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The Edmonton Oilers are the bookies’ preseason favourites to win the Stanley Cup.
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After a busy offseason, the New Jersey Devils have entered the race atop the outright odds.
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Three Canadian teams are among the favourites for the Cup.
After a historic Game 7 in the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals, the Florida Panthers beat back a resurgent Edmonton Oilers to take their first crown in franchise history.
Connor McDavid was named the MVP, but it’ll be little consolation for missing out on the Cup and Canada entering its fourth decade without the NHL’s top prize coming north of the border.
With a new season comes renewed hope for every team that finished in the playoff picture last year, and a bunch more upstarts who fared well in the free agency. These are the teams leading in the Stanley Cup odds.
Edmonton Oilers
Missing out on the Stanley Cup by a single goal, it makes sense that the Edmonton Oilers return as the ice hockey betting favourites to go that one little step further in 2024/25.
At 9.00, the Oilers are only a point ahead of the next team, and that’ll predominantly be down to how difficult it is to go to the Stanley Cup Finals in successive seasons – after all, the NHL postseason is particularly gruelling.
Still, from a talent standpoint, the Oilers have it all, and will be hoping for another step forward from their young goaltender, Stuart Skinner, who earned the kind of experience needed to become a Cup-winning netminder.
If fatigue is managed well, the Oilers will be looking for a much better entry into the playoffs, too. They began last season 2-9-1 under Jay Woodcroft, switched to Kris Knoblauch, and went 49-27-6 to finish second in the division.
Under Knoblauch from the get-go and with the knowledge that they can make it to the Finals, the Oilers should be a real force in the Western Conference and will have an eye on the Presidents’ Trophy if injuries don’t pile up.
New Jersey Devils
Finishing 23rd in the overall standings last season, the New Jersey Devils front office decided to become major players in the free agency, grabbing Brett Pesce, Stefan Noesen, and Brenden Dillon.
The Devils got much better defensively and became more physically imposing. Throw in that they hope for healthier years from star players like Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Timo Meier, and there’s a good team here.
In the preseason betting, New Jersey come in as the second-favourites to win the Stanley Cup, which seems like a bit of a stretch. The odds essentially argue that the new-look Devils are better than all other Eastern Conference teams.
On paper, they do now look good enough to make it to the playoffs, but they are still a team that’s been to the playoffs once in the last six seasons – which wasn’t even last season.
Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars have consistently been a force in the Western Conference for the last five seasons. In 2019/20, they went to the Finals, missed the playoffs the next season, and then went out in the First Round in 2021/22.
In both 2022/23 and 2023/24, the Stars went all the way to the Conference Finals. They’ve been the gatekeepers to the Finals, and now, with even more experience granted to their young stars, they could go all the way.
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin continue to offer unparalleled leadership to the team, being two of the eight Stars players to break the 20-goal mark last season.
Crucially, the defence is top-notch and deep with talent, and that stands before the 25-year-old Jake Oettinger, who, despite his age, is already considered to be one of the NHL’s best goalies, which makes a big difference.
Florida Panthers
The reigning champions return with much of the same next season, with the core intact thanks to the franchise paying center Sam Reinhart $8.625 million per year over a deal that runs to 2032.
Still, the wear and tear of a Stanley Cup run is immense, and for the Panthers, they basically had to do it two years running. They got rather lucky with injuries last season, but most expect them to endure more struggles in the 2024/25 NHL season.
Even with a tired roster, there’s enough here to make it back to the playoffs – especially if Sergei Bobrovsky turns up again. So, the Panthers can’t be counted out, but history suggests that Florida at least won’t return to the Finals.
The Pittsburgh Penguins went to back-to-back Finals in 2008 and 2009, as well as in 2015 and 2016, winning three of the four. In both of the following seasons, the Pens went to the playoffs but bowed out in the first or second round.
Dark Horse Contenders
As the history of Stanley Cup winners shows, it’s a very competitive league, and a lot of the time, the preseason favourites don’t end up hoisting the massive trophy.
Dark horse contenders have as much of a shot at the crown as the favourites: they just need to end the season well, get off to a good start in the postseason, and hope to ride a hot-handed goalie.
Those most likely to boast a playoffs-ready, homed-in goaltender among the dark horses are the Vancouver Canucks (Thatcher Demko), Colorado Avalanche (Alexandar Georgiev), and New York Rangers (Igor Shesterkin).
All three of these teams are also loaded on the lines in front of the goalies, boasting tremendous depth for their forwards and blueliners, but of the three, it’d be the Rangers that get the marginal nod for now.
Then, there are the ever-favoured Toronto Maple Leafs.
Arguably, the roster has continued to improve in the areas of need over the last few seasons while still maintaining the team’s high-calibre core of Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly.
What the Buds have lacked since losing Frederick Andersen in 2021, however, is a reliable and playoffs-ready goaltender. This has, in part, resulted in the team bowing out in their first series in seven of the last eight seasons.
The thinking is that this can’t continue to happen with such talented players on the roster, but unless Joseph Woll surprises everyone with elite-tier play this season, a deep run seems unlikely for Toronto.
While there are also trade deadline antics and major injuries to consider once the season gets underway, with the 2024/25 NHL season still just on the horizon, these are the bookmaker’s Stanley Cup favourites.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
