NHL Best Bets: Top Player Props & Novig Market Picks (Thursday, 10/29/26)

October 29, 2026

Get Sean Goodwin's top NHL bets and player props for Thursday 10/29/26. Expert picks powered by the Novig betting exchange -- see today's highest-value plays. Win more with RotoBaller's expert betting advice.

Let's go and get our second win of the season tonight. The 11-game slate offers several promising matchups, while others are best avoided. We'll focus on only the juiciest spots, and I have identified a few very strong opportunities for this evening- don't worry!

Today's picks will all use the odds on the most unique and fastest-growing sports prediction site—Novig. If you're not familiar with the site or how prediction markets work, I'll explain how it works and provide some of my favorite wagers to place on Novig.

As always, make sure you're following RotoBaller on X and download the RotoBaller app. Now, without any further ado, here are some of my favorite NHL bets and NHL player props for Thursday night's games.

What is Novig?

Novig is one of the fastest-growing peer-to-peer sports prediction markets. On Novig, users trade directly with each other without the "vig" that is associated with a typical sportsbook.

The vig represents the money that sportsbooks charge you to use their service. It's a hidden cost that can be found in the odds that are being offered on each side of a specific bet. When a book offers -110 odds on both sides of a bet, they're keeping close to 10% of every bettor's wager, regardless of whether you win or lose.

On Novig, users trade with each other on the outcomes of sporting events, similarly to the way that investors trade on the stock market. But instead of having to beat the books, you just have to win against other users - there's no commission kept by the site.

Users can bet on most traditional sports markets, including moneyline bets, spreads, totals, player props, parlays, and futures! No politics, no betting on wars...just sports!

NHL Game Bets

All odds are from Novig and were accurate as of 11:00 AM ET. Note that Novig odds are now displayed as percentages instead of American odds.

Carolina Hurricanes (-1.5) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets  (48%)

This is probably the biggest mismatch on the slate. (I'd look at the Hurricanes at -2.5 as well.)

Over their last three road games, Columbus have been 2nd in the league in expected goals against (3.78). They've been outchanced 2-to-1 in those games and have allowed twice as many high-danger chances. They did beat the Flyers 4-3 in OT on Tuesday, but they gave up 32 shots to a Flyers team who, apart from the Vancouver Canucks, would be regarded as one of the weakest teams in the league.

Vancouver Canucks (Moneyline) at San Jose Sharks (Over 6.5 goals)  (55%) 

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NHL Prop Bets

All odds are from Novig and were accurate as of 11:00 AM ET. Note that Novig odds are now displayed as percentages instead of American odds.

Jason Robertson (DAL) Anytime Goal (39%) vs Montreal Canadiens

Dallas have not gotten off to a great start by their standards, and their offence has struggled at times, and part of that is on Robertson, who only has 5 goals so far this season.

Still, he is shooting the puck with 20 shots in his last 5 games. Tonight he gets a Montreal team that just gave up 46 shots to the Blues and only won because Fowler stood on his head. I love this spot for Robertson, as he should have no issues getting his 4 or 5 shots tonight, which should see him score his 6th goal of the season.

If Montreal goes with Dobes instead of Fowler, Robertson will get a nice boost.

The "Ghost" owes us one here, so tonight against the Blue Jackets is a perfect spot for him to pay us back with an "apple" or two, as I mentioned on Tuesday when I wrote up Seth Jones in this spot (3 apples in the first period).

We want defensemen who shoot the puck, play a ton of minutes, and are on the top power-play unit. Well, Ghost checks two of those boxes for us as he "only" sees about 17 minutes of ice time per game; the good news for us is that Columbus allows the 8th-most shots to defensemen and they have the 6th-worst penalty killing unit in the league.

Carolina goal!

Scored by Jesperi Kotkaniemi with 03:10 left in the 2nd. Assisted by Shayne Gostisbehere and Eric Robinson.

WPG: 2 | CAR: 2

#CARvsWPG #GoJetsGo #CarolinaCulture https://t.co/fYxHgG8sHL

— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) October 17, 2026

I could watch this video all day long; he's just an elite offensive defenseman!

Novig Tools Exclusively at RotoBaller

Check out our "No-Vig" Calculator, and you can de-vig any line you want to see what the fair odds should be!

You can also shop for the best odds on bets and props at Novig using our new Prediction Finder Tool!

Win more on every winning market position with Novig, where you will consistently get a better return on your investment than traditional sportsbooks.

NHL Prop Parlay

Here’s tonight’s parlay with the plays I like for tonight’s slate; as always, mix and match to see what works for you.

If every leg hits, we are going to 9.86x our investment. Don't go overboard, but tossing a little change on the full parlay is a nice way to give our betting card a ceiling.

If you have any questions, please hit me up on X or join RotoBaller today and come talk some shop in our premium Discord channel!

Best of luck tonight, and let's have a winning season!

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