Calgary Flames NHL Hockey Betting Guidelines

The Calgary Flames are one of the seven teams in the National Hockey League, or NHL, that is based in Canada, where hockey is almost a religion in some places. That means their fanbase has always been a little more passionate, and now that there’s Flames betting involved, they’re even more dedicated.

On this page you’ll learn a little bit about the Flames and the NHL as a whole, but you’ll also learn about Flames odds and Flames betting, top sports betting sites and betting apps, and a whole lot more!

Calgary Flames Odds
	Flames odds to win Stanley Cup	N/A	N/A
	Flames odds to win Western Conference	N/A	N/A

• The Calgary Flames season has come to a close - odds are not available at the moment.

There are a lot of different aspects to sports betting, and NHL and Flames betting specifically, that you need to understand before you start spending your hard earned cash on your betting hunches. We’ll cover everything from Flames odds, to Flames betting markets, some of our favorite NHL betting tips and strategies, as well as some specific Flames projections.

As sports betting grows the number of new betting sites grows too, and so too do the offerings from those sportsbooks. Nowadays, there are not many statistics that you can’t find a bet on, so to help give you an idea of what you’ll be dealing with on most sportsbooks we’ve broken down the most popular types of bets you can make on the Flames and the NHL in general.

• Moneyline → The moneyline is the most basic type of bet you can make: it’s a simple wager on which team you think will win the game. Because overtime is so common with the low-scoring game of hockey, moneyline markets will include overtime unless otherwise stated. For example, a moneyline bet on the Flames in a game against the Leafs would win no matter if the Flames take care of business in regulation or overtime. 
• Three-Way Moneyline → There is also the three-way moneyline bet, also known as the 60-minute line, which is a bet on the result of the game when regulation is up. With this type of bet, you can bet on either team to win or you can bet on the 60 minutes of regulation to end in a tie. A bet on a team to win on the three-way moneyline means you only win if they win in regulation, an overtime win for the team you bet on will result in a loss on your bet.
• Puckline → This is basically hockey’s version of the point spread for the NFL and NBA or the runline for the MLB. Instead of just betting on who will win, you’re also betting on the margin of victory. Because of the low-scoring nature of hockey the puckline is always set at 1.5, with the odds on the puckline changing rather than the actual puckline, which is the opposite of the process for the point spread. For example, if you bet on Calgary’s underdog puckline at +1.5, your bet will be a winner if the Flames win straight up or lose by one goal. On the flip side, if Calgary is the favorite and you bet on their -1.5 puckline, they need to win by two goals or more for your bet to be successful. 
• Totals → Rather than betting on the result of the game, you can also bet on how many goals will be scored. A totals bet, also known as an over/under, is a bet on how many goals the two teams will combine to score. The sportsbook will handicap the game and come up with a total, and the bettor’s job is to bet on whether they think that particular game will see over or under that number. For example, if a Flames-Canadiens game has a 5.5 goal total, a bet on the over will win if they score 6+ goals combined, a bet on the under will win if they go for 5 or fewer goals. 
• Futures → If you want to bet on the big picture, this is the type of Flames betting you should be doing. Instead of betting on the results of one game, you can bet on the results of an entire season or playoff series. These are long term bets that you can make before the season/series and sometimes even during the season/series. Examples include a bet on who will win that year’s Stanley Cup, which players will win the various end of year individual awards, how many points a team will amass during the regular season, who will win a playoff series and in how many games, how many goals a player will score in a season, and much more.
• Player Props → One of the betting markets that has grown enormously in popularity in recent years, the player prop allows you to focus on the performance of a single player in one statistical category rather than handicapping an entire team or game. You can bet on whether a player will score or get an assist in a particular game, how many shots and/or shots on targets they’ll have, how many saves a goalie might have, or if they’ll earn a shutout during the game.
• Parlays → Another massively popular way to bet is with parlays, which allow bettors to envision massive payouts based on enormous odds. Unfortunately, sportsbooks push parlays so much because it’s where they make their most money. It may seem easy to combine a few seemingly sure things into a parlay to boost your odds and payout, but it’s always going to be a lot tougher to predict four different outcomes rather than one. Basically, you’re rolling several bets, called legs, into a single bet, which only wins and pays out on those big odds if every leg wins.

