Connor McDavid NHL Odds: By How Many Goals Will He Beat Field?

The 2022-23 NHL regular season still has about a month to go, but you can already proclaim the races for the Hart Trophy as NHL Most Valuable Player, and the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal-scorer, finished. Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid perhaps could not play the rest of the way, and he’d still win both as that is how good he has been.

The 26-year-old has NHL betting odds of -4000 to win the Hart for the third time in his surefire Hall of Fame career, and -8000 to win the Rocket Richard for the first time; that McDavid has never led the NHL in goals surprises many people when they hear that.

McDavid already has reached a career high in points with 124 (54 goals and 70 helpers) in 65 games played. His previous career mark of 123 points was set last season in 80. Only two players since 2000-01 have had as many as 124 points in a single season: Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov with 128 in 2018-19, and Joe Thornton with 125 in 2005-06, splitting time with Boston and San Jose. McDavid required the fourth-fewest games in NHL history to register 250 career multi-point performances, with it taking him 552 games. Only Wayne Gretzky (382 GP), Mario Lemieux (444) and Mike Bossy (549) did it in fewer.

So while those two awards mentioned above are fait accompli, the best sports betting sites have come up with a few related NHL season props.

As of this writing, McDavid’s 54 goals are 10 more than second-place David Pastrnak of Boston and 12 more than third-place Tage Thompson of Buffalo. McDavid is given a handicap of -6.5 goals at -125 against the rest of the field at +6.5 (-105) in total goals scored. Last season when Toronto’s Auston Matthews joined the rare 60-goal club as McDavid is well on pace to do, Matthews finished with five more than second-place Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton.

The last time the goals leader finished more than 6.5 ahead of No. 2 was Matthews in 2020-21 with 41, while McDavid was second with 33.

You can also wager on the top goalscorer overall other than McDavid, with the Bruins’ Pastrnak (44 goals) the +175 favorite, followed by the Sabres’ Thompson (42) at +400, Edmonton’s Draisaitl (41) and Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen (41) both at +450.

One thing to consider about Pastrnak: the Bruins could rest him a bit down the stretch to avoid injury because they are going to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy soon and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. He recently got an eight-year, $90 million extension with the B’s, the sixth-largest deal in NHL history. Pastrnak’s career high in goals is 48 in 2019-20, when he shared the Rocket Richard Trophy with Alex Ovechkin.