The 2024-25 NHL regular season is ready to begin, but it’s never too soon to start looking ahead at potential Stanley Cup champions: the heavy betting favorites, the long shots and teams that might be flying under the radar.
The Edmonton Oilers, led by their superstar duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, are the early Stanley Cup favorites (+800) on BetMGM after their run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in June.
It was a big breakthrough year for the Oilers after finding limited playoff success in the early part of the McDavid-Draisaitl era, and they only added to their offense this offseason by signing Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson in free agency. Goal-scoring will not be a problem, but even with their status as preseason favorites and with a dominant offense, they have some of the biggest flaws of any top contender. Their defense is severely limited and flawed beyond the top duo of Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm, while there is no guarantee starting goalie Stuart Skinner will be able to duplicate his miracle postseason run. If one of Bouchard or Ekholm gets injured, the rest of the defense struggles or Skinner takes a big step backward, things could unravel pretty quickly come playoff time.
The defending champion Florida Panthers (+900) are right behind the Oilers and are coming off a three-year run that has seen them win a Presidents’ Trophy (2022), lose the Stanley Cup Final (2023) and win it all (2024). On paper, the Panthers remain as good as any team in the NHL, with almost no weaknesses. They can score, they can defend, and they have excellent goaltending. You have to really reach to find a potential flaw here, and it might simply be the fatigue factor. No matter how good your team is, it is really, really difficult to make three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final. But in terms of talent? This team is as good as it gets.
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2025 Stanley Cup winner odds
All odds from BetMGM.
The Colorado Avalanche (+1100), Dallas Stars (+1100) and the New Jersey Devils (+1100) round out the top five.
Colorado’s top-end talent is as good as any team in the league with Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar leading the way, but it does have some depth concerns, especially given the uncertainty surrounding forwards Gabriel Landeskog (who missed the past two seasons due to knee injuries) and Valeri Nichushkin (who is serving a suspension until at least November).
Dallas was one of the best teams in the league a year ago and has a steady stream of young talent flowing through its organization, but it did lose a lot this offseason with Joe Pavelski retiring and Chris Tanev leaving in free agency.
The Devils are the truly fascinating one here. They were a massive disappointment in 2023-24, missing the playoffs entirely despite preseason Stanley Cup expectations. Injuries to several key players (Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Dougie Hamilton, Timo Meier) played a big role, as did a complete lack of goaltending. Injuries come down at least partially to luck, but the Devils made a huge move this offseason to bolster their goaltending by getting Jacob Markstrom from Calgary and also added Brett Pesce on defense. As long as they are healthy and Markstrom plays reasonably well, they should be a legitimate contender.
Value bets?
The Nashville Predators (+1600) and Vancouver Canucks (+2200) could be outstanding value bets.
The Predators were already a playoff team a year ago (a very good one) and made three major splash additions this offseason with the signings of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei — two 40-goal scorers and a strong second-pairing defender, all joining a playoff team.
Vancouver was the top team in the Pacific Division and has three outstanding players at the top of its lineup (Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller), but a lot of its success will come down to how healthy starting goalie Thatcher Demko is.
Player awards
As for individual player bets, McDavid is a heavy favorite for both the MVP (+150) and scoring title (-155) by a substantial margin. As long as he stays healthy enough to get into the ballpark of 82 games, he will be in the running for both. He has won three of the past four scoring titles and has been in the top five of MVP voting eight years in a row. That includes four consecutive years in the top three, with two wins during that time.
Jack Hughes (+1100) and New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin (+4000) are also great options to consider, given how good their teams should be.
Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin is the top favorite (+550) for the Vezina Trophy, just narrowly ahead of Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck (+600) and Boston’s Jeremy Swayman (+600). Swayman might be one to avoid at this point, given that he is in a contract dispute with the Bruins, has missed all of training camp and remains unsigned.
Philadelphia Flyers young phenom Matvei Michkov (+300), San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini (+450) and Dallas’ Logan Stankoven (+500) are the top favorites for the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year. Michkov and Celebrini (the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft) both have enormous potential but might have some growing pains in their first taste of NHL action. They are also going to be on bad teams. Stankoven has the bonus of already playing 43 games in the NHL (regular season and playoffs) and having a significantly better team around him.
(Photo of Connor McDavid: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
