NHL First & Anytime Goalscorer Betting

Author

Malcolm Darnley

Updated: Feb 24, 2025

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NHL First & Anytime Goal Scorer Betting Stats

Player Team GP POS SOG 1st G ANY G Last G Last 5 AVG G/G arrow
Leon DraisaitlOilers57C3.33934820.74
Alex OvechkinCapitals41LW3.76322450.71
Kirill KaprizovWild37LW3.46417340.62
Brayden PointLightning55C2.44628620.58
Tage ThompsonSabres50C3.04723130.56
William NylanderMaple Leafs60RW3.22225300.55
Mark ScheifeleJets57C2.18223610.54
Jake GuentzelLightning59C2.71324440.51
Kyle ConnorJets60LW3.13623200.50
Sam ReinhartPanthers62C2.52426330.50
Nikita KucherovLightning53RW3.43622420.49
David PastrnakBruins58RW4.02123620.48
Cole CaufieldCanadiens57RW3.04323820.47
Tyler SeguinStars19C2.2638130.47
Auston MatthewsMaple Leafs45C3.84319310.47
Artturi LehkonenAvalanche50LW2.24419530.46
Dylan GuentherHockey Club46LW2.74515630.46
Adrian KempeKings57C3.07624520.46
Alex DeBrincatRed Wings57RW2.75623250.46
Gabriel VilardiJets57C1.89322550.46
Tom WilsonCapitals57RW2.25320540.46
Brandon HagelLightning60LW2.83421100.45
Mikko RantanenAvalanche60RW2.72219310.45
Kent JohnsonBlue Jackets43C1.93316200.44
John TavaresMaple Leafs50C2.72216610.44
Valeri NichushkinAvalanche25RW2.08210330.44
Connor McDavidOilers57C2.93621430.44
Matthew TkachukPanthers56LW2.98118530.43
Nico HischierDevils56C2.57319510.43
Artemi PanarinRangers55LW2.98416320.42
Rickard RakellPenguins60RW2.58322420.42
Kevin FialaKings53LW3.00418510.42
Jack HughesDevils63C3.67621600.41
Anders LeeIslanders56LW2.86420330.41
Dylan LarkinRed Wings61C3.11422320.41
Bryan RustPenguins49RW2.51116200.41
Seth JarvisHurricanes54C2.44218300.41
Patrik LaineCanadiens32LW2.16411310.41
Aliaksei ProtasCapitals57C1.84420520.40
Jason RobertsonStars57LW2.74318050.40
Matt DucheneStars57C1.86419420.40
Pavel DorofeyevGolden Knights57LW2.98219630.40
Nathan MacKinnonAvalanche63C4.02521620.40
Jordan KyrouBlues58C2.78221430.40
Dmitri VoronkovBlue Jackets48LW2.23515100.40
Brady TkachukSenators61LW4.08121720.39
Macklin CelebriniSharks46C3.39415320.39
Kirill MarchenkoBlue Jackets54RW2.69219510.39
Matthew KniesMaple Leafs54LW1.69318210.39
Roope HintzStars57C2.14419420.39
Standings Last Updated: February 24, 2025 at 11:30 AM ET

Legend

  • GP: Games Played
  • POS: Position of the player
  • SOG: Number of shots on goal the player makes per game on average
  • 1st G: Record of how many 1st goals the player has made
  • ANY G: Record of how many games the player has made any goal
  • Last G: Record of how many games the player has made the last goal of the game
  • Last 5: How many goals the player has made over the last 5 games
  • AVG. G/G: Average goals per game for the player

NHL Goal Scorer Betting

One of the most popular NFL prop bets is to wager on players to score the first touchdown or a player to score a touchdown at any given point of the game.

It didn’t take long for sportsbooks to recognize the popularity of this bet and start offering it for other sports as well.

In the NHL, just like the NFL, some of the most popular prop bets are NHL First Goalscorer, NHL Last Goalscorer, and NHL Anytime Goalscorer.

If you enjoy the fastest game on ice and are looking for some NHL goal scorer betting tips, we have you covered below.

NHL First Vs. Anytime Goalscorer Betting

NHL first and last goalscorer betting is very similar. With first-scorer betting, we are betting on the player who will score the game’s first goal.

Important to remember that we are betting on the game’s first goal and not the first goal of a player’s team.

NHL last goalscorer betting is basically the same, except instead of the game’s first goal, we are focusing on the game’s last goal.

