PLAYER POINTS UNLOCKED

As tThe NHL keeps leaning into offense and entertainment value, goals are coming in bunches — and that’s changing the way bettors look at player props. Rule emphasis on speed and skill, stricter obstruction calls, and years of tweaks that favor attackers have pushed scoring to heights we haven’t seen since the early ’90s. In the early stages of 2022–23, teams were averaging over 3.2 goals per game each, the highest mark since 1993–94, and recent seasons have largely hovered around that three-per-team line. In simple terms: more pucks in the net means more players touching the scoresheet.

That offensive boom has turned player points markets into one of the friendliest entry points for casual and serious bettors alike. Instead of sweating a full-game side or total, you can isolate a top-line winger or power-play quarterback and simply ask, “Does this guy get on the board tonight?” With elite talents regularly flirting with 100+ point seasons — and the league’s top scorers recently clearing 140 points over 82 games— it’s no surprise that books routinely hang heavily juiced “anytime point” lines on marquee names. When games are finishing 4–3 and 5–2 instead of 2–1, those minus-money prices sometimes feel, dare we say, easy.

Of course, “easy” is dangerous language in betting, so the edge comes from being more selective than the market. The key is to line up player points props with game environments that scream offense: high totals on the board (6.5 or 7), two up-tempo teams, leaky goaltending, or a tired defense on the second night of a back-to-back. Layer in role and usage — first-line minutes, top power-play unit, offensive-zone faceoff share — and you start to separate the live props from the traps. A gifted passer riding shotgun with a volume shooter on PP1 is a very different bet from a depth winger stuck on a checking line, even if their names look similar on a stat sheet.

For a forward-thinking bettor, the rising tide of NHL scoring is less about blind faith in offense and more about exploiting correlation. If you like the over in a game, player points props on the top six and power-play specialists become natural extensions of that thesis rather than standalone gambles. Conversely, when you expect a grind-it-out, low-event matchup, it can be sharper to pass on those “easy” points entirely. The league may be pushing for more goals and turning the spotlight on its stars, but the smartest money is still on the bettors who treat player points as a numbers game — not a guarantee