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The Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers meet tonight for Opening Night of the 2026-27 NHL season. Puck drop is set for 10:00 p.m. EDT at Rogers Place in Edmonton, AB. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
The Oilers are favored at -305 on the moneyline, with the Canucks +245 to pull off the upset. The over/under is set at 6.5 (-115o / -105u).
Let's get into our Canucks vs. Oilers predictions and NHL picks.
Canucks vs. Oilers Prediction
- Picks: Oilers -1.5 | Vasily Podkolzin 1+ Points
Our Vancouver vs. Edmonton best bets are on Edmonton to cover the spread and Vasily Podkolzin points prop, with the best odds currently available at DraftKings. For all of your NHL bets, be sure to find the best lines by using our live NHL odds page.
Canucks vs Oilers Odds
| Canucks Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+1.5 -102 | 6.5 -115o / -105u | +245 |
| Oilers Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-1.5 -118 | 6.5 -115o / -105u | -305 |
- Canucks vs. Oilers puck line: Oilers -1.5 (-118), Canucks +1.5 (-102)
- Canucks vs. Oilers over/under: 6.5 (-115o / -105u)
- Canucks vs. Oilers moneyline: Canucks +245, Oilers -305
- Canucks vs. Oilers best bet: Oilers -1.5 | Vasily Podkolzin 1+ Points
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Canucks vs Oilers Preview
Vancouver Canucks Preview
One thing is for sure: the Canucks are in the opposite spot from the Oilers. Vancouver is in a full rebuild, and new head coach Manny Malhotra and GM Ryan Johnson couldn't ask for a cleaner slate.
The Canucks won five of their first seven games after the Quinn Hughes trade last season, but the bottom fell out from there. Vancouver went through stretches where they won just three of 25 games and dropped a franchise-record 11 straight, finishing 9-29-5 after the blockbuster. The result was a 25-49-8 record and a league-worst 58 points, last by a wide margin.
All three players acquired for Hughes are set to play pivotal roles to start this season. Marco Rossi and Liam Öhgren are slotted into the second line, while Zeev Buium, fresh off an eight-year, $75 million extension signed earlier this month, will anchor the top defensive pair alongside Filip Hronek.
Brendan Gallagher, Luke Schenn and Paul Cotter are solid additions aimed at raising the team's competitive floor after Vancouver finished last season with a 46.02% expected goal share, fourth-worst in the NHL according to Natural Stat Trick.
The theme of this season looks to be getting players back to form and building from there. Elias Pettersson has taken a big step back, combining for 96 points over the past two seasons after posting 102 and 89 in the two years before that.
Even amid last season's collapse, Rossi and Brock Boeser seemed to find something together, with Rossi putting up 20 points over his final 22 games and Boeser 22 points over his final 24. Rossi and Jake DeBrusk also add speed to the top six, and DeBrusk is especially important on the man advantage after tying for third in the NHL last season with 19 power-play goals.
Like Pettersson and Boeser, Thatcher Demko returning to form would be a massive lift. Injuries have limited him to just 43 games since he finished second in Vezina voting in 2023-24. He's still working his way back from a hip injury suffered last season, so Kevin Lankinen gets the start tonight. Lankinen had a rough year last season, posting a 3.70 GAA and -19.3 goals saved above expected.
All in all, there's nowhere to go but up for Vancouver, and the current roster and offseason moves are at least a start in that direction. Malhotra also knows the organization well, having led Abbotsford to the franchise's first Calder Cup two seasons ago.
Edmonton Oilers Preview
Every season, the same questions follow the Oilers. How will Edmonton deploy Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? Will they finally get reliable goaltending? And can the defense hold up well enough that it doesn't undercut an elite offense and power play?
Heading into tonight, at least one of those questions has an answer. Head coach Mike Babcock indicated that Vasily Podkolzin will start on the wing alongside McDavid and Draisaitl.
It's an interesting choice given what Zach Hyman has brought to that spot. You'd think it wouldn't matter much who plays next to two of the best players in the world, but over the last two seasons the gap between Hyman and everyone else on that line has been stark.
With Hyman, the trio has posted a monstrous 70% goal share and more than five goals for per 60 minutes. With anyone else, those numbers drop to a 48% goal share and 3.24 goals for per 60.
On the surface, the case for Podkolzin is easy to make. He shares many of Hyman's traits and doesn't need the puck on his stick to be effective. In theory, the move also strengthens the second line, with Hyman joining Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
That could give Edmonton the best of both worlds, keeping McDavid and Draisaitl together while still building a balanced top six. Whether to split up McDavid and Draisaitl is another topic altogether, and one I expect Edmonton to revisit many times this season. For now, time will tell how this version of the top six holds up.
In net, Tristan Jarry is the confirmed starter. He struggled after arriving from Pittsburgh last season, posting a 3.86 GAA and .857 save percentage across 19 appearances, with -4.1 goals saved above expected.
Frederik Andersen was acquired in the offseason but is still rehabbing and not yet ready to play. That leaves Edmonton's most intriguing goalie, Devon Levi, as the backup. Once viewed as Buffalo's goalie of the future, the 24-year-old still offers upside.
The Oilers acquired him along with a seventh-round pick in exchange for a third-rounder this offseason, and he's drawn some praise throughout camp and looked solid in preseason action, for whatever that's worth.
Between the goaltending and the question of what Babcock brings, the Oilers will be a fascinating team to follow this year. His resume speaks for itself, and by all accounts he was brought in to add hard coaching and toughness to push Edmonton to the next level.
For better or worse, I don't think he'll have any trouble establishing that culture, and I think it will do this team good. I like Edmonton's chances with him behind the bench in a Pacific Division that has been notably weak in recent years, though San Jose and Anaheim are intriguing to me.
Canucks vs. Oilers Prediction
This is about as lopsided as it gets on opening night. Edmonton opens the Babcock era with McDavid and Draisaitl together and an elite power play, while Vancouver is still at the start of a full rebuild after finishing last in the league.
With Demko sidelined, the Canucks turn to Lankinen, who struggled badly last season. Jarry remains a question mark for Edmonton, but he shouldn't need to steal this one. I expect the Oilers to win comfortably.
I'm also tailing our expert Nick Martin's pick, which he tracked in the Action App. As mentioned above, Babcock plans to start the season with Podkolzin on the top line alongside McDavid and Draisaitl.
Getting near plus money on the third piece of that line is a smart bet no matter how you frame it, especially against a Canucks team that gave up as much as it did last season. He brings a lot of what made Hyman so effective on that line, and I think it shows up early.
Best Bets: Oilers -1.5 (-118) | Vasily Podkolzin 1+ Points (-110)
