NHL Stanley Cup Futures Update - 2022
It’s time to get serious about Stanley Cup futures!
Key Points
– Colorado Avalanche are among the betting favorites to win this year’s Stanley Cup.
– Tampa Bay Lightning have an opportunity to win a third consecutive Stanley Cup.
NHL Stanley Cup Futures
The 2021-22 NHL season nears its end and the Stanley Cup playoffs will begin soon. The playoff spots in the Eastern Conference are all wrapped up.
The Western Conference still has a few teams vying for a spot in the postseason. The Colorado Avalanche have been the overall favorite to capture this year’s Stanley Cup for most of the season.
Are they still in the driver’s seat? Here’s a NHL Stanley Cup futures update.
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Avs Still Favored
Since last September, Colorado has held the top spot on the betting board in the Stanley Cup futures market. The Avs are listed now at +400 to hoist the Cup when it’s all said and done.
With one game remaining on their schedule, Colorado is 56-18-6. The Avs feature one of the best players in hockey in Nathan MacKinnon (88 pts). He’s not even the team’s leading scorer. That honor belongs to Mikko Rantanen who has 91 points. Cale Makar (85) and Nazem Kadri (85) give the Avs four scorers with at least 85 points this season.
Top Contenders - Stanley Cup Futures
The big surprise this year has been the consistency of the Florida Panthers, now given +700 odds to win the Cup. You need to consider them when handicapping the NHL Playoffs.
The Panthers will win the President’s Cup given to the NHL team with the most points. Florida went all-in at the trade deadline and acquired forward Claude Giroux, which has given the Panthers tremendous depth.
It has also infused more scoring into the Florida lineup. The Panthers are the top-scoring team in the NHL averaging 4.14 goals per game. Jonathan Huberdeau is second in the league in scoring with 115 points. The big question for Florida is goaltending. Where do you rank them when you look at NHL futures?
Three-Peat Possible?
Two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay has been relatively quiet this season. The Lightning will finish third in the very competitive Atlantic Division, but they once again have the talent to win another title.
They did kind of the same thing last year where they quietly advanced to the Stanley Cup finals and won. The Lightning are healthy and they would most likely get Toronto in the first round of the postseason. The Leafs haven’t won a first-round playoff series in quite some time.
Teams to Watch in the NHL Playoffs
Carolina has one of the top goaltenders in the game in Frederik Andersen and they are as complete a team as there is in the NHL. They made it to the conference finals in 2019, but haven’t been back since.
The Hurricanes can score - ninth in the league - and they are the top defensive team. That’s why they are near the top of the betting board at +900 at the best sportsbooks..
The other team to watch is Calgary. The Flames, at times this season, have looked exactly like a Stanley Cup team. If they are going to win one, this is the year as 11 players will be either restricted or unrestricted free agents when the 2022 campaign ends.
