Going into the 2026-27 NHL season, there are three teams atop sportsbooks' Stanley Cup winner odds boards, but little consensus of which should be the standalone favorite. According to bookmakers there are distinct cases to be made for each one.
Let's start with the reigning Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, who are co-favorites for the title this season at +650, according to DraftKings odds. The argument here is simple: This is the team that just won the championship and managed to keep many of the pieces that made them successful last season.
The Canes have actually shortened a bit from +700 when the market first opened, but they haven't been an overly popular selection among the betting public. Despite having some of the best odds, Carolina has garnered just 3.5% of the total handle at BetMGM, eighth-most.
"They can win four Cups in a row, they're probably just never going to be this social darling that always gets money," Caesars Sportsbook hockey lead Karry Shreeve told ESPN. "So you're kind of always safe lengthening Carolina's odds a little bit just because you know you're not going to get that public money."
A team that has been much more popular with bettors in recent seasons is the Colorado Avalanche, who are the +600 favorites to win the Stanley Cup at Caesars. Shreeve's argument for the Avs is that they were by far the most dominant in the 2025-26 regular season and were seen as the consensus title favorites heading into the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs ... but a "really bad eight days" in the Western Conference Finals extended the streak of Presidents' Trophy winners failing to win the Stanley Cup to 13 seasons.
Like Carolina, Colorado returns all of its most important pieces in pursuit of hockey's most coveted prize. The public is largely buying in, too, with the Avalanche attracting a leading 9.4% of Stanley Cup wagers at BetMGM.
"The core is the core, and that core was the most dangerous team on the ice last year," said Shreeve. "All of us [bookmakers] agreed too. The market really raced to see who could get the shortest on the Avalanche throughout the season, almost too much. I think we overdid it."
Then there are the Florida Panthers, who are the standalone Stanley Cup favorites at BetMGM and FanDuel, and the co-favorites at DraftKings, all at +650 odds. Florida opened at a more distant 11-1 for the title, but shot into the favorite conversation after making arguably the biggest move of the offseason by acquiring Brady Tkachuk from the Ottawa Senators.
Aside from the obvious championship pedigree that helped them win back-to-back Cups in 2024 and 2025, the Panthers took solid action from bettors before the Tkachuk trade, creating some instant liability and forcing books to go shorter on them.
"The Panthers are the one team that's probably been just a steady flow of money since the future book's been up, and so it's kind of surprising how we've got this little bit of liability on the Panthers at such a short price," DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN. "They were a little bit higher at first, so that's when some of the money came in, but it continues still to come in on them, even at the shorter price."
To that end, DraftKings has its most handle (21%) backing Florida, while BetMGM notes that it has garnered the third-most bets (8.9%) and handle (6.9%) in its Stanley Cup market.
Who are the other contenders?
There is a consensus second tier on Stanley Cup odds boards across the sportsbook marketplace, and it consists of the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights. Odds vary, but DraftKings lists Edmonton at +800 and Vegas at +850.
The Oilers have taken the fourth-most money (7%) at DraftKings, while the Las Vegas-based books -- BetMGM and Caesars -- report a bit more outsized action on the hometown Knights. In particular, BetMGM reports a whopping 40.5% of handle backing the Western Conference champs, stemming from "notable action," according to the book.
That said, undoubtedly the biggest championship odds mover of the summer was the Washington Capitals, who opened the market at 50-1 and have made it all the way down to 17-1, according to DraftKings lines.
After missing the playoffs last season, the Caps have refueled with newcomers Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou, among others, seeking to give legend Alex Ovechkin one more shot at a Stanley Cup before retiring. Bettors seem to be believing the hype, with DraftKings reporting a fifth-most 5% of handle backing Washington, while Shreeve mentions them as one of the "summer darlings" that took a lot of money in the offseason at Caesars.
The Capitals are causing sportsbooks a bit of worry, but it would be nothing like if one of the popular long shots went on a run to the Stanley Cup.
Caesars' other summer darling was the San Jose Sharks, who check in with 35-1 Stanley Cup odds at DraftKings after narrowly missing the playoffs last season. Spurred on by a young, fun roster, the Sharks have been one of the hottest picks across a number of futures categories going into the season and have racked up a respectable 4.9% of the championship tickets at BetMGM.
San Jose games are also expected to be some of the most popular on a night-to-night basis once the season gets underway.
"The Sharks, given that they're a Pacific team, their games tend to get more action and tend to get more eyes, and there's just no doubt they're exciting games to watch, high scoring and back and forth," Shreeve said. "If they get off to a hot start, we're going to be racing to get the Sharks in the teens [of odds], as I'm sure everybody else is, because they will continue to attract money. So we've got to be very mindful of that."
Given their statuses as big market Original Six teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Rangers are also as popular as usual across a variety of markets, including To Make The Playoffs, where the Rangers are taking a fair amount of wagers at +235 odds, according to Avello.
Shreeve notes that the Leafs are taking nearly 50% of the Stanley Cup money in Ontario specifically, but it could've been less if the Senators were perceived as more competitive. BetMGM senior trader Matthew Rasp said that the book saw an "uptick" in Maple Leafs money in Ontario after the team drafted Gavin McKenna and acquired Sergei Bobrovsky, but that the Montreal Canadiens are actually a bigger hazard in the province if they find success this season.
The one true long shot giving bookmakers some pause is the St. Louis Blues, who come in at a very long 200-1 for the Stanley Cup at DraftKings. Bookmakers at all sportsbooks polled noted the Blues as a large liability, with BetMGM singling them out as their biggest.
No. 1 picks battle over Hart Trophy
When it comes to betting for the Hart Trophy, there's been one name standing above the rest in the minds of bettors: Macklin Celebrini.
After being the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2024, Celebrini electrified hockey last season between his regular season with the Sharks and his international breakout with Team Canada at the Olympics. As a result, the public is buying into the rising superstar in a big way, making him the most-bet player for the Hart at several sportsbooks. It goes right along with the hype surrounding San Jose in general, for better or worse.
"Celebrini is getting bet to win the Hart at +450," said Avello. "They kind of go hand-in-hand, looking at him to win that and then the team to have a good year."
"If he does slump a little bit, I think the Sharks go with that because there's not that much more around him," Shreeve said.
Past winners Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon lead the way on the Hart Trophy odds board at DraftKings with +300 and +350 odds, respectively, but bettors are largely looking towards other former No. 1 picks to take the mantle as the league MVP.
Avello points out that Jack Hughes (25-1) has been getting some love for the award after his own Olympic heroics, while other bookmakers point to Connor Bedard (40-1) to potentially make the leap, with BetMGM marking him as their largest Hart liability.
The Norris and Vezina Trophies have seen some action thus far but nothing of huge note, according to bookmakers. The same goes to a greater extent for the Calder Trophy, which generally doesn't see much action until at least a week or two into the season, after bettors have had the chance to see the candidates get significant ice time.
The odds leaders for the award are Porter Martone (+280), who got exposure during the Philadelphia Flyers' playoff run last season, and Gavin McKenna (+280), the 2026 first overall pick that is fueling much of the hype around the Maple Leafs. Those are the only two garnering any sort of action at this point, but bookmakers expect that market, as well as several others, to pick up once the puck drops on the season.
"They just kind of wait late to jump into some of these futures," said Avello. "Hockey will pick up its steam, even though football's going. Football, even though you've got primetime nights, you've got hockey going every single night. So that and basketball kind of go side-by-side and, on those football off nights, that's when we'll see the biggest action."