Now, it’s time to look at Calgary Flames betting odds and how they affect your success. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Flames betting lines are arguably the most important part of betting because not only do they communicate the implied probability of a bet being successful, they also transmit the potential payout on each Flames betting market and prop.

Understanding odds is one of the first things to get done when learning how to bet on Flames games, and in North America, odds are generally displayed in the American style. American odds are displayed with either a “-” or a “+” next to a number, and the distinction between the two is crucial. 

When you see a “-” next to a betting market, that means that team is the favorite, or if it’s a prop, the “-” means that prop is more likely to happen than not. The number next to the “-” also refers to how much money you need to bet to win $100. Therefore, the larger the number next to the “-” the lower your payout and the higher your implied probability of winning the bet.

Conversely, the “+” means that a team is the underdog, or if it’s a prop, that the prop is more likely not to happen. The number next to the “+” also refers to how much money you stand to win on a $100 bet. So, the larger the number next to the “+” the higher your payout and the lower your implied probability of winning the bet.

For example, say you’re betting on the odds for the Flames to win the Cup and they’re sitting at +800 before the season starts, that means that a $100 bet would net you $800 in profit. You don’t have to bet in increments of $100, but the payout is scaled proportionally to a $100 bet. If, say, the Flames turn out to be a lot better than people thought, their odds to win the Stanley Cup will shorten to, say, -150, meaning they’re now favorites and a $150 bet on them would net you $100.

If you’re betting on player props, you might see a betting market like “Tyler Toffoli (Anytime) - +300.” Anytime generally refers to an anytime goalscorer market, so if Toffoli scores at any point in the game (other than in a shootout) a bettor would be set to win $300 on a $100 bet.

Betting on a single game is pretty simple, as the “-” denotes the favorite and the “+” denotes the underdog for that matchup. In rarer cases the teams will be so evenly matched that they both have the “-” and in that case the team with the larger number next to the “-” would be the favorite.

For the puckline, you’ll always see -1.5 next to the favorite and +1.5 next to the underdog. For example, you might see a betting line that goes “Calgary Flames -1.5: +200.” This means that if the Flames win by 2+ goals you win $200 on a $100 bet. While the Flames are the favorites to win here, they are not favorites to cover the puck line, meaning the sportsbooks are expecting a Calgary win, but not by more than one goal.

While the 2022-23 NHL campaign has technically concluded and the Vegas Golden Knights have been crowned the champions, they still have yet to hand out the end of year individual awards. The trophy ceremony for these awards will take place on June 26th in Nashville. With that in mind, it’s worth taking a look at the Flames Vegas odds for the main trophies.

• Hart Trophy → The NHL’s Most Valuable Player award, the Flames are unlikely to factor into this award in 2023. Tyler Toffoli was Calgary’s top scorer and he was only able to amass 73 points. Meanwhile, Edmonton Oilers’ phenom, forward Connor McDavid, just had a historic 153-point season, so he’s pretty much a shoo-in for this trophy.
• Vezina Trophy → This trophy is awarded to the goalie judged to have been the best in the NHL that season. The Flames basically have no chance in this category, as their best netminder, Jacob Markstrom, struggled this season, putting up mediocre numbers in the win, GAA, and save percentage categories.
• Norris Trophy → Awarded annually to the best defenseman throughout the NHL’s regular season. The Flames are unlikely to make any noise for this award either. While their top pairing, Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin, both had pretty good seasons, they weren’t playing to nearly the level that’s required to get into the conversation for this coveted award.
• Jack Adams Award → This is the award given to the man judged to have done the best and most impressive coaching job in the NHL that year. This is usually reserved for the coach of the team that wins the President’s Trophy or a team that saw a massive turnaround from the previous season. Darryl Sutter actually won this award for the Flames in 2022 after an impressive showing, but this season was a disappointment, and Sutter and the Flames parted ways on May 1st. 
• Rocket Richard Trophy → The other awards we broke down here are all based on voting and opinion, whereas the Rocket Richard Trophy is all about cold hard numbers: it’s awarded to the man who scored the most goals in the league that season. Toffoli led the way for the Flames with 34, but McDavid nearly doubled that number, netting a ridiculous 64 goals during the season.

