Chicago Blackhawks’ 2018 Stanley Cup Odds Second-Best In NHL

Betting services never wait long to release their odds for a major sports championship, and Chicago Blackhawks fans should feel good about where Bovada has the team for 2017-18

The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Nashville Predators on Sunday night for their second consecutive Stanley Cup. And yet, we’ve already moved on to the 2018 postseason — something I’m sure Chicago Blackhawks fans wouldn’t mind.

On Monday, Bovada released its annual preseason Stanley Cup favorites. The very top of the list has a couple familiar faces, but there are some interesting teams among the top 12. Let’s take a closer look:

So we’ve got 13 teams with better than 20/1 odds of winning the Stanley Cup in 2018, according to Bovada. That makes for a crowded field, and some interesting betting. Not surprisingly though, the Penguins lead the action at 9/1.

Now, Bovada is not paying attention to the Blackhawks’ swirling rumor mill. As of now, they’re placing 12/1 odds on Chicago winning the Cup based on a team that still has the likes of Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Marcus Kruger, Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov. It certainly won’t have all of those players come early October.

Chicago Blackhawks

It’ll be interesting to see where the Blackhawks fall among oddsmakers once they start making necessary moves to get under the $73 million salary cap. I can’t imagine them being any better than 20/1, for my money.

A look at the rest of the field

There are some really interesting bets in the top 12, as I mentioned above. I love taking the Oilers at 12/1. I think the West was wide-open this year, and there’s no reason to suggest it won’t be next year. I think the Oilers could be a really trendy pick to win it all.

Tampa Bay, after not making the postseason this year, is getting a vote of confidence from Bovada at 12/1. This is a really good, young team that has had its problems with injuries (namely to Steven Stamkos) and goaltending (is Andrei Vasilevskiy the answer?). If everything comes together, why couldn’t the Lightning come out of the East?

Then you have the Washington Capitals at 12/1, and both the Anaheim Ducks and Nashville Predators at 14/1. Interesting the Stanley Cup runner-up is ranked below several teams in these opening odds, but I’m sure the Preds don’t mind.

After that, things start getting goofy. The Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild are listed among a quintet of teams (also including the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs) going off at 16/1. What exactly these two teams have done to earn such strong odds, I’m not sure. I think there’s little to suggest they can come close to living up to them.

Los Angeles going off at 18/1 is also odd to me. Unlike Tampa Bay, the Kings are a non-playoff team that doesn’t seem terribly close to making noise in the postseason. L.A. is old and slow, a deadly (in a bad way) combination that can easily sink you in today’s NHL.

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Not surprisingly, the Vegas Golden Knights have the worst odds of winning the Cup in 2018, going off at 150/1. The Knights should be a sub-.500 team in 2017-18, but they probably won’t be as bad as some past expansion teams. Still, bet on them to win it all at your own risk.