NHL Best Bets Today: Expert Picks for Saturday, January 18

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Updated on January 18, 2025 6:59PM EST

NHL Best Bets Tonight: Expert NHL Picks for
Saturday, Jan. 18

The National Hockey League (NHL) has a total of 15 games on the schedule, with only the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes sitting out the evening. We're going to focus on the later part of the schedule where there are some intriguing games for some solid parlay opportunities. Let's get started.

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Minnesota Wild at Nashville Predators

The Wild (27-14-4) and the Predators (15-22-7) square off at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday in Music City.

This is their third meeting of the regular season, with Minnesota having won the first two matchups so far. Minnesota picked up a 3-2 win in overtime as a moderate favorite (-134) in St. Paul while picking up a 5-3 win as a slight favorite (-113) on New Year's Eve, also in Minnesota.

The Wild have dropped three of the past four games heading into this one, as goaltending has been an issue recently. The combination of Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury has allowed four or more goals in four of the past five outings.

The Predators posted a 3-2 win in a shootout over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday, following up a 5-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. Both Justus Annunen and Juuse Saros have wins in the span, and goaltending has been a little better lately. Since the ball dropped to ring in 2025, the Preds have allowed 15 goals in six games, or 2.5 goals per game (GPG), with most of the damage coming in two games between Jan. 7-11 with nine goals allowed.

Let's not overthink things here. The Wild are struggling defensively and in net, while the Predators are trending up. Play the Preds Moneyline at home and go with the over.

Predators ML (-145 at BetMGM)
Over 5.5 Goals (-120 at BetMGM)

Don't place any bets on your go-to sports betting apps without researching the latest NHL odds first.

Vegas Golden Knights at Chicago Blackhawks

The aforementioned Golden Knights (29-13-3) and Blackhawks (14-28-3) meet at United Center in Chitown on Saturday night, with a puck drop of 8:00 p.m. ET.

While Vegas has had a ton of success in recent seasons, and Chicago not so much, this has been a surprisingly close series. Vegas has won five of the past nine meetings, with seven of the past 10 since Aug. 18, 2020 being decided by a single goal.

Vegas has dropped the first two games on this road trip, falling 5-3 in Nashville behind Ilya Samsonov, while losing 3-2 in Carolina Friday with Adin Hill in the cage. With no rest, it's likely back to Samsonov, who coughed up four goals on 22 shots in the Music City last time out.

The Blackhawks are 0-3-1 in the past four games, but two of those losses were by a single goal, including a 3-2 shootout loss in Nashville.

The concern with backing the Blackhawks, even on the puck line as an underdog, is that Petr Mrazek, not Arvid Soderblom, is expected to be in net. Mrazek has allowed nine goals in the past two starts and four or more goals in five of the past six outings. He has been hot garbage, so don't expect Chicago to keep pace here.

Back Vegas on the puck line. With Mrazek in between the pipes, let's go high.