Panthers co-favorite to win Stanley Cup in 2024-25 after first championship

The Florida Panthers were able to avoid a historic letdown and stave off the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on Monday night. It was the first championship in Panthers franchise history. The Oilers almost came back down 3-0 in the series and Connor McDavid was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as NHL playoff MVP. Now that the Cup is over, we’re looking ahead to the 2024-25 season and have Stanley Cup odds via DraftKings Sportsbook. Let’s take a look and break it down.

2024-25 Stanley Cup Odds

The Panthers and Dallas Stars are co-favorites to win the Cup next season. Florida really shouldn’t be up there at the moment. Sam Reinhart and Brandon Montour are likely out the door in free agency. The team has a tough decision to make on defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who is on an expiring contract. Plus, Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe also need new deals. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is only getting older and has played a lot of hockey lately.

We usually see a bit of a Cup hangover and it’s very rare we see a team advance to the Stanley Cup Final three times in a row. The Tampa Bay Lightning did it recently and lost that third time. Before them, the last time was in the early ‘80s when the Edmonton Oilers dynasty with Wayne Gretzky was taking over for the New York Islanders’ dynasty. The chances of the Panthers making it three in a row, let alone winning again are slim historically.

As for the Stars, they make some sense. Dallas made the Cup in 2020 and has been on the cusp the past two seasons. The Stars’ core isn’t going anywhere with Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin all back. We also saw the emergence of Wyatt Johnston, who looks like a budding star. With a lot of question marks beyond 2024-25, you’d think Jim Nill and the Stars go all-in this season and push for a championship. After that, the cap goes up and you retool a bit. If we had to pick between the Panthers or Stars to bet on to win it all, it’s the Stars.

The Oilers, Rangers, Avalanche and Hurricanes make up the next four teams in terms of odds. Edmonton seems primed to get back to the Cup given their near-win over Florida and presence of McDavid. He must be more hungry than ever for a championship. At +950, the Oilers feel like a very good futures bet at this point. Similar to Dallas, the Oilers have to pay Leon Draisaitl after 2024-25, so it makes sense to go all-in for the Cup now. Same deal with the Avalanche and Mikko Rantanen. Colorado feels like great value at +1200 to win the Cup. They have a decent amount of Cap to play around with, even more so if Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin are on LTIR/NHLPA list. Or both players could be ready to return, which would benefit the team.

The New Jersey Devils are interesting at +1300. The Devils entered 2023-24 with some of the best odds to win it all. It’s just nothing went right, injuries piled up and the goaltending was awful. Head coach Lindy Ruff is out. Sheldon Keefe is in. Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen will make up the goalie tandem. GM Tom Fitzgerald has cap room to make a few big plays in free agency. Shoring up the blue line and adding depth in the bottom six will be key. But if the Devils stay healthy and Markstrom performs as advertised, New Jersey should be in the mix come playoff time.

Perhaps my favorite bet on the board at the moment is the Vancouver Canucks at +2000. You have a team that just won the Pacific Division and really should have gone further in the postseason had it not been for injuries in net and to Elias Pettersson. Despite that, the Canucks were one goal from knocking out the Oilers and going to the West Final. The Canucks brought in Rick Tocchet and have improved ever since. If Vancouver can bring back Elias Lindholm and keep key role players in Dakota Joshua, Teddy Blueger, Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov, there’s no reason the Canucks can’t make a deep playoff run.

The Bruins are another team at +2000 that are intriguing in the market. Boston has a lot of cap space to work with this offseason and brings back most of its key players aside from Jake DeBrusk. If the Bruins can add a few top forwards, particularly a first-line center to pair with David Pastrnak, Boston should improve vastly. And this is a team that was one point off the Atlantic Division title behind Florida with 109 points.

The final team we’ll mention is the Nashville Predators at +3500. The Preds have a ton of cap space and are expected to be aggressive in the free agent and trade markets this offseason. Nashville has a top forward (Filip Forsberg), arguably the best defenseman in hockey (Roman Josi) and a very good goaltender (Juuse Saros). Saros is in the final year of his contract before free agency. The Preds should keep Saros, and again, go all-in to try and win a Cup this season.

Nashville has 10 NHL forwards and four NHL defensemen under contract, plus Saros. All that with around $26 million in cap space. A few more steady defensemen and some scoring depth would go a long way. Andrew Brunette proved he wasn’t just a blip with the Panthers as head coach. The Preds made the playoffs and could come out of the offseason as the most improved roster on paper. These odds will look different when we revisit them mid-season.