No Clear Consensus: The Race for the Stanley Cup Intensifies
The sports betting market doesn’t show a clear favorite for the next Stanley Cup, while the Florida Panthers prepare to attempt a historic milestone in the NHL: the three-peat. The Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche, and Edmonton Oilers share the favoritism (+800) on ESPN BET. They are closely followed by the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, and the Panthers themselves (+900), with the Tampa Bay Lightning at +1000.The last preseason favorite to win the Stanley Cup were the Colorado (+600) in the 2021-22 season. The Panthers began as one of the favorites after their second consecutive championship. They were listed as favorites at +600 in mid-September, following contract extensions for Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, and Sam Bennett, despite the offseason surgery of superstar Matthew Tkachuk, who is expected to return before the end of the year. However, a knee injury in training camp to captain Aleksander Barkov, who is expected to be out for the entire regular season, if not longer, affected the Panthers’ odds at most sportsbooks. Several operations immediately reduced the team’s championship odds, reaching +1000 on ESPN BET. Despite this, the action on the Panthers has remained solid, with ESPN BET reporting the most bets (17.1%) and volume (21.4%) backing them for the three-peat, while BetMGM says that 13.8% of the team’s volume is the second highest in the market. Some bookmakers, like Karry Shreeve, head of hockey at Caesars Sportsbook, even refused to dethrone the Panthers as favorites, noting that Barkov and Tkachuk’s injuries have more effect on the team’s regular season odds.This year, the competition at the top is more open, and there’s a second group of teams in the 20-40 range. Could the Stanley Cup winner come from there? Absolutely. But the first tier has eight teams that we believe will compete for the title.
Johnny Avello, DraftKings Sportsbook director
Several betting sites, including DraftKings and ESPN BET, favor the Hurricanes, despite bettors backing them at a relatively low rate in terms of ticket count and money wagered.We are not ready to lower their price significantly, at least for the Stanley Cup, simply because I’m not convinced who’s going to take their place [in the playoffs]. As long as Florida makes the playoffs again, for now, without knowing anything else, they are still, for me, the favorites. Not by much, but they are still favorites, and not a team we are willing to increase the price for at the moment.
Karry Shreeve, head of hockey at Caesars Sportsbook
In the favorites group, bettors are focusing more on the Avalanche, who have accumulated the third-highest volume on BetMGM and ESPN BET. Beyond the first tier, many bettors are focusing on the Toronto Maple Leafs (+1600), who have received the most tickets and money on BetMGM.Carolina is one of the most consistently dominant teams we’ve seen in recent years, having regained some talent over the summer as they look to make another deep run. Bettors will likely have their postseason struggles in mind, but it took the Panthers at full throttle to eliminate them. We fully expect Carolina to contend in the playoffs again.
Adrian Horton, Senior Director at ESPN BET
