyline, puck line and total bets for the upcoming round of games. If you click on a game, you’ll see even more options, including a full menu of props for every game in the NHL. We’re going to cover all these types of bets in detail in the next section.
Making a bet is as simple as clicking on the bet to add it to your slip, typing in how much you want to wager, and clicking confirm.
How to read NHL betting lines
As we said, the most popular bets tend to be the ones you see first in each section of the sportsbook. In the case of NHL, this means moneyline bets, puck lines and over/unders. Here’s a quick overview of each one:
NHL moneylines
A bet on the moneyline is a bet on which team will win the game. The amount you win depends on the odds for that game. The team with negative odds is the favorite, while positive odds indicate the underdog. A moneyline bet might look like this:
It helps to understand the odds by thinking in increments of $100.
Here, the Boston Bruins are the favorites, at odds of -145. This means that a bet of $145 would win a profit of $100 if the Bruins won the game. For the Buffalo Sabres at +320, a bet of $100 would win $320 if Buffalo ended up winning the game. Three-way moneylines, like the example above, also allow you to bet on a tie at the end of regulation. In this example, the odds for that are +340.
Of course, you don’t need to bet $100. You can bet however much you wish, and your potential payout will change to match. Moneyline bets are as simple as they come, and a good entry point for new bettors.
NHL puck lines
Unlike the NFL or NBA, point spread betting is a little different in the NHL. This is due to the fact that games are much lower scoring on average, with the result often coming down to a single goal or two.
This is why books use puck line bets. The principle is the same as point spread betting in other sports, only with a much lower spread — typically 1.5. This means you’re normally betting on a team to win by two goals or more or to avoid losing by that score. Here’s an example:
The odds work in the same way as a standard moneyline bet.
NHL over/unders
Over/unders work the same in hockey as in other sports. In this case, the team that wins the game is irrelevant to your bet — you’re simply betting on the total number of goals in the game. Here’s an example:
| Detroit Red Wings vs. Vegas Golden Knights | |
|---|---|
| Over | 5.5 (-110) |
| Under | 5.5 (-110) |
As you can see, sportsbooks try to set the over/under at a point that more or less evens up the teams, so the odds are normally close to even money. However, those numbers will move if one side attracts a lot more action than the other.
In this example, all you need to do is predict whether the total goals will be over or under 5.5. If you bet the over and the game ends 3-2 or 5-0, for example, you’ll lose. If, on the other hand, the score is 4-3 or 5-1, you’ll win.
NHL props and futures odds
Sportsbooks have various other ways to bet on the NHL, as well. On one end of the scale are macro bets that involve making long-term predictions, foreseeing an event long in advance, and waiting for it to pan out. On the other end are super granular bets on specific incidents in individual games or even periods. In the first category are futures bets, which involve betting on an outcome that is a long way in advance. You could, for example, bet on the winners of team and individual accomplishments like the following:
- Stanley Cup winner
- Winner of the Atlantic Division
- Hart Memorial Trophy winner
Futures are popular at the start of a season since it gives you something to root for throughout the year. That said, you can also place a futures bet at just about any point in the season. Any time you and your friends have been sitting around during the preseason, predicting who you think is going to win this year — that’s basically a futures bet.
The second category is prop bets. Props are bets on specific incidents during a game. Sometimes, they may not even have much of an impact on the result, like betting on which team makes the first substitution.
Player props are very popular in NHL betting. There are lots of ways to bet on a specific player’s performance in an individual game:
- Goals scored
- Assists
- Powerplay points
- Shots on goal
- And more
You often can narrow it down even further so that you only bet on what happens in a single period. NHL props let you get really specific in how you bet.
NHL playoffs and Stanley Cup betting
Many fans are wondering the same thing throughout the season: Which teams are going to make it to the playoffs, and ultimately who is going to be lifting the Stanley Cup? Unsurprisingly, trying to answer these questions translates to a lot of betting action at Connecticut sportsbooks.
The NHL consists of two conferences, each of which has two divisions. In the Western Conference, you’ll find the Pacific Division and the Central Division. The Eastern Conference is home to the Atlantic Division and the Metropolitan Division.
Each NHL team plays 82 games in the regular season, which typically runs from October through to April. Then the three teams with the best records in each division qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs, along with the top two remaining teams from each conference — for 16 teams in total.
There are a lot of ways to bet on all of this. Futures bets (which we’ve already talked about) on the winner of the Stanley Cup are always popular. Lots of people like to bet on the winner at the start of the season since it means you’re likely to get the best odds and you can follow your bet over the course of the season. That said, you can also bet on the Stanley Cup winner at any stage, so you can feel free to take your time until you’ve seen every team in action. Likewise with winners of the individual conferences.
Check out the sample screenshot below, which shows the odds for every team in the NHL:
You can expect these odds to change over the course of the season in response to how each team is performing. Still, with these types of bets, you can generally get pretty good odds no matter which team you bet on, purely due to the fact that there are so many teams involved.
Of course, all of the playoff games also come fully loaded with the bets we’ve already covered. Plus, Connecticut sportsbooks normally come up with promotions before big events like the Stanley Cup, like bonus bets or enhanced odds on existing bets.
