2023 Stanley Cup Finals Betting Odds

The 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs began on April 17th, and on June 13th, the Vegas Golden Knights were crowned Stanley Cup Champions.

The NHL playoffs may be the most physically grueling format in professional sports.

To win the Stanley Cup, a team must win four separate best of 7 series along the way.

Games are played every other night, with the only real rest awarded to teams who can close out a series early and enjoy a few days off before the next one begins.

For 15 teams, the playoffs are full of extreme physical demands and, ultimately, heartbreak.

But, for one team each year, the physical and mental demands of the NHL playoffs all seem worth it in the end when they can finally lift that 35-pound trophy over their heads.

2023-’24 Stanley Cup Preview

Colorado Avalanche +800 To Win Stanley Cup

Last year’s regular season was very good for the Colorado Avalanche, especially considering they were the defending Stanley Cup champions coming off a long playoff run the previous season.

Unfortunately, dreams of back-to-back Cups were shattered far earlier in the playoffs than any hockey experts predicted.

After a regular season with 51 wins and 109 points, the Avs lost to the Seattle Kraken in a first-round series that went the full seven games.

Nathan MacKinnon and Miko Rantanen are two of the game’s most elite players.

Both are capable of 100-point seasons. Gabriel Landeskog on IR long-term is tough to replace, but Ryan Johansen is a quality fill-in.

Colorado’s real strength is its blue-line group. Cale Makar and Devon Toews headline a deep and talented top six. Sammy Girard, Bowen Byram, Josh Manson, and Jack Johnson are also very good NHL defensemen.

Carolina Hurricanes +900 To Win Stanley Cup

During the 2022-’23 regular season, the Boston Bruins were the runaway winners of the Eastern Conference, with the Carolina Hurricanes finishing as the second seed in the East.

When the playoffs rolled around, the Bruins were knocked out in the first round by the Florida Panthers, while the Hurricanes made it to the third round, where they were eventually knocked out by the… Florida Panthers!

Carolina is not going to blow teams away with their individual top-end talent.

However, they are a complete team who are heavy, can skate, and play a great team system. Sebastien Aho is the biggest headliner amongst the forwards.

Their defense group is solid, if unspectacular. Jacob Slavin is underrated league-wide, and Brent Burns is still an elite offensive defenseman, even at 5 on 5.

Toronto Maple Leafs +1000 To Win Stanley Cup

Despite finishing with 111 points in the regular season, the Leafs could still only finish with the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference last year.

However, Toronto would host a first-round playoff series against Tampa Bay.

It was not an easy first-round opponent for any team, especially the Maple Leafs, who were desperate to finally win a series.

The Leafs spent this past off-season addressing some perceived team weaknesses, the most discussed being team toughness.

Ryan Reeves, Max Domi, and Tyler Bertuzzi all promise to bring far more grit than what Toronto had on the ice last season.

The Maple Leafs managed a first-round victory against a very determined and experienced Tampa team but were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the second round. At the time, Leafs fans were disappointed by the Florida loss.

In hindsight, Florida was on an extraordinary run during last year’s playoffs, eliminating three extremely good teams on their way to a Cup Finals appearance.

Edmonton Oilers +1100 To Win Stanley Cup

Stop me if you have heard this before, but did you know the Edmonton Oilers have the best player in all of hockey currently on their roster and haven’t won a Stanley Cup during his eight years in the league?

Yes, Connor McDavid is the best player in hockey, and that conversation isn’t really that close.

Last year, McDavid had 64 goals and 89 assists, winning the NHL Scoring title by 25 points.

What makes the conversation even more fun for Oilers fans is that McDavid’s teammate, Leon Draisaitl, was the player who finished second in scoring.

When you talk about windows for teams to win championships, I’m sure Oilers supporters think that now is your window anytime you have the top two leading scorers in the entire league.

Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby, and McDavid have all lived up to their hype and expectations from an individual success standpoint. Only McDavid doesn’t have multiple championships of those names.

In fact, he is still chasing his first.

Dallas Stars +1100 To Win Stanley Cup

The Dallas Stars prove there are many ways to build a roster and succeed.

