On October 7, the 2022/23 NHL season gets underway with the Global Series, seeing the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks battle it out in Prague, Czechia. However, neither of these sides are considered to be among the Stanley Cup favourites coming into the campaign.
As is often the case – if minimal changes occur during the offseason – the champions come in as the favourites, but as we know, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are particularly unpredictable.
Here, we’re having a look at the sport betting favourites for the Stanley Cup before the season begins, as well as the close contenders and some notable dark horses.
2023 Stanley Cup Odds
-
Favourites: Avalanche +400
-
Contenders: Maple Leafs +850, Panthers +900, Hurricanes +900, Lightning +1000
-
Dark Horses: Flames +1300, Oilers +1300, Rangers +1400
2023 Stanley Cup Favourites: Colorado Avalanche
After a good few years of build-up, the Colorado Avalanche finally broke through to win the Stanley Cup.
With such a talented core, the Avs were the top picks from the Western Conference and only validated this in each postseason series.
The offseason did take a toll, though. Out went André Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri, and Darcy Kuemper, among others, with Evan Rodrigues and Alexandar Georgiev brought in to try to fill the void.
Regardless, Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar, and Pavel Francouz – who performed well when Kuemper was down – all return for a run at a repeat, which is why they’re at +400 to win the Stanley Cup.
Stanley Cup 2023 Contenders
Leading the contenders’ class in the 2023 Stanley Cup odds is Toronto. Last season, the Maple Leafs impressed in the hyper competitive Atlantic Division, only trailing league-leading Florida by seven points.
However, for the sixth time in six seasons, the Buds failed to go past the first series of the playoffs. A lot of this has been put down to waiting for the talented young core to become postseason-ready, but there’s a limit.
Arguably, the Maple Leafs have a stronger roster of skaters than even the Avs, but goaltending is the big question mark this season. Can the Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov tandem finally propel them to the Cup?
Narrowly behind the +850 Maple Leafs, it’s the +900 Florida Panthers and +900 Carolina Hurricanes. The Panthers battered their way to the Presidents’ Trophy last season and featured in one of the biggest trades this offseason.
Florida traded its record-holder for games, assists, and points (Jonathan Huberdeau), underrated defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, a prospect, and a first-rounder to the Calgary Flames for a younger, also very talented winger, Matthew Tkachuk, in the hopes of adding more bite to their top-six.
While the move broke up the immense one-two punch of Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov, Tkachuk is younger, produces similar points, but adds the dynamic of a power forward. Arguably, his presence increases their NHL odds of winning the Stanley Cup.
Similarly, the Canes look to have re-tooled with the playoffs in mind. Carolina was forced to shed some scoring depth, kept its core intact, and added veterans Paul Stastny, Max Pacioretty, and Brent Burns.
The team’s still strong enough to land a divisional playoff spot, with the hope being that these three high-tier veterans will be able to pull the Canes past the second stage for the first time since 2019.
BREAKING — Matthew Tkachuk has been traded to the Florida Panthers, a source confirmed to @jprutherford.
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 23, 2022
He has also signed an eight-year contract extension worth $76 million. pic.twitter.com/MtziQmF7Qo
2023 Stanley Cup Dark Horses
At +1000, the Tampa Bay Lightning have drifted out to dark horses despite still boasting a formidable roster. With a world-class player in every position, the Bolts aren’t to be underestimated.
Still, the cap has begun to crunch on the back-to-back champions of 2020 and 2021, with Andrei Vasilevskiy, Victory Hedman, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov eating up half of the payroll.
So, out went Vladislav Namestnikov, Haydn Fleury, Jan Rutta, Ondrej Palat, and Ryan McDonagh, undoubtedly weakening the strength in depth that propelled Tampa Bay to the Cup.
A completely re-tooled Calgary Flames are considered to be among the dark horses in the Stanley Cup odds, too, at +1300.
Losing the equivalent of Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, and even the now-oft-injured Sean Monahan would cripple many teams, but the Flames landed Huberdeau, Weegar, and Nazem Kadri to stay afloat.
Fellow Canadian competitors Edmonton will hope to blaze beyond the +1300 odds. A lot relies on whether or not Jack Campbell can prove to be a viable starter, or if, perhaps, lanky prospect Stuart Skinner can breakout as the number-one.
Rounding off the dark horses, we have the New York Rangers at +1400. After what was seen as a lacklustre offseason in 2021, the Rangers flew to 110 points and the Conference Finals.
Over the summer, they added the versatile faceoff maestro Vincent Trocheck to create a formidable top-six, and will hope that Igor Shesterkin can put in another Vezina-worthy showing.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are notoriously unpredictable, but as it stands, the Colorado Avalanche are the clear favourites to win it all again.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 23rd September 2022
