Expert NHL Betting Picks Today: Tuesday, Sept. 29

NHL Best Bets and Picks for Canucks vs. Oilers and Blackhawks vs. Golden Knights, with expert previews, odds and parlay value.

September 29, 2026

Expert NHL Betting Picks Today: Tuesday, Sept. 29

By:

Daniel Dobish

September 29, 2026

NHL Picks

Every start/sit, every waiver, every streamer. We make the call.

NHL Best Bets & Picks: Canucks at Oilers & Blackhawks at Golden Knights – Expert Game Previews

The 2026-27 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season is open to us, and if you feel like this might be a bit early, you're absolutely correct. The NHL has expanded the regular-season schedule to 84 games, up from 82, so we're getting started about a week earlier than the past few seasons.

On ESPN, there is a tripleheader of games, beginning at 5 p.m. ET when the Carolina Hurricanes raise a Stanley Cup banner to the rafters at Lenovo Center in Raleigh. The Canes take on the new-look Florida Panthers, while the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins battle at 8 p.m. ET at TD Garden in the second game of the tripleheader. At 10:30 p.m. ET, the Chicago Blackhawks and Vegas Golden Knights wrap up a busy day on the network.

We'll provide single plays and parlay opportunities you could potentially pair with Tuesday's MLB playoffs or even WNBA playoff basketball action. Good luck with all of your plays! Let's get started.

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For the latest NHL Odds, including NHL Futures and NHL player props, visit RotoWire's NHL Betting page. For up-to-date NHL player news and NHL Injury Report info, head to RotoWire's NHL Lineups page. You can find more picks at Bookies.com/picks. Here are our NHL Best Bets today, featuring expert NHL picks for an action-packed slate of games.

Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers

The Canucks were an abject disaster last season, going 25-49-8 while accruing just 58 points, easily the worst mark in the NHL. Inexplicably, Vancouver was a respectable 16-22-3 on the road, but it had a minus-100 goal differential overall, the worst mark in the league, too. In fact, the Blackhawks (below) were the next closest team at minus-62, and no other team was worse than minus-47.

Former NHL player Manny Malhotra takes the reins as the bench boss in Vancouver, looking to snap this team back on track. Daniel and Henrik Sedin return to the Pacific Northwest to serve as co-team presidents, too.

For the Oilers, after two straight trips to the Stanley Cup Finals resulting in back-to-back losses to the Florida Panthers, Edmonton bowed out early in last season's playoffs. They went out and grabbed Frederik Andersen, the goalie who helped Carolina to a Stanley Cup last season, although he was injured down the stretch. And, he suffered some sort of offseason training injury, and is expected to be sidelined at least one more month.

As such, Tristan Jarry (18-9-3, 3.32 GAA, .882 SV%, 2 SO) gets a chance to start the first part of the season. The Surrey, B.C. native will surely be amped up to face the Canucks in the opener. He not only won his only start against the Canucks last season, but he turned aside all 31 shots he faced for one of his two shutouts on Jan. 17 in Vancouver.

The Canucks are likely to roll with Kevin Lankinen (11-27-5, 3.70 GAA, .875 SV%), and the 31-year-old Finn was coughed up six goals on 35 shots in his only start against the Oilers, a 6-1 loss in Edmonton.

Let's go with the Oilers on the goal line to start, and we'll go Under on the total.

Oilers -1.5 Goals (-115 at Caesars Sportsbook)
Over 6.5 Goals (-108 at BetRivers Sportsbook)

Chicago Blackhawks at Vegas Golden Knights

As mentioned above, the Blackhawks weren't quite as bad as the Canucks, but they were pretty bad. They managed a 29-39-14 record, while going 15-20-6 on the road.

The Golden Knights ended up winning the Pacific Division with 95 points, and they ended up making a run to the Stanley Cup Final, coming up just short against the Hurricanes for all of the marbles.

These teams met three times, and believe it or not, two of them were very good games. VGK won 4-0 in the final meeting at The Fortress on March 14, but the previous two games were unable to be decided in regulation. The Blackhawks won 3-2 in OT as huge underdogs (+210) on Jan. 4 in the only meeting in the Windy City, while the Golden Knights won 4-3 in a shootout on Dec. 2, escaping as gigantic favorites (-275).

For the total, the Over has cashed in each of the past three meetings in Las Vegas, while going 6-3 in the past nine meetings in the series since Oct. 21, 2023.

Spencer Knight (19-25-11, 2.82 GAA, .902 SV%, 3 SO) is expected to make the start for the visitors, while Carter Hart (11-3-3, 2.71 GAA, .891 SV%) gets the nod for the home side.

Based on the close calls in this series last season, though, let's roll the dice on the Blackhawks catching a goal and a half as underdogs, while going Over on the total.