Where teams like the Oilers, Maple Leafs, and Avalanche have multiple superstars and well-paid high-end talent, Dallas comes at you with depth, defense, and solid goaltending.

Jason Robertson, Dallas’s most offensively gifted player, led the team in points with 109 last year.

However, Roope Hinz is considered the team’s best two-way forward, contributing at a very high level at both ends of the ice.

At 24 years of age, Miro Heiskanen is the best player on the Stars roster and the leader of their blue-line group.

Heiskanen averaged over 25 minutes of ice time per game last year, chipping in with 73 points as a defenseman.

New Jersey Devils +1100 To Win Stanley Cup

The Boston Bruins setting the all-time regular season points record by a franchise was a surprise last year.

With everyone talking about the Bruins’ improbable record run, the New Jersey Devils didn’t get the recognition their 112-point season deserved.

At the beginning of the 2022-’23 season, the Devils had a Win Total of 88.5 points. New Jersey smashed that total on their way to earning the third seed in the East.

With Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton, and many more elite players, the Devils are primed for even more success in 2023-’24.

Vegas Golden Knights +1100 To Win Stanley Cup

The Vegas Golden Knights were +2200 to win the Stanley Cup before last year’s season started.

The Golden Knights suffered many key injuries as the season progressed, especially in the goaltending position.

Somehow, Vegas put together a 111-point regular season, which was just good enough to earn the top seed in the Western Conference heading into the playoffs.

Vegas is a very heavy, very deep team. Jack Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo are arguably their two best players, but Mark Stone, Shea Theodore, Chandler Stephenson, Brayden McNabb, and many others give them some incredible depth.

Not many hockey experts were predicting a Golden Knights Stanley Cup, even after last year’s regular season.

Their core group of players are back again this year, and they are definitely in the mix for this year’s Stanley Cup pursuit.

Popular NHL Stanley Cup Prop Bets

Series Total Games

When we are betting on the total games of the Stanley Cup Finals, we don’t need to predict the winner, and we have no team to cheer for.

Instead, just as this bet sounds, we are only looking to predict how long the final series will last.

Stanley Cup Finals – Series Total Games

Total Games	Odds	Last 21 Years
4-Games (Sweep)	+580	0 of 21 (0%)
5-Games	+265	6 of 21 (29%)
6-Games	+198	9 of 21 (43%)
7-Games	+194	6 of 21 (29%)

Our table above shows us last year’s Series Total Games Odds. In the final column of our table, we also see how often each option has occurred in the previous 21 Stanley Cups.

Bettors can quickly see that there have been zero sweeps in the last 21 Stanley Cup Finals and that a 6-game series has been the most likely outcome for this bet.

To Lead The Series In Goals

Another popular betting option for the Cup Finals is picking the player who will lead the final series in total goals.

Don’t be confused with trying to pick the player who will lead the entire playoffs in goals because that is not what this bet is asking you to do.

For this bet, every player starts the final series with a clean slate.

It doesn’t matter if you have 15 goals before the finals start or just one – everyone begins with 0 goals to start this bet.

Odds To Lead The Stanley Cup Finals In Goals

Player	Odds	Total Goals	Last Round
M. Tkachuk	+400	9	4
J. Eichel	+500	6	0
C. Verhaeghe	+600	6	1
J. Marchessault	+550	9	4

The sportsbooks will factor in many different data points to set their odds.

How many goals a player has throughout the playoffs, how they performed in the most recent series, and even how a player performed in the regular season will all be factored into the odds.

Your job is to pick the player who ultimately scores the most goals in the final series. Sounds easy, but rarely do the betting favorites win this bet.

Conn Smythe Trophy Winner

The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded to the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

This award differs from the NBA Championship in that it includes the entire playoffs, not just the finals.

Last year provided an interesting scenario for bettors. The two betting favorites to win the award before the Stanley Cup Finals began were two players from the Florida Panthers.

That was an opportunity for savvy bettors to pounce because the Vegas Golden Knights were the betting favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

That means we were getting better odds to pick Vegas players further down the odds board – even though most believed VGK was more likely to win the Cup.

