NHL Playoff Specials Futures Betting Odds & Lines

The NHL is the top hockey league in North America, as 32 teams compete for the Stanley Cup. BetUS offers a wide range of betting options on NHL lines all season.

There are options to bet on any game throughout the season or make bets before the season starts predicting possible outcomes.

What is the NHL Playoff Specials Futures?

What makes NHL Playoff Specials Futures so different from other NHL bets is the simplicity of it while also giving you a lot of control over the NHL odds you are taking. It falls under a season-long prop bet, placing a wager on a team to make or not make the playoffs.

It is similar to picking an over/under on a team’s win total, but betting in the NHL Playoff Special Futures simplifies it to a yes or no answer.

It takes the numbers away and asks whether this team is good enough to be one of the eight playoff teams in its conference.

NHL Playoff Specials Futures also give you another option for regular playoff season prop bets. Stanley Cup odds focus on picking one team, but this allows you more teams to bet on, with 16 teams making the playoffs.

How do NHL Playoff Specials Futures Odds work?

These bets work in a similar format over/under win total bets. The NHL Vegas odds will be set for every team to make/not make the playoffs.

BetUS will offer odds for both outcomes based on the team’s roster and predictions for the upcoming season.

A team like the Tampa Bay Lightning, which has made it to the last three Stanley Cups, has odds at -700 to make the playoffs.

Based on the Lightning’s recent success and roster, they will most likely be in the playoffs again, leading to them being favorites.

However, if you feel the Lightning could take a step back this year, the odds of missing out on the playoffs are +475.

Prop Bets

NHL Playoff Specials Futures are a particular type of prop bet. It allows another option to wager on how a team will perform over the season. It also can take some research and a gut feeling to get a good sense of what to place your money on.

The best thing to do is to parlay a wager on the NHL Playoff Specials Futures with other bets surrounding that team. Using multiple prop bets can increase your winnings.

Betting Strategy

Betting on NHL Playoff Specials Futures can be simpler than other possible season-long prop bets, but it still takes a lot of studying. It is crucial to know what teams made the playoffs the previous season and how every team’s offseason went.

Often, teams that make the playoffs tend to be back in the hunt for it again. If a team barely made it but improved over the offseason, their odds may not change, and that is the perfect time to bet on them to make the playoffs.

Vice versa can be said about teams that make the playoffs but lose crucial pieces to the roster. The odds may show they are a bubble team, but you could be ahead of the curve and place a wager on them slipping.

How is NHL playoff seeding?

The NHL is broken up into two conferences, East and West, with each divided into two divisions of eight teams.

The playoffs feature eight teams from each conference playing one another. The champions of the conference play in the Stanley Cup Final.

The top three point earners in each division make it into the playoffs, ranked according to their point total. The last two spots are for Wild-Card teams, the highest point earners in the entire conference, outside of the top three places in the division.

Who is favored to win the NHL Playoff Specials Futures?

Often favored teams have already found success in the playoffs the previous season. The team has already proved it can make a deep run, so it can do it again.

That goes for teams that spent a lot in the offseason improving through free agency or trades. However, sometimes those teams look good on paper but never play well on the ice.

Picking a Surprise

It’s always hard to bet against the house. Usually, the odds are set up to play the fine line of how good a team can be.

On the other hand, there is always at least one team that surprises everyone. Picking them can be incredibly difficult and takes a mixture of chance and knowledge.

Most of the time it can boil down to a gut feeling backed with some research in believing this team will be better or worse..

The tip for a team to overperfom can be a young player who will make a massive leap into being a star. Another possibility for a team to underperform is an older team that could suffer from a lot of injuries.

If the team never has injuries, they could be a playoff team, but you factor that in and it could be enough to drop them.

One Team-Focused Parlay

If you pick a single favorite that will most likely make the playoffs the payout isn’t great, so putting it in a parlay makes it worthwhile.

But if you think the team as a whole will be great, you can mix your NHL Playoff Specials Futures with other season-long bets around the team.

If you firmly believe that the Lightning will be the best team in the NHL, parlay them to make the playoffs, go over their win total and select them to win the Stanley Cup.

You could take it a step further, betting on their players to win awards because you have so much faith in the team to do well.

A similar thing could be if you feel a team will be one of the worst in the league. You can parlay their odds to miss out on the playoffs by taking the under in their over/under prop bets.

Taking the Favorites

This betting strategy follows the idea of picking the playoff brackets before the season starts. With 16 teams making the playoffs, eight from each conference, you could parlay all the teams you feel will make the playoffs together.

It seems nearly impossible to get all 16 teams, but if you divide it in smaller steps, it could become more manageable.

Instead of doing all the teams, you do the top three in each division. It gives you some leeway if one team falls into a wild-card spot because they still make the playoffs. It makes the bet a lot less risky.

The same can be said in picking the favorites to miss the playoffs. If five teams are not going to have good seasons and are headed toward a rebuild, just put them all in a parlay to miss the playoffs and see what NHL odds you get.

Betting The Bubble

Betting on the bubble takes constant awareness of the NHL as a whole. It often revolves around betting on teams that narrowly missed or made the playoffs.

These teams on the bubble change almost every season, so predicting who it will be next is crucial. The important thing is offseason moves, and if teams got better or worse after the season ended.

The odds for these teams are often more leveled out. Take, for example, the Boston Bruins, who have -160 odds to make the playoffs and +130 to miss.

Last season they made it in as the No. 1 Wild Card in the East, but who is to say they will do that again? The team could just hit a rough patch this year that they didn’t hit last, and miss out.