The NHL season has reached its midway point, with the All-Star break taking place this week. Since there are no NHL games until Monday, now is a good time to revisit some futures and examine the best Stanley Cup odds and Hart Trophy contenders on DraftKings Sportsbook, especially the heavily favored Connor McDavid.
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Stanley Cup Odds Update: Champion and Conference Winners
As of now, the Eastern Conference has a clear lead on the West. Four of the top five shortest odds for Stanley Cup winner are in the East, and that conference has three teams — Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs — with at least 70 points in the standings. The West has none.
The leader to come out of the West is the Colorado Avalanche, the defending Cup champion that has spent much of the season coasting in the middle of the pack. The Avalanche are fourth in the Central, 9 points back of the division lead and far from a playoff lock. In second place is another disappointing team in the Edmonton Oilers. That team has the Hart Trophy favorite in Connor McDavid and a former winner in Leon Draisaitl, yet the Oilers are fourth in the Pacific Division and are also fighting tooth and nail just to grab a Wild Card spot.
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The Bruins have been easily the best team in the NHL through roughly 50 games, recording 83 points and winning over 76% of their games. As such, they are favorites to both come out of the East (+270) and win the Cup (+450). However, the Hurricanes are just behind them in the East odds at +400 despite being 7 points back in the standings.
Interestingly, Colorado is hanging around at the top of the Stanley Cup odds board at +600, just a tick and half below the Bruins. This is likely because no team in the West has emerged as a contender for the Avalanche’s throne, even though Colorado has been a mediocre team much of the year. But the Avs obviously need to make the playoffs first before they can defend their title, and that is far from a guarantee at this point.
With the West being so wide open, there is probably more value in picking a winner there than riding one of the top East teams to win the Cup. The Stars lead their division and have a fringe Hart Trophy contender in Jason Robertson, so they could be a decent pick to win the West at +600. However, it’s clear at this point that whoever emerges from that conference will likely be massive underdogs to the East champ, whether it be the favored Bruins, the Hurricanes or the field.
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NHL Hart Trophy Odds Update
This race seems all but over. McDavid has not 100% slammed the door on David Pastrnak, but at this point everyone but two-time winner McDavid is a complete long shot. He leads the points race by 16 (second place is his teammate Draisaitl, for the record) and the goals race by three (Pastrnak second), and he is only two assists back of Nikita Kucherov for the lead in that category.
The one thing working somewhat in Pastrnak’s favor as the No. 2 guy on the odds board is Boston completely dwarfing Edmonton’s record at the moment. The Oilers, despite McDavid’s and Draisaitl’s performances, have just 60 points and sit fourth in the Pacific Division, whereas the Bruins, as mentioned before, are Cup favorites, leading the NHL in points.
But truth be told, record has had significantly less of an impact on Hart Trophy winners than it does for other sports’ MVPs. A Hart recipient has not played for a division winner since Kucherov won in 2018-19, with Draisaitl and McDavid both winning for underperforming Oilers squads in that time. Perhaps Edmonton needs to work its way up to second or third in the division for McDavid to truly put this one away, but as of now, his overwhelming statistical lead has him running away with the Hart Trophy.
It is also worth noting that Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark has the best MVP odds at the position and is a solid frontrunner for Vezina, which may also dip into Pastrnak’s Hart chances since voters may not even view him as the most important player on his own team. That said, since there is no value on betting McDavid right now, Pastrnak is the only guy worth a look for long shot odds as of the All-Star break.
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