The Boston Bruins put together a legendary 2022-23 regular season as their 65-12-5 record was the best record in NHL history. The feat went awry, though, after Boston surrendered a 3-1 lead to the Florida Panthers.
Defensively, the Bruins could not stop the Panthers and dropped the next three games for a 4-3 series loss in the first round.
Currently, sportsbooks push the Colorado Avalanche (+800) ahead of the Edmonton Oilers (+1000) and the Bruins (+1200) as the Avalanche won the title in 2021-22. Colorado fell 4-3 in the first round to the Seattle Kraken, who made their first NHL playoffs appearance in just their second season.
Sportsbooks tab the Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights at (+1200) after their championship in just their sixth season while most Stanley Cup Betting sites back the Avalanche, Oilers, and Bruins in this upcoming season.
Let’s take a look at the latest 2024 Stanley Cup odds and make our early predictions on who will win the NHL Championship.
2024 Stanley Cup Favorites
Following odds are courtesy of BetUS:
| Team | Odds | Team | OdDs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado Avalanche | +800 | Toronto Maple Leafs | +1200 |
| Edmonton Oilers | +1000 | Vegas Golden Knights | +1200 |
| Boston Bruins | +1200 | New Jersey Devils | +1200 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | +1200 | Tampa Bay Lightning | +1400 |
Colorado Avalanche (+800)
NHL betting sites have tabbed the Avalanche to win their their second Stanley Cup in three seasons.
Colorado has 11 players who can take advantage of free agency. it is likely that the front office might look at some situations where they can move people off of their roster for more versatile players.
The Avs already have a pair of superior scorers in center Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen off the right wing.
Coming soon to a rink near you 🎥
🎟: https://t.co/32Wxnm8XbT#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/RZfRh3AJu3
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 13, 2023
MacKinnon was the leading scorer with 111 points and his 69 assists also led Colorado. Rantanen popped in a team-high 55 goals as he also posted 105 points.
If this team can stay healthy, they will be one of the best all season long.
Edmonton Oilers (+1000)
Meanwhile, Edmonton Oilers (+1000) centers Connor McDavid (153) and Leon Draisaitl (128) were the top two scorers in the league. The Oilers’ power play percentage led the NHL at a 32.4 percent clip.
Edmonton is one of the NHL’s deepest teams with Warren Foegele and Derek Ryan staked on the third line as the Oilers are a noted offensive juggernaut.
However, even with the plethora of offensive opportunities, the Oilers need to improve on the defensive end of the ice in order to overtake the Bruins and Avalanche as the favorites.
Edmonton goalie Jack Campbell had a tough first season as he gave up 3.41 goals per game, which lagged behind the 2.75 that Stuart Skinner allowed.
Campbell appeared in 36 games while Skinner still played 50, but he gave up 18 goals in the five games where he started in goal against the Golden Knights. The Oilers need one of the two goalies to move his game to the next level.
Boston Bruins (+1200)
As we enter the 100th season of Bruins hockey, Boston was the second-highest-scoring team in the NHL last year, picking up 3.66 goals per game. David Pasternak was one of the league’s top scorers in the NHL as his 113 points included 61 goals.
Defensively, the Bruins stymied opponents as they led the league as well in giving up only 2.02 goals per night. A power play that scored on 27.2 percent of the opportunities was second in the NHL and the Bruins led the league in killing 86.8 percent of the penalties.
Boston’s push at the Panthers did not feature sturdy execution on both ends of the ice . This would have facilitated a deeper run and maybe, a championship.
The salary cap will be an issue for the Bruins as they have 10 free agents and little cap room to facilitate this much depth once again.
Boston opens its season on Oct. 11 when it hosts the Chicago Blackhawks after trading Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to the ‘Hawks in exchange for defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula.
Best 2024 Stanley Cup Betting Value
Coach Rod Brind’Amour led the Carolina Hurricanes to their finest hour in 2006 when they slid by the Edmonton Oilers by four games to three in one of the most exciting championship series in NHL history.
Now, as he enters his sixth season at the helm in Raleigh, Brind’Amour has solidified himself as one of the best coaches in the NHL with a 226-107-37 record in the regular season and a 32-31 postseason mark.
His approach with this talented team has them sitting at (+1200) to win the Cup in 2023-24. He builds these Hurricanes with a winning mentality as they won the Central Division three years ago and followed up with back-to-back Metropolitan Division titles in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
His diligence as a player has moved over to his coaching prowess. As a result, the Hurricanes feature that diligent attitude and hard-working approach.