NHL anytime goalscorer betting is selecting a player who will score a goal at any point of the game. With any time betting, whether the goal is the first or last goal of the game is irrelevant.

Predicting who will score the first or last goal of the game is more difficult than predicting whether a player will score at any given time of a game, and the odds reflect it.

St. Louis vs. Colorado – Goalscorer Odds

PlayerFirst GoalscorerLast GoalscorerAnytime Goalscorer
M. Rantanen+1000+1000+125
V. Tarasenko+1300+1300+175

Our table above helps us visualize the difference in odds between betting on First, Last or Anytime scorer.

We can see that both Mikko Rantanen and Vladimir Tarasenko have attractive payouts if we wanted to bet them to be the first or last goal scorer. 

The odds drop significantly if we take either one of them to score a goal at any time.

How First, Last, And Anytime Goal Scorer Standings Work

You will want to make BestOdds.com your destination of choice for all things related to NHL goalscorer betting.

After each night of NHL action, we will update our First, Last, and Anytime goalscorer standings pages.

Bettors can search by an individual player to find valuable data to help you with all your NHL goal scorer prop bets.

Using NHL Goalscorer Standings For Betting

By making BestOdds.com your NHL goalscorer destination, you will get access to some important information regarding these prop bets.

Search individual players to quickly see how often they score first, last, or anytime during a game. Get an understanding of their most recent games and how many goals they average per game.

All of this NHL goalscorer information will help you make better, more informed decisions the next time you play these prop bets.

Strategies For First & Anytime Goalscorer Betting

As a bettor, we will want to focus on a couple of things when doing our research for NHL First or Last goalscorer.

When it comes to first goalscorer betting, we need to get an understanding of which team is expected to score first. We can do this in a couple of different ways. 

The first thing we can do is research how often a team scores the first goal of a game. Specifically, we might want to focus on a team’s last five or ten games and get an understanding of how they are performing in the first 20 minutes of those games.

You can refer to our First Period Totals O/U Stats page to find out more about how well your team scores in the first period.

The other stat that might be of interest to us is the NHL First To Score Odds.

Seattle vs. Florida – 1st To Score Odds

TeamsOdds
Seattle+110
Florida-135

Looking at the odds above, if we convert -135 into a probability percentage, we see the sportsbooks believe Florida has a 57% chance of scoring the first goal.

We can then compare our own research to the 1st To Score Odds – and form our own opinion of which team has the best chance of scoring the first goal.

Having an understanding of which team will score the first goal is obviously going to make us a better First Goalscorer bettor.

Strategies For Anytime Goal Scorer Betting

When we are looking at NHL anytime goal scorer options, one stat provided by sportsbooks that could be of interest to us is a player’s Shots on Goals total. 

If a player is expected to have a lot of shots on goal, especially in comparison to his teammates and opponents, that might be a player we want to identify as a potential goalscorer.

Something else that might be of interest is getting an understanding of how teams are performing on special teams. (power play and penalty kill)

John Tavares and Auston Matthews are two prolific goalscorers on the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, if they are playing on the road in New Jersey and the Devils penalty kill has been performing exceptionally well of late, we might not be in such a hurry to bet on either Matthews or Tavares in this situation.

2021 NHL Goal-Scoring Leaders

PlayerTotal GoalsGames Played
Auston Matthews6073
Leon Draisaitl5580
Chris Kreider5281
Alex Ovechkin5077
Kyle Connor4779
Kirill Kaprizov4781
Connor McDavid4480
Matt Duchesne4378
Filip Forsberg4269
Elias Lindholm4282
Matthew Tkachuk4281
Steven Stamkos4282

Always Shop Around

For many of us who enjoy sports betting, we try to set personal profit goals for the different sports or types of bets we make.

Whether you are an experienced or novice bettor, your greatest edge against the sportsbooks is your ability to shop around for your Best Odds.

On a single wager, it may not seem like a big deal to try and shop around to find odds that payout at 10% or 15% better.

However, over the course of weeks, and months, as our winning bets add up, oftentimes the difference between profitability or not is whether someone shopped around for their Best Odds.

Studies and stats will show that simply by giving yourself several different odds to choose from, you can increase your overall ROI by more than 20%.

Looking for more stats? Check out NBA first basket stats for betting.

Author

About the author

Malcolm loves to watch all kinds of different sports. He also writes about them.