NHL live betting
Live betting has probably been the biggest revolution in sports betting in the last decade or so. With many people online 24/7 and keeping up with all the latest hockey news in real time, it makes sense to also be able to bet whenever and wherever you are.
DraftKings, FanDuel and PlaySugarHouse all have live betting platforms where you can wager on the NHL. For the most part, the majority of the regular bets we’ve already covered are also available for live betting. You can add to that certain wagers that are exclusive to live betting, like who will score the next goal.
Live betting really opens up the door to a whole new experience with the sport. Anything you spot while watching a game, or any prediction you feel confident about — chances are there will be a way to place a bet on it happening, without ever leaving your seat.
Best NHL betting tips for beginners
With so many options, it can understandably be hard to know where to start if you’re new to NHL betting. In this section, we’ve come up with a few tips for rookies. These will help you ease yourself into betting on the NHL and give you an idea of how to implement research and strategies — even if you don’t have a ton of betting experience.
1. Start with moneyline bets
It’s an obvious place to start, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Moneyline bets are among the most popular options at sportsbooks, and for good reason. They are just about as simple as betting gets, and the perfect entry point for wagering on the NHL.
With a moneyline bet, all you need to do is predict which team will win a single game. It’s something all sports fans do without thinking before they sit down to watch a game anyway. Plus, sportsbooks tend to make moneyline bets the most visible, making them easy to find and place.
2. Consider betting against tired players
Being a successful sports bettor requires you to consider a lot of external factors. A good place to start with the NHL is physical fatigue.
Hockey is a grueling sport, and playing back-to-back games or long road trips inevitably impacts a player’s performance. One study found that, since 2013, teams show a 5% average decrease in point-scoring productivity in back-to-back games, compared with games after rest days.
This is absolutely something you should consider in your bets. Experimenting with betting against tired players is a great way to start letting research guide your bets.
Tired teams scoring fewer goals means not only can you think about betting against them in absolute terms, but also that you lean toward the under in over/under bets, or pick a team to fade toward the end with some third-period props.
3. Look for props on your favorite team
Prop bets let you get really specific and make bets on the finer details of the game, rather than on overall outcomes like the winner or a total number of points.
This means that, generally, props aren’t necessarily that well-suited to rookie bettors or casual fans. You typically need a better understanding of the game and both teams to make good predictions and analysis.
The exception to this is if you’re a longtime NHL fan, particularly of a specific team, getting into betting for the first time. Let’s say you haven’t missed a New York Rangers game in decades, and you’ve got an encyclopedic knowledge of how they play.
The best bet on which to put all that knowledge to use may well be props. You can bet on the Rangers to get off to a fast start by winning the first period, or on Chris Kreider to have a certain number of shots if you can sense he’s on form. Forget researching a new team every week — bet on what you already know via props.
NHL betting partnerships in CT
Since the Constitution State is lacking an NHL team, there are no betting partnerships with specific franchises in the state. However, the NHL itself has signed deals with some of the sportsbooks that you can find in Connecticut.
Both DraftKings and FanDuel have official sports betting partnerships with the NHL. The deals grant them access to NHL data and lets them use official NHL logos and trademarks. Essentially, it means an overall better and more in-depth hockey betting experience.
Hockey betting rules
For the most part, NHL betting works as you would expect. Still, new bettors can sometimes trip up on a couple of rules.
One thing you need to be aware of from the start is the concept of regulation time betting. Regulation time refers to the standard three periods of an NHL game — but crucially not overtime.
Sportsbooks often have separate bets for winners in regulation (which also includes the option to bet on a tie) and overall winners, whether in regular time, overtime or during a shootout. For example, a moneyline bet in regulation time might look like this:
Unfortunately, many people have bet on a team to win on a three-way moneyline and been frustrated to discover they don’t win when the game goes to overtime. There are also two-way moneylines, where there is no option to bet on a tie.
If you have any other doubts about specific NHL betting rules, it’s easy to look them up at Connecticut online sportsbooks. It’s the books’ responsibility to clearly define all the bets they offer, along with their terms and conditions.
History of the Hartford Whalers
These days, there are no pro teams from any of the top four leagues active in Connecticut, but that wasn’t always the case. The New England Whalers arrived in Connecticut from Boston in 1974, at the time becoming the first WHA team in the state and moving into the Hartford Civic Center.
The Whalers enjoyed a fruitful time in their early days in Hartford, making the WHA playoffs every year from 1974 to 1979, when they joined the National Hockey League along with four other WHA teams.
The franchise changed its name to the Hartford Whalers as part of a deal with the Boston Bruins, who were also in the NHL. The Whalers never quite repeated their previous success, although they did make the NHL playoffs eight times in 18 seasons, winning a division championship in 1987.
Their tenure in Connecticut ended in 1997 when the franchise moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to become the Carolina Hurricanes.
Betting on the Hartford Wolf Pack
The same year, the Binghamton Rangers (the AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers) relocated to Hartford to compete in the American Hockey League as the Hartford Wolf Pack. They were later joined by the Bridgeport Islanders, who also compete in the AHL.
And there’s the Connecticut Whale, named in homage to the departed Whalers, who compete in the NWHL. Betting on AHL and NWHL games is not especially widespread, but you may find some options for the playoffs as the season draws to a close.