Stanley Cup Playoffs futures: Best bets, longshots, teams to avoid for the 2025 postseason

With a week remaining by 2024-25 Nhl Regular season, the picture of the playoff begins to take shape. A series of the first round of the Playoffs of the Stanley 2025 Cup is already fixed, as the Hurricanes Carolina will meet the New Jersey Devils in a battle between the rivals of the metropolitan division.

Carolina came in on Thursday with a seven -point advantage for second place and ice advantage at home in the game. The Washington capitals have won the first place in the division and are the favorites to finish first at the Eastern Conference, which would establish a series against the second team of the wild card. It seems that they will be the Montreal Canadiens, who are eight points ahead of four more clubs for the site and three behind the Ottawa Senators for the first wild card with four remaining games.

Ottawa has won a later season and continues to pursue the defenders of the Stanley Florida Panthers Cup for third place in the Atlantic Division. Florida, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning (heading to Toronto by three points for the first in the Atlantic), have also punched their ticket to the playoffs.

Five teams have secured astrons from the season after the western conference, including the Winnipeg Jets of the Central Division, Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche. Winnipeg began on Thursday with a three -point advantage over Washington in the presidents’ trophy race and is four in front of Dallas at the power station. The Avalanche Trail The Stars by six points for second place.

The Vegas Golden Knights are six points against the kings of Los Angeles for the first place in the Pacific Division, with both of them who already managed to dock Playoff. The Edmonton Oilers have not yet closed a post -season place, but there are only two points behind the kings in the Pacific, while the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues are five ahead of the Calgary flames for wild letters to the west.

Most sports books listed Dallas at +600 to win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1999. Florida is also considered strongly repeated, listed at +650 for some possible and the favorite +600 in BET365. The possibilities of the Panthers can affect the state of Matthew Tkachuk, who has been set aside since he suffered a lower body injury during the face of the 4 nations in February, but is aimed at the start of the playoffs for their return.

Although all the playoff games of the first round have not yet been determined, we will take a look at the best bets to win the Stanley Cup, as well as to avoid.

Better bet to win Stanley Cup

Vegas Golden Knights (+1100, Draftkings)

Repeating as a champion is more common in the NHL than in the Nfl or MlbBut the uncertainty of Tkachuk’s health could have a problem for Florida. There is a good chance that Dallas will face Colorado in his first round series, which will be a safe victory and could significantly drain the stars if they continue. Winnipeg has advanced the first round only once in the last six seasons, Los Angeles has not done so since he won the Cup in 2014, and Edmonton does not have enough in the fold or in the blue line despite his match in the 7th of last season’s final. In my opinion, all of this makes Vegas the best option to leave the Western conference and overcome what the team represents the east. A total of 15 players are from the winning team of the Golden Knights Cup, including Netminder Adin Hill, who unexpectedly took the reins in the second round of that season due to an injury to Laurent Brossoit and finished third in the voting on the Conn Smythe trophy. Jack Eichel was a prize runner -up and has been an offensive force this season, as he already established races with 66 attendance and 93 points.

Best Longshot

Toronto Maple Leafs (+1400, Fanduel)

Once you have to laugh, take a look at what the Maple Leafs have done this campaign. They have surpassed the victory (46) from 2023-24. They are ranked in the top 10 goals with 254, despite Auston Matthews lost 15 games and has only marked 30 high, 39 less than their total league last season. They have suffered three losses of consecutive regulation only twice all campaigns and have stopped in the parts without only twice since the end of January. They have done all this in the first year under Craig Berube, who guided the St. Louis Blues from the last to the NHL to a Stanley Cup Championship in 2019, while he served as the main coach. They have also achieved their exploits with a goal duo by Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz, with this last classification between the league leaders as a percentage of savings (.922, second) and the average goals (2.28, fourth). The 31 -year -old Stolarz won the Cup as a Florida security copy in the last season and would love nothing but to help Toronto capture his first championship since 1967.

Team to prevent

Washington capitals (+1000, caesars)

The capitals have been one of the most important teams of the NHL for most of the season and could win the presidents’ trophy for the fourth time in the history of the franchise. Alex Ovechkin’s search to overcome Wayne Gretzky for all -time leadership in goals raised the excitement around the club, as they have had offensive performances in the career of Tom Wilson (32 goals), Aliasei Protas (30), Connor McMichael (25) and defender Jakob Chychrun (20). But Washington has not escaped from the first round of the playoffs since he won the Stanley Cup in 2018 and has not registered a later season victory since 2022, since he could not qualify for two years ago and was devastated by the New York Rangers in the opening round of the last campaign. Charlie Lindgren published a 3.58 GAA I.864 SP in the Playoff series, the first of his career. Logan Thompson also made his debut in the later season in 2024, passing 2-2 for Vegas in his loss of first round in Dallas. It seems that the capitals would have a first-round game with Montreal, against those who went 2-0-1 this season. They would face Carolina or New Jersey in the second round. Washington lost two of his first three meetings with the hurricanes this campaign and divided his four games against the devils. Although the heads go to the final of the conference, I do not like their chances of winning everything.