Bookmakers across the sportsbook marketplace don't see one consensus Stanley Cup favorite as the Florida Panthers gear up to attempt a very rare NHL three-peat.
The Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers are the co-favorites (+800) at ESPN BET, with the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Panthers a tier below at +900, and the Tampa Bay Lightning sporting +1000. However, no major American sportsbook has the same combination of solo or co-favorites, with Florida and Vegas taking the top billing at some shops.
"The way I look at it, there's no real clear cut, short favorite," DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN. "This year, it's more wide open at the top, and then you have a whole second tier of teams that are in that 20-to-40 range. There's another 10 teams there. Could the Stanley Cup winner come from there? Absolutely. But the top tier has eight teams that we believe will contend for the title."
The last preseason Stanley Cup favorite to win it all was Colorado (+600) in 2022.
The Panthers opened as one of the favorites to win the Cup immediately following their second straight championship. They were +600 solo favorites by mid-September following offseason contract extensions for Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett, and despite offseason surgery for superstar Matthew Tkachuk, who is expected back before the new year.
However, a training camp knee injury to captain Aleksander Barkov, which expects to keep him out for the entire regular season, if not longer, derailed Florida's Stanley Cup lines at most books: Several operations immediately dropped the team's championship odds, with ESPN BET briefly lengthening to +1000.
That said, the betting action on the Cats has remained robust, with ESPN BET reporting its most bets (17.1%) and handle (21.4%) backing them to three-peat, while BetMGM says its 13.8% handle is the second-highest in the market. Some bookmakers, like Karry Shreeve, head of hockey at Caesars Sportsbook, refused to even dethrone the Panthers as favorites, noting that Barkov and Tkachuk's injuries have more effect on the team's regular season-related odds.
"We're not ready to drop them in price significantly, at least for the Stanley Cup, just because I'm not convinced who's going to fill their spot [in the playoffs]," Shreeve told ESPN. "So long as Florida's getting into the playoffs again, as far as right now, not knowing anything else, they're still, to me, the favorite. Not by a lot, but still a favorite, and not a team we're willing to push out in price just yet."
Several sportsbooks, like DraftKings and ESPN BET, are instead high on the Hurricanes, even if bettors are backing them at a relatively low tickets and money clip.
"Carolina is one of the most consistently dominant teams we have seen in recent years, having recouped some talent over the summer as they look to make another deep run," ESPN BET senior director Adrian Horton said over email. "Patrons will likely have their postseason struggles in mind, but it took the Panthers at full steam to eliminate them. We fully expect Carolina to be back battling in the playoffs."
In the favorites tier, public bettors are more focused on the Avalanche, who have garnered the third-most handle at BetMGM and ESPN BET. Outside of the immediate favorites tier, patrons are largely keying in on the Toronto Maple Leafs (+1600), who have taken the most tickets and money at BetMGM.