2022’23 Conn Smythe Winner Odds

Player	Odds To Win Conn Smythe
Sergei Bobrovsky	+210
Matthew Tkachuk	+290
Jack Eichel	+425
Adin Hill	+1200

Since 1987, there have been only two players to win the Conn Smythe but play for the losing team.

In 2003, J.S. Giguere of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and in 1987, Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers were named Conn Smythe trophy winners, despite both players playing on the Cup Finals losing team.

History tells us that we can expect a player from the winning team to have their name called for this award.

Stanley Cup Betting Strategies

NHL Player Prop Betting

Sportsbooks have deep pockets and a lot of resources at their disposal. They are very good at creating lines and setting odds.

The more popular the bet, the sharper or more accurate the odds will likely be.

One area where some bettors are having success is Player Prop betting.

With each team dressing 20 players per game, hundreds of player prop bets can be available each night during the NHL season.

Sportsbooks must focus most of their time and efforts on the bets to make the most money.

These tend to be traditional bets, like which team will win (Moneyline) or whether the game will go Over or Under the total.

Savvy bettors believe that can lead to an advantage with Player Prop betting because sportsbooks don’t spend the same amount of time handicapping those bets as they do some of the other ones.

How BestOdds EDGE Can Help

The BestOdds EDGE sports betting platform was developed by sports bettors for sports bettors.

The vision for this platform was to equal the playing field between the sportsbooks with their vast resources and recreational bettors, who typically don’t have the same access to data and technology.

BestOdds EDGE ingests thousands of data points to develop their daily Player Prop projections.

The EDGE platform will provide users with a Projected Edge Percentage for each bet available in the market.

The example above shows that Justin Faulk has a 43% projected edge over his assist total.

Faulk’s profile card also tells us that he has gone over that total in 8 of his last ten games, and it identifies the BestOdds available for those who want to make this bet.

It is important to remember that the projected edge works in combination with the best available NHL odds. Currently, the EDGE platform has identified +165 at BetMGM.

However, if your sportsbook has this prop at +140, that will lower the overall projected edge for this bet because your potential return at +140 is less.

Because sportsbooks are so good at creating odds and setting lines for all types of bets, a typical edge found would be far less than 43%.

Thanks to the EDGE platform, bettors can quickly identify the best available player prop bets worth researching and spend their time evaluating only those with a significant edge in our favor.

With hundreds of different player prop bets available each night, having a tool that gives us this guidance and direction is key to helping us become more successful long-term bettors.

Stanley Cup Betting Trends & Stats Worth Knowing

• When betting on the series winner over the last 21 years, the favorites are 17-4.
• The Florida Panthers entered the playoffs as the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. The only 8th seed to win the Stanley Cup was the Los Angeles Kings in 2012.

• The last underdogs to win the final series were the 2019 St. Louis Blues (+140 to start the series) and the 2018 Washington Capitals (+133 to start the series).
• In the last 21 years, there have been zero sweeps in the Cup Finals. In the previous 11 years, only one series lasted the full seven games.

Always Shop Around

For some recreational bettors, it can be as much fun digging through stats and analyzing them as it is watching the games and bets play out.

Spending time in the data science lab doing our betting homework is always a smart idea, and the more information we know before placing our bets, the better off we will be.

However, it is important to remember that whether you are a sharp bettor doing it professionally or a recreational bettor just adding some excitement to a game, our biggest edge against the sportsbooks is our ability to shop for the Best Odds available.

Odds – Lead Stanley Cup Finals In Total Goals

Player	DraftKings	FanDuel	Caesars
M. Tkachuk	+450	+390	+400
J. Eichel	+550	+700	+500
J. Marchessault	+600	+750	+550
C. Verhaeghe	+600	+550	+600

Our graphic above shows how valuable shopping around for our Best Odds is. For someone like Jack Eichel, you can bet him at +500 or as high as +700.

We can also see how odds fluctuate between sportsbooks for the other players listed.

The ability to shop around and play only the Best Odds available can significantly impact our ROI over time.

If you aren’t playing the Best Odds available each time you make a wager, then you are definitely leaving money on the table.