It’s been a minute since we dipped our toes into NHL props, but we’re back at it Tuesday. With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, the focus shifts to seeing which stars will make an impact with their new teams — and which young guns are going to step up for deadline sellers.
With 11 games on the docket, here are our top five Tuesday NHL props.
All odds via DraftKings and FanDuel, and updated 11:45 a.m. ET on March 22.
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New Jersey Devils: C Jack Hughes
The Prop: 3.5 total shots (vs. N.Y. Rangers)
The Odds: Over -110/Under -122
Rivalry games can make or break rising superstars, and Jack Hughes will get exactly that type of opportunity Tuesday against the New York Rangers. Hughes has exceeded 3.5 shots in five of his last 10 games, but he’s been stuck on three in each of his last two contests.
With that in mind, the under looks to be the play here. For one thing, Hughes recorded one shot on goal in 20:47 of ice time in his only other game against New York this season. If that weren’t concerning enough, Hughes has only recorded four-plus shots in four of 16 games against Top-10 defenses this season (the Rangers allow the third-fewest goals per game, despite allowing 32.2 shots per contest).
With an abundance of injuries and illnesses affecting the Devils, New Jersey likely will play much of this game at their own end of the ice. For that reason, taking Hughes Under 3.5 shots is one of one of the NHL props plays of the night.
Pittsburgh Penguins: RW Rickard Rakell
The Prop: Score anytime goal (vs. Columbus)
The Odds: +175
Going from a low-event offense in Anaheim to a high-scoring system in Pittsburgh should be just what the doctor ordered for Rickard Rakell, who had 16 goals in 51 games this season with Ducks before being shipped east Monday.
Pittsburgh has acquired two-time 30-goal scorer Rickard Rakell from the Anaheim Ducks.
Since his first full NHL season in 2014-15, no Ducks player has scored more goals than Rakell's 154. pic.twitter.com/1g1Mv3w4Eu
— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) March 21, 2022
Rakell projects to play on the second line with Evgeni Malkin and Danton Heinen, and he may get some looks on the power play as well. Regardless, with so much talent around him, Rakell certainly will receive less defensive attention than he did in Anaheim — and that should translate to increased scoring chances.
The Blue Jackets allow the most shots (35.4) and third-most goals (3.68) per game this season. Both of those numbers go up on the road (36 shots, 3.79 goals per game). True, Columbus held Rakell off the scoresheet entirely when he visited Ohio back on Dec. 9. Again, though, the 28-year-old Swede was skating with a mostly pedestrian Ducks offense that night. Tuesday is a different story.
Expect the Penguins to deploy their new weapon early and often and for Rakell to end a three-game goal-scoring drought and find the back of the net in his Pittsburgh debut.
Ottawa Senators: LW Brady Tkachuk
The Prop: 3.5 total shots (at N.Y. Islanders)
The Odds: Over -116/Under -116
Brady Tkachuk has been a difficult skater to predict this season. On the one hand, he’s averaging 3.66 shots per game, and he’s gone Over that mark in three of his last four. He even put up a whopping nine shots against Arizona last week, the third time this season he’s reached that mark. (Tkachuk’s season-high was 12 against Buffalo back in January.)
Most goals by a @Senators player in their first 100 career NHL games:
39- Alexei Yashin (1993-94)
38- Josh Norris (2020-22 via a 1st period marker to put his team up 1-0 vs the Kraken tonight)
33- Daniel Alfredsson (1995-96)
31- Brady Tkachuk (2018-19)
30- Martin Havlat (2000-01) pic.twitter.com/kqrUfzgJeA— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) March 11, 2022
On the other hand, Tkachuk has only beaten this shot prop eight times in 23 games against teams with a losing record, and 12 times in 28 road games (42.86%). He’s also been held to one shot or fewer in 10 of his 59 games. And while he had five shots against the Islanders on Dec. 7 at home, he got off just two on Feb. 1 in New York.
So the lean here is Under, right? Not exactly. See, Tkachuk should get a ton of ice time Tuesday against the Islanders, especially since the Senators were forced into trading felt left-winger Nick Paul at the deadline after being unable to work out a contract extension.
Also, New York allows 32 shots per game, 12th-most in the league. Expect a frustrated Tkachuk to rifle pucks on net all night. Take the Over.
Detroit Red Wings: LW Jakub Vrána
The Prop: Score anytime goal (vs. Philadelphia)
The Odds: +150
Working his way back from a shoulder surgery that sidelined him all season, Jakub Vrána returned to the ice on March 8 and potted a goal against Arizona. Two nights later, he put two biscuits in the basket against the Wild.
Attention fantasy owners: Pick up Jakub Vrana!#LGRW | @NHLFantasy
With more, here's @NHLJensen & me from earlier today on @NHLNetwork: pic.twitter.com/gsGm5AaWXe
— Nick Alberga (@thegoldenmuzzy) March 14, 2022
The 26-year-old Czech has been blanked in four games since — all on the road after his first two contests were at home — but he’s landed firmly on the first line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. The hope in Detroit is this will be the high-flying line that leads the franchise out of its long rebuild.
Even though he failed to register a point during the Wings’ four-game road trip, the fact remains that Vrána still has 11 goals in 19 career games with Detroit. On Tuesday, he’ll get a go against a Flyers team allowing the ninth-most goals per game on the road (3.46). We like Vrána’s chances to add to the tally.
Nashville Predators: D Roman Josi
The Prop: 0.5 total assists (at Los Angeles)
The Odds: Over -148/Under +120
This is one of the top NHL props of the night — because there’s no hotter player in the league right now than Roman Josi.
The 31-year-old Swiss blueliner leads all defensemen with 77 points this season, which remarkably ranks sixth among all skaters. Here’s how great of a campaign Josi is having: Only two defensemen in the last 30 years have broken 90 points in a season. He’s on pace to pass 100! Furthermore, Josi also leads all defensemen in shots on goal in 2021-22.
Josi enters Tuesday riding a 10-game point streak, with 24 (four goals, 20 assists) in that span. Now he gets to take aim at an injury-decimated Kings club. L.A. is missing four of its top six defensemen (Drew Doughy, Sean Walker, Tobias Björnfot, and Matt Roy are all out).
Josi has picked up an assist in 35 of his 61 games, including 19 of 31 on the road. He’s also notched three assists in two games against the Kings this season (one helper on Oct. 19 at home; two on Jan. 6 in L.A.). That gives him 16 assists in 26 career games against the Kings.
Looking to invest a little more coin in Josi on Tuesday? He’s around +310 to score an anytime goal. With the way he’s rolling — and as much as the Kings are banged up defensively — it’s not a bad NHL props investment at all.