Now that the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals are over, we can look ahead to next season and the outright odds to win next year’s championship. After a disappointing campaign in 2022-23 that ended without a playoff berth and the firing of their head coach, it’s not surprising that sportsbooks are not high on the Flames for next year.

They are in the top half of the odds table, sitting 13th with +2,400 odds to win the next Stanley Cup, but with how much needs to be done to improve this team, those long shot odds should not be touched until they make a significant move in the right direction.

Now that you know everything you need to know about Flames odds and Flames betting markets, we can take a step further and look at some tried and true strategies we’ve used with success in the past.

• Make The Most Of Flames Betting Odds → If you want to find the most value on your bets, the smart thing to do is get a little rotation of reliable sportsbooks that you can check whenever you’re making a bet. This is called shopping lines, because each sportsbook likely has slightly different odds for each market, so by shopping, you can pinpoint which one is offering the most value on the bet you want to make and therefore boost your potential payouts.
• Find The Best Flames Welcome Bonus → Sports betting bonuses are a great way to set you up for success, because you’re basically getting free money. Most sportsbooks will have welcome bonuses that match your first deposit, sometimes all the way up to $1,000. Make sure when you’re surfing around different sportsbooks you take note of which welcome bonuses are the most profitable for you.
• Travel Schedules → The NHL season is a hectic time considering how far teams have to travel to meet one another. For example, if the Flames had two days of rest before a home game against the Canadiens, who just played the day before and then had to fly cross country, the Flames will be at something of an advantage, which adds value to a Flames bet.
• Stay Dialed In On Updates → If you stay up to date on roster and player news, you have the chance to make a bet on a team before markets can adjust and limit the value. For example, if you read or hear that a team’s starting goalie is unexpectedly unavailable for a game, you can hop on the opponent’s moneyline before the sportsbook can adjust the odds with the backup goalie in there.

While it’s important to understand the betting aspects to sports betting, just as important is the actual sports side. You’ve got to have a strong grasp on how the game works to have success betting on it. The NHL uses point based standings, with teams earning two points for a win and one for an overtime loss. The NHL is made up of 32 teams, 16 in the Western Conference, and 16 in the Eastern Conference.

In the Eastern Conference, those 16 teams are divided into two divisions of eight teams, the Atlantic and the Metropolitan, while the Western Conference teams are divided into the Central and Pacific Divisions, the latter of which is the Calgary Flames’ division. The Vegas Golden Knights, Edmonton Oilers, L.A. Kings, Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks also compete in the Pacific Division with the Flames.

NHL Playoffs Format

The NHL employs a pretty standard bracket format for their end of season playoff tournament. The top eight teams in each conference as determined by point total make it to the playoffs, with the strongest playing the weakest in each conference, the second-strongest playing the second-weakest, and so on and so forth.

Teams play in best-of-seven series where the first to four wins advances to the next round. Teams need to go through and win three best-of-seven series to emerge in the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, which see the last remaining teams from each conference meeting in one final best-of-seven to determine the league’s champions.

Choosing the right sportsbook for your needs and preferences is essential to having a positive betting experience. With the explosion of popularity that sports betting has seen in recent years, it can be overwhelming to go through and look at all the different options yourself, so we’ve found what we believe to be the top three Flames betting sites along with quick sportsbook reviews for each one.

To help give you a better idea of what might be the features and aspects of a sportsbook that mean the most to you, we’ve quickly explained some of the most common sportsbook features that could sway your opinion of various Canadian sports betting sites.

• Live Betting → In this day and age of convenience, one of the most popular features sportsbooks have to make sure they include in their offerings is live betting. This allows bettors to make bets on the action after the action has already started, allowing you to do a lot of different things from hedging or doubling down on a previous bet to playing on a gut feeling after watching a bit of a matchup.
• Live Streaming → Though this is not nearly as common as live betting, live streaming is still a sought after aspect of many sportsbooks. While most sportsbooks that offer live streaming only have it for smaller leagues or fringe sports, there are some that actually offer live streams of UFC, PGA, and other more popular leagues. However, these streams are often triggered only when you make a bet of a certain amount.
• Early Cash Out → This feature has become so popular that it’s starting to seem like a prerequisite for all online betting sites. This feature allows bettors to cash out a portion of their potential payout before the action is over. This allows bettors whose bets are looking like losers to get out with a piece of their stake and on the flip side allows people whose bets are winning to play it safe and ensure they win something.
• Same Game Parlay → This is probably one of the most rare features because many leading sportsbooks still aren’t offering same game parlays. This allows you to make several selections on one game and roll them into a single bet.

