Blue Jackets vs Wild Best Pick, Prediction and Odds

Bet the Blue Jackets at +145. Our number gives Columbus 46.3% in Minnesota; the price gives them 39.1%.

The Minnesota Wild are -175 and the Columbus Blue Jackets +145 at DraftKings. With the margin out, that is 60.9% for Minnesota and 39.1% for Columbus. The Wild are the right favourite. The price makes them a bigger one than last season’s numbers do, by 7.2 points.

How 46.3% is reached

Our home win chance is the average of two 2025-26 rates: the home team’s win rate in its own arena and the visitor’s loss rate on the road. Overtime and shootout wins count as wins. Games at a neutral site are in neither half, and neither team had one.

The Wild went 23-10-8 at Grand Casino Arena: 23 wins, 10 regulation losses and 8 after regulation, a 56.1% home win rate over 41 games. The Blue Jackets went 20-17-4 on the road and lost 21 of 41, a 51.2% road loss rate. The midpoint is 53.7% for Minnesota, which leaves 46.3% for Columbus.

The margin is the extra a book builds into both prices so the pair comes to more than 100%. At -175 and +145 they come to 104.5%. Taken out, the Wild are 60.9% and the Blue Jackets 39.1%.

Both halves are from 2025-26. This season is not in the figures. Minnesota is 5-2-1 and 3-0 at home, and beat St. Louis 5-4 at home on Thursday, so the Wild come in on two days off. Columbus is 2-3-0 and hosts the Rangers on Saturday night, so this is its second game in two days.

Minnesota at home, Columbus on the road

At home the Wild scored 3.17 a game and allowed 2.80, a surplus of 0.37. The Blue Jackets on the road scored 2.88 and allowed 3.10, a deficit of 0.22. Neither of those halves is lopsided, and that is the point: the Wild were a good home team and Columbus a near-even road team, which is not what -175 describes.

The halves the method leaves out: Columbus at home went 20-13-8, a 48.8% win rate, scoring 3.29 and allowing 3.07. Minnesota on the road went 23-14-4, 56.1%, scoring 3.46 and allowing 3.05. The Wild won as often away as at home.

Over the full season the Wild were the better team. They finished 46-24-12 with 104 points and outscored opponents by 32, then beat Dallas in six games before losing to Colorado in five. The Blue Jackets finished 40-30-12 with 92 points, scored exactly as many as they allowed, and did not make the playoffs.

The close games were nearer than the standings. The Wild went 20-5-12 in one-goal games and won 15 of the 27 that went past regulation. Columbus went 18-13-12 in one-goal games and won 12 of its 24 past 60 minutes.

The two split their meetings in 2025-26. Columbus won 7-4 in Minnesota on 11 October, and that game is in our number: one of the Wild’s 41 home games and one of the Blue Jackets’ 41 road games. The Wild’s 5-2 win in Columbus on 18 December is in neither half.

Pick: Blue Jackets +145

Bet the Blue Jackets on the moneyline at +145. The gap is 7.2 points toward Columbus, against a threshold of 5.

The line read Wild -175 and Blue Jackets +145 on 17 October 2026 at 15:38 UTC, DraftKings via ESPN, unchanged from where it opened.

What kills the bet

A shorter Columbus price. At +143 or longer the Blue Jackets are a bet whatever Minnesota is priced at; against -175 they still clear the bar at +125.

For the Wild to become the bet, they would have to be +106 or longer, an underdog. They are -175.

No goalie is on either team’s injury list (ESPN, read 17 October 2026, 15:39 UTC), so the method stands as it is. Minnesota lists Kirill Kaprizov as day-to-day and Jared Spurgeon as out; Columbus lists nobody. Who starts in goal is not on ESPN’s game page: Jesper Wallstedt has played seven of the Wild’s eight games this season, and Jet Greaves four of Columbus’s five. Check the lineups before you bet.

An underdog at +145 loses more often than it wins, on our number as well as the book’s. The case is that the price pays more than the risk warrants.

The total and the puck line

The total is 6.5, over +105 and under -125. The Wild’s games went over 6.5 in 42 of 82, the Blue Jackets’ in 37 of 82. Minnesota’s home games averaged 5.97 goals, Columbus’s road games 5.98.

That is 51.2% and 45.1%, an average of 48.2% for the over. With the margin removed the over is priced at 46.8% and the under at 53.2%, so our number leans to the over by less than 2 points. Pass on the total.

The puck line points the same way as the pick. Minnesota is -1.5 at +136 and Columbus +1.5 at -162, which is 40.7% and 59.3% without the margin. The Wild won by two goals or more in 26 of 82 games, and the Blue Jackets lost by two or more in 17 of 82. Averaged, Minnesota -1.5 lands 26.2% of the time against 40.7% priced, a gap of 14.4 points toward Blue Jackets +1.5 at -162. Our method bets the moneyline only, so this is a lean. One bet on this game: the Blue Jackets at +145.

Blue Jackets at Wild, Sunday 18 October, 6:00 PM ET, Grand Casino Arena. Prices: DraftKings via ESPN, read 17 October 2026, 15:38 UTC. Results: ESPN, 2025-26 regular season and playoffs; 2026-27 games and goalie appearances from ESPN’s team schedules and game page, read 17 October 2026. Injury list: ESPN, read 17 October 2026, 15:39 UTC.