Carolina now looks for a return to the Stanley Cup Finals and many thought that would happen in 2022-23 before they lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the bourgeoning Florida Panthers in four games, all by one goal.
The future is bright for both Sebastian Aho and the #Canes 😎
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) July 26, 2023
The Hurricanes entered the second round of the 2023 playoffs as the favorites as Carolina sat with a (+275) offering after posting the NHL’s second-best record at 52-21-9.
The key for Carolina is to keep one of their two veteran goalies in Antti Raanta or Frederick Andersen. Both are free agents as Andersen posted a 21-11-1 mark, while Raanta was 19-3-3 and he led with 2.23 goals against average.
The center position was the nucleus of the offense as Martin Necas led with 71 points, while Sebastian Aho led with 36 goals. Carolina also wants to keep Andrei Svechnikov healthy on the right wing as he missed 18 regular season games, but still was fourth with 55 points.
Best 2024 Stanley Cup Longshot
Going into this past playoff season, the Tampa Bay Lightning (+1600) had appeared in three consecutive Cups where they picked up two championships.
Coach Jon Cooper continues as one of the top coaches in professional sports. The former lawyer is a master at communicating with all of his players and he has the ability to change and make adjustments on the fly in a game.
Last season as a six-seed, the Lightning dropped a 4-2 round-one series to the Toronto Maple Leafs and were struck with the losing goal in three of the overtimes.
Tampa Bay was struck with some injuries and of course, fatigue sets in playing for the Stanley Cup in three consecutive seasons.
In fact, there have only been five teams with the ‘Threepeat’ in the history of the NHL. The Lightning will also work with the salary cap to try to increase the depth, which was stellar with the third and fourth lines in the Stanley Cup championships seasons of 2020 and 2021.
Tampa Bay has always had a penchant on the power play as they once again showed in 22-23. The Bolts notched 71 power play markers, which was the third-best in the NHL, behind 89 from the Bruins and 72 from the Ottawa Senators.
Caption contest 👇 pic.twitter.com/RvBIpWrLAG
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) July 25, 2023
It has an excellent carry-over effect as well as the Bolts scored 25.4 percent of their power-play goals in 2022-23 which was third in the NHL and the 29.2 percentage at home was second in the league.
Nikita Kucherov was once again a power off of the right wing as he scored a team-high 113 points and capitalized with 83 assists. Center Braydon Point netted 51 goals to lead Tampa Bay and he accrued 95 points, second on the team.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy is still one of the best in the league although the 159 goals that he surrendered last season were the most since he allowed 167 in 2017-18.
That said, too many times, odd man-rushes allowed breakaway opportunities for opponents as these were set up by turnovers in the neutral zone or before the Lightning could clear the puck down the ice.
However, there is enough of the core group of players that played in the three Cups who are still with the team. The toughness instilled in the team by Cooper will make Tampa Bay a tough out and an Eastern Conference winner that seems to be lying in the shadows.
2024 Stanley Cup Prediction
The rise of the Carolina Hurricanes only needs a Stanley Cup Finals appearance, plus the hoisting of the championship trophy per the four additional wins.
Carolina has knocked on the door in each of Brind’Amour’s five seasons as the head coach. With the appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, he at least had the door open as the four one-goal losses were an anomaly.
The key for Carolina is keeping one of their free agent goaltenders who will improve their games in the net.
Vegas netminder Adin Hill led the Golden Knights to their season’s NHL championship as he and Seattle’s Martin Jones appear to be the top two free-agent goalie on the board. There are 10 free-agent goalies and seven are the backups on their respective teams.
In addition:
Carolina must re-sign Paul Stastny and Jesper Fast as pumping a more consistent goal-scoring unit is a must.
Meanwhile, the Colorado Avalanche were a power play tenant in the regular season, but they lost that part of their attack in the playoff loss to Seattle. They played with a high-level offensive approach, but could not get into position to play as freely as during the season.
Colorado (+450) appeared as the favorite to win back-to-back championships going into the 2023 playoffs as they had the best odds to secure another Cup.
Their cap space of $25 million with the free agency is not a savory equation. However, they maintain a (+800) which ties them as the favorite with the Bruins.
Keeping Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen as the quarterbacks of the offense with goalie Alexandar Georgievwho posted a 40-16-6 season should allow for the potential return to Stanley Cup play.
However, take the Hurricanes as the winner with their defensive prowess as well as Raanta or Andersen manning the net.