Every bettor is different, bringing with them their own unique set of sportsbook expectations and preferences, so to help you figure out what kind of bettor you are and what kind of sportsbook you like, we’ve broken down some of the top factors in how we rank betting sites.

• NHL Coverage → If you’re focused on Flames betting and the NHL in general for the most part, the biggest aspect of your sportsbook decision is how well they cover the NHL. An ideal sportsbook would have a treasure trove of NHL betting markets spanning all of the different types from standard, to props, to futures, and specials. You also want to make sure you shop around to make sure that the sportsbook you’re choosing is consistently offering competitive Flames odds and NHL lines.
• Banking Preferences → This is a factor that a lot of people overlook, and it ends up costing them a lot of money in the end. Not every sportsbook is compatible with every banking method, so you need to check if your preferred banking methods are accepted by a sportsbook before anything else. You also want to ensure that you’re avoiding any sportsbook that is going to charge you fees on withdrawals or deposits.
• NHL Bonuses → A telltale sign of a good NHL sportsbook is how often they’re handing out betting offers and betting promotions related specifically to the NHL and the Calgary Flames. Top sportsbooks who have specialties in specific sports will usually offer bonuses and promotions relatively often, usually in the form of consistent small free bets or odds boosts on selected NHL betting markets on a regular basis.
• Additional Features → After that, it’s really up to each bettor’s preferences. If you really enjoy live betting, you definitely want to make sure you find a sportsbook that has a very well-made and speedy live betting interface. If you like streaming what you’re betting on, put live streaming on the list of top priorities. Other features you might want to consider before committing to a sportsbook include casino offerings, specials bets for politics and entertainment, same game parlays, and early cash out.

Once you know what kind of sportsbook you want and you take the time to select the ones that work best for you, it’s time to head over to your sports betting site and get started! To help walk you through the generic process of creating a betting account, we’ve put together this quick little step by step guide.

• First thing you have to do is locate the sign up or register button, give it a click, and then fill out all of the relevant personal information.
• Next up, you need to connect your banking method to your betting account so you can deposit some funds to wager with.
• Once you’ve put a reasonable amount of money into your account, you’re ready to get out there and put all of your good research into action.
• Find the betting market that is offering the most value based on your knowledge and research and place your bet.
• Watch the action and wait for your winnings to start rolling in!

The Calgary Flames are one of the seven Canadian teams in the NHL, having been founded in 1972. They reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 1986, losing in five games to the mighty Montreal Canadiens. Three years later, in 1989, they won their one and only Stanley Cup, exacting revenge on the Canadiens in six games in the last all-Canadian Stanley Cup Final.

The Flames have made the playoffs 25 times since they were founded, which amounts to about half of their campaigns ending in the postseason. They’ve made the playoffs in five of the last nine seasons and won the Pacific Division twice in the last half-decade. However, they have not been able to replicate the success they experienced in the late 1980s.

Top Calgary Flames Players

Without a doubt, the Calgary Flames greatest player of all-time is forward Jarome Iginla. While it was the Dallas Stars that actually drafted Iginla, he never played for them. He debuted with the Flames in 1996 and stayed with the team through thick and thin until 2013 after 18 years of duty. During his time in Calgary, Iginla set the franchise records for games played, points, and goals, all of which remain standing.

Nowadays the Flames don’t have a talisman like Iginla, but they have some solid talent on the roster nonetheless. Winger Tyler Toffoli led the team with 73 points and 34 goals, which is solid if not overly impressive output. He had a lot of help, however, as all four Flames centers, Elias Lindholm, Nazem Kadri, Mikael Backlund, and Jonathan Huberdeau also finished with 55+ points. Between the pipes Calgary might be looking for some help elsewhere after a mediocre year from Jacob Markstrom.

Now that we’ve gone through basically everything there is to know about the Calgary Flames, Flames betting, Flames odds, top NHL betting sites, and the NHL as a whole, it’s time for the all important FAQ section, where we fill in all the blanks and ensure we’ve covered all of our bases here.