The Florida Panthers have barely gotten over their championship hangover, but we went ahead and asked our hockey experts to peruse the 2025 Stanley Cup odds board for their picks and predictions for next season.
Earlier this week, the Panthers finally finished off the Edmonton Oilers with a dramatic Game 7 victory to win their first championship.
The Panthers – and, of course, the Oilers – are among the early favorites to hoist the Cup next summer, according to the latest NHL futures odds. However, despite their success this year, is either team actually a good bet in the 2025 Stanley Cup futures market?
Below, our NHL writers offer their favorite bets for the next NHL champion – and Canada is represented very, very well in their predictions.
2025 Stanley Cup Odds: Picks & Predictions
Edmonton Oilers (+1000)
Carol Schram: The Edmonton Oilers just got agonizingly close to raising the Stanley Cup. But that’s not the only reason why they’re a great pick to win it all in 2025.
Let’s start with Connor McDavid. The team’s supremely talented captain finished fourth all-time in playoff points and set a new record for assists, but he was held off the scoresheet in Games 6 and 7 against Florida. McDavid’s talent has brought him many individual honors, but he burns to win championships. And when he sets his mind to something, he makes it happen.
Also – Edmonton’s journey in 2023-24 bears striking similarities to last year’s Florida Panthers. Both teams were in the dregs of the standings early on, and they had to put the pedal to the metal just to get into the playoffs.
In 2023, the Panthers were exhausted and broken by the time they met the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Playoff. And while the Oilers deserve all the credit for finding the energy to erase their 3-0 deficit in the final, they were out of gas by the time they needed one more goal to force overtime in the dying minutes of the third.
Next year, they’ll know how to pace themselves better.
There will be changes to the roster this offseason, but all the big names are under contract. With their newfound commitment to defense and Evan Bouchard now moving into his prime, the Oilers should be confident and dangerous in 2024-25.
The Pick: Edmonton Oilers (+1000 at FanDuel)
Dallas Stars (+1000)
Tony Sartori: The Dallas Stars were my were my preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup last season, and though they fell short, I am going right back to the well for 2024-25. In fact, I feel even more confident in them now than I did prior to last year, and here is why.
Dallas made a good jump last season, winning both the Central Division and the Western Conference. The team also was just two points shy of also winning the Presidents' Trophy, an honor that went to the New York Rangers (who are my other pick to win the Stanley Cup in 2024-25 at +1300).
The Stars subsequently went on a tremendous playoff run. They defeated the defending Cup Champions (Vegas Golden Knights) in a hard-fought seven-game series before dispatching the Colorado Avalanche in six games in the Conference Semifinals.
They then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final, a team that went on to Game 7 of the Cup Final before ultimately falling short to the Florida Panthers. With that said, Dallas was right there once again in 2023-24, and it will be, at minimum, in the same spot in 2024-25.
The entire roster is returning outside of five players: Matt Duchene, Joe Pavelski, Craig Smith, Jani Hakanpaa and Christopher Tanev. They should (and likely will) let Smith and Hakanpaa walk, which leaves them roughly $17 million to re-sign those remaining three guys.
Tanev will cost the most at around $5 million while you probably will need to spend only $7 million total between Pavelski and Duchene. That leaves roughly $5 million to bring in other talent to further improve a team that was already one of the league's best.
Last season, Dallas ranked seventh in expected goals for per 60 minutes, third in expected goals against per 60 minutes, and fourth in expected goal differential per 60 minutes. They have a healthy balance of seasoned veterans and young talent, and forwards Wyatt Johnston and Logan Stankoven are likely to improve exponentially.
Add in a solid netminder in Jake Oettinger, and the sky is the limit for this group.
The Pick: Dallas Stars (+1000 at FanDuel)
New York Rangers (+1300)
Ryan Dadoun: The New York Rangers window isn’t closing, but this is certainly an important year for them.
