Top 4 NHL Picks & Predictions: Saturday (10/24)

The 2026-27 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, and we have 12 more games on tap, including a pair of matinee contests. We’ll focus on the evening slate of games, including the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators on NHL Network at 7:00 p.m. ET. In last week’s column, we were stuck in neutral again, going 2-2 (50.0%, +8), so that’s 7-5 (58.3%, +212) through the first three weekends. The good news is that we haven’t had any losing weekends yet. Below are our top NHL picks & predictions for Saturday, October 24th.

Saturday's Best NHL Picks & Predictions

Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook | All bets are for 1 unit

New York Rangers (+106) at Ottawa Senators (-128) | O/U 6.5 (+112/-138) 

The Rangers (7-4-1) and the Senators (7-4-0) meet at Canadian Tire Centre in Canada’s capital city. The Rangers have been fantastic at home so far, but are just 1-4-1 on the road. The Senators have been pretty good everywhere, and they’re 4-2-0 at home so far.

New York is coming off a wild 5-4 loss at Toronto in an Original Six battle, as the Leafs cooled off young goaltender Dylan Garand. The Rangers are 1-2-1 in the past four games, and the Over is 3-1 in that span.

Ottawa is coming off a 6-2 loss at home against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night, as it just doesn’t fare well in games with no rest. The Senators are 0-3 in three games this season when playing the second end of a back-to-back with No. 2 goaltender Samuel Ersson in the crease. Regular starter Linus Ullmark will be back in there on Saturday. He was the goaltender of record, as the Sens weathered the storm against Brady Tkachuk and the visiting Florida Panthers on Wednesday, winning 5-1. The Over has cashed in back-to-back games for the Sens, going 3-1 in the past four outings at home.

The Senators won two of three meetings last season, with the road team winning each of the games. The Over is 3-1 in the past four meetings in the series, too.

Despite the fact the home team dominated last season, we’ll back the Senators as slight favorites, and we’ll go high on the total, especially at the very tempting plus-money price.

Picks: Senators Moneyline (-128) & Over 6.5 Goals (+112) 

Vegas Golden Knights (-134) at Columbus Blue Jackets (+112) | O/U 6.5 (+106/-130) 

The Golden Knights (8-4-0) meet the Blue Jackets (3-5-0) at Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus. The Golden Knights have managed a 3-2-0 record on the road, while the Blue Jackets have managed a 3-3-0 record on home ice.

VGK is looking to rebound from a pair of very disappointing 6-2 loss at home to Tampa Bay, and at St. Louis on Thursday. Oddly enough, the past four games for Vegas have ended with a 6-2 score, with the Golden Knights winning the two previous games by that same score Oct. 15-17. And, five of the team’s past nine games have resulted in a 6-2 score, as it also beat Seattle on the road Oct. 6 by that same score.

The Golden Knights are 2-1-0 in three games against Eastern Conference teams, while the Over is a perfect 3-0 in those games.

For the Blue Jackets, they’re coming off a 6-2 loss at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs and old friend Kirill Marchenko, who scored a power-play goal in his first game back in C-Bus. The Leafs piled up four goals in the second period to pull away. CBJ is 1-4-0 in the past five games, and it has allowed 4.0 GPG in the five-game span. The Over has a 3-2 edge in that five-game run, too.

We’ll back the Golden Knights to get well at the expense of the skidding Blue Jackets, and let’s go high on the total, too.

Picks: Golden Knights Moneyline (-134) & Over 6.5 Goals (+106)