The NHL Offseason is coming to a close as there are still notable RFAs looking for contracts. There are some UFAs looking for contracts too. However, with there being a little over a month left until training camp, what bettor time, see what I did there, to look at the betting odds for the upcoming 2024 Stanley Cup Champion and why the Vegas Golden Knights are not getting more than love as the defending champions.
Usually the defending Stanley Cup Champion is right a top the leaderboard heading into the following season. However, entering this season it is strange to see the Golden Knights +1200 in the exact same position (+1200) when the season began last year.
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If you currently looking at the future odds to win the Stanley Cup in 2024, you will see the Colorado Avalanche at +900. This is based on name only and the players on the team. If you look at the play last season and who they are missing this season it is hard to put the Avalanche right there considering the questions at center and in between the pipes.
Right behind them are the Carolina Hurricanes also at +900. This makes more sense considering the Hurricanes just went to the Eastern Conference Final. They are bringing back pretty much the same team.
Then there are three teams at +1100 in the New Jersey Devils, Edmonton Oilers, and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Devils are a team on the rise and everyone expects them to make a deeper run this season. Just look at the moves they made this offseason again and the players they kept in Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier along with the addition of Tyler Toffoli. Again defense and goaltending, especially goaltending is a question mark.
With Edmonton and Toronto it is the same old story, can the top guys lead this team to a Stanley Cup. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are two of the best players in the world. But defense continues to be a problem for them and they do not trust their goaltender.
And of course in Toronto, the Maple Leafs just won a first round playoff series for the first time since 2004. The team is different with the new additions of Ryan Reaves, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Max Domi, but has the attitude and mentality changed when the playoffs come. Good regular season team, but can’t get it done in the playoffs.
Thus it makes the Golden Knights should be the favorites to repeat. Outside of losing Reilly Smith, the Golden Knights were able to re-sign Ivan Barbashev to keep that top line Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault, and Barbashev together.
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General manager Kelly McCrimmon is into winning thus there is no loyalty there. Vegas has the same defense coming back as they did last year. That was hard to play against with Alec Martinez, Alex Pietrangelo, Brayden McNabb, Nicolas Hague, and others. Those are some big boys.
It appears that the oddsmakers in Vegas do not trust Adin Hill to do it again. In this Bruce Cassidy, he certainly can. While the Pacific Division is tough, no doubt, with Edmonton, and Los Angeles, and Seattle all right there, the Golden Knights are a team that rewrites history.
Don’t forget this is the same club that went to the Stanley Cup Final in its first year of existence. Owner Billy Foley predicted “Cup in Six.” Why can’t this team repeat?
It is hard to repeat, Detroit in 1997 and 1998 and then Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021 were the last teams to do so, there is no reason to think the Golden Knights can’t. Sure they can.
Again the Golden Knights thrive flying under the radar and will use the disrespect to motivate them to repeat. Just look at their run to the Stanley Cup this year, they were not always picked to win a series and they proved the doubters wrong.
Vegas should be just as high on the 2024 Stanley Cup betting odds as the Avalanche and Hurricanes.