Igor Shesterkin is entering the final campaign of his four-year, $22.7 million contract, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see his cap hit as much as double beyond the 2024-25 campaign.
Additionally, if Alexis Lafreniere plays anything like he did last season (28 goals, 57 points), then he’ll also be due for a big raise in the summer of 2025 after completing the second half of his two-year, $4.7 million deal.
With a bit of urgency to act while they still have those players locked to bargain contracts and a decent amount of cap space – CapFriendly gives them a projected $12.8 million in maneuvering room going into this summer with just two noteworthy RFAs (defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider) to re-sign – it wouldn’t be surprising to see New York make a couple of notable additions to what is already a superb roster.
New York has reached the Eastern Conference Final in two of the last three years and looks like an early favorite to finally overcome that final hurdle.
Edmonton and Dallas are two other interesting choices, but the Rangers offer a slightly bigger potential payout, which helped draw me to them over those alternatives.
The Pick: New York Rangers (+1300 at FanDuel)
Vancouver Canucks (+2500)
Greg Liodice: Unexpectedly, the Vancouver Canucks had their best season since 2014-15, when they posted 101 points. They captured the Pacific Division title, and for a while, they were in the running for the Presidents' Trophy.
It was a season in which their fans finally saw a glimmer of hope after years of disaster and turmoil. J.T. Miller is now living up to his contract, Brock Boeser has become even more of a lethal goalscorer, and captain Quinn Hughes should be in the running for Norris Trophies for years to come.
Additionally, Thatcher Demko solidified himself as a top-10 goalie while Elias Pettersson ranked in the top 10 in scoring. Pettersson does have some soul-searching to do, though. The superstar center went AWOL during the playoffs – scoring only one goal in 13 games.
Vancouver is expected to have itself a jampacked offseason. The team already traded Ilya Mikheyev and his $4.8 million cap hit, and it will target Jake Guentzel in free agency. Adding a premier goalscorer like Guentzel to an already stacked roster can pose problems in the Pacific.
BetRivers has the Canucks to win the Stanley Cup at +2500, and I think that’s a remarkable price (the next-best line is +2000 at multiple sportsbooks). Given the Oilers’ dominance – and worthy adversaries in Dallas, Colorado, and Vegas – I can’t see the books giving Vancouver a fair shake.
However, I think it’s worth a flier. The team took Edmonton to seven games in the semifinals, and that was with a third-string rookie goaltender.
Imagine if Demko was playing; would we have seen a Vancouver/Florida Stanley Cup Final instead? Who knows, but I love the talent the Canucks have.
The Pick: Vancouver Canucks (+2500 at BetRivers)
Ottawa Senators (+4000)
Nicholas Martin: Without considering the odds, it would be a tough call between the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers as my favorite choice to win next season's Stanley Cup, and at some point, I'll be keen to get bets in on those sides.
The Stars have an excellent cap situation and will be returning all major roster pieces with youngsters such as Thomas Harley, Wyatt Johnston and Mavrik Bourque likely to take steps forward.
The Oilers, meanwhile, are a popular pick as they look to follow the Panthers' trend of winning the Cup one season after losing the final. They could start slow with many players still after a lengthy playoff run, leaving the potential to find comparable numbers later on.
The Ottawa Senators burned a ton of bettors like me (Editor's note: And your editor!) in the futures markets last season. All of us bettors believed it was finally the year things got turned around. But a 31st-ranked .884 save % was the greatest reason for their disappointing campaign; they controlled play at a better-than-league-average rate in most metrics, which wasn't a surprise considering the talent on the roster.
Thanks to the addition of Linus Ullmark from Boston, Ottawa's goaltending concerns should be clarified and then some. With better-than-average goaltending, the Senators roster could break through in a significant way. They have a much higher ceiling than most sides in the +3500 to +4000 range, and their outright price could shorten as the summer wears on.
The Pick: Ottawa Senators (+4000 at Caesars Sportsbook)
