NHL Futures: Odds to Win the 2011 Stanley Cup
by Richard Gardner
The puck drops on the 2010-11 NHL season this week and the long road to the Stanley Cup final begins. With hockey fans awaking from a long summer slumber, we’ve been seeing good action on our NHL futures board, with the odds to win the Stanley Cup receiving the most interest.
The favourite to win it all this year? That would be the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks at 6/1. The ‘Hawks featured one of the most loaded line-ups in recent history last season, and the core of that roster remains. However, the offseason wasn’t kind to Chicago, as the salary cap forced management to bid adieu to the likes of Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd. Goalie Antti Niemi was also deemed expendable and will be replaced by the veteran Marty Turco.
Action has been steady on the Blackhawks’ futures, but I think a lot of bettors are hesitant to bet on Chicago to win the Stanley Cup with much of the team’s depth being shown the door. The rather modest odds don’t help, although we won’t feel too comfortable raising them much higher. When a team still has Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith to deploy, it still has a great shot.
The Blackhawks’ 6/1 odds to win the Stanley Cup are followed by Washington at 13/2, Pittsburgh at 7/1 and Vancouver at 8/1. Reasons for optimism in those cities include Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Henrik Sedin, respectively.
We always book preseason bets on the Penguins and Capitals, but Canucks fans are especially excited this season that their team might win it all for the first time in franchise history. With many media outlets jumping on the bandwagon and naming them as their pick to win, the bettors have followed. Could the Canucks become the first Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup since Montreal in 1993? We’ll have to wait and see.
If you’re looking for value, perhaps the Detroit Red Wings at 11/1 are worth a wager. All-world defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom will be back for another kick at the can (potentially his last) and that means the Wings are contenders. (Yes, he’s that good, even at 40 years old.) If Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg can put together bounce-back campaigns, Jimmy Howard can avoid a sophomore slump, and injuries can be kept to a minimum, Detroit has as good a chance as any.
On the other hand, one team that doesn’t have a good chance is Columbus. The Jackets, along with the New York Islanders, are the co-long shots at 100/1 odds to win the 2011 Stanley Cup. You won’t be surprised to learn that we’ve booked next to no bets on those two teams.
A more legitimate long shot might be the Nashville Predators at 50/1. The Preds are a have-not team in the NHL in that they can’t afford to spend to the salary cap. Yet they always seem to be in the mix thanks to the under-appreciated coaching of Barry Trotz. Nashville won’t score a tonne of goals, but they defend well as a team, not to mention they feature one of the best defencemen in the game in Shea Weber.
