Stanley Cup odds for every NHL team

They followed up one of the best regular-season performances ever with one of the worst postseason performances ever. They have been so close to greatness over the past five years only to have it always find a way to slip right through their fingers. They lost a 2-1 series lead in a Stanley Cup Final, lost two 3-2 series leads in the Eastern Conference Final, then got swept in Round 1 after winning 62 regular-season games. Tampa has been a great team but just does not have the championship to show for it. The Lightning still have the best team in the league on paper though.

The Maple Leafs managed to keep their entire core of young players together long term and add to their defense by getting Tyson Barrie over the offseason. The trouble for them is they will almost certainly have to get through the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. That has proved to be a challenge that has kept them from getting past Round 1 for the past three years. 

After making an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, the Golden Knights followed that up in Year 2 with an improbable Game 7 meltdown against the San Jose Sharks when they allowed a three-goal lead to slip away in five minutes. It was a bitter end to an otherwise strong season. With a capable core in place, a full season of Mark Stone and a wide-open Western Conference sitting in front of them, they should enter the season as one of the top favorites in the league. 

The Bruins did not make many changes to their roster, and that is not really a bad thing. They already have everything in place to play for a championship. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand are still on top of their games, David Pastrnak is a sleeper to win a goal-scoring crown, Charlie McAvoy is quickly developing into an elite top-pairing defender, and they have two starting caliber goalies in Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak. They were in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final a year ago and are still a top contender.  

The Avalanche are setting up to be the dominant team in the NHL for the foreseeable future. They have superstars in Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Gabriel Landeskog, a trio of young defenders who could be the foundation of a great blue line, and they addressed their forward depth in a significant way this offseason. They were in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs a year ago and seem poised to play for a championship in the near future. 

The defending Stanley Cup champions should have an even better regular season, especially after the addition of Justin Faulk to strengthen an already good defense. The big key is Jordan Binnington being able to repeat his performance in goal over a full season. The biggest thing working against them is the difficulty in winning the Stanley Cup a second year in a row. 

The Panthers have a great core of young talent and what is probably the best bargain in the league in Aleksander Barkov. The one thing that held them back this past season was their goaltending situation. They addressed that with the signing of Sergei Bobrovsky. The pressure is on him to meet the expectations of that big contract. If he does, this should be a playoff team. 

The Stars have superstars at every position. The one thing they lacked a year ago was depth, which they attempted to address in the offseason by adding Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry. Pavelski should be able to drive a second scoring line, but how much Perry has left in the tank remains to be seen. 

They are hoping Matt Duchene can be the missing piece at forward to help bolster what was the worst power play in the NHL a year ago. They will miss P.K. Subban on defense, but that is still a strong unit with Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm. They also have two outstanding goalies in Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros, both of whom could be starters on most of the teams in the league. 

They lost a lot of offense this summer with Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi leaving, and they still have a questionable at best goaltending duo. They also still have the best defense in hockey and some top-line forwards in Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier. They face yet another year to try and get Joe Thornton his championship. 

Don't sleep on the Capitals as a Stanley Cup contender this season. They are still the best team in the Metropolitan Division, and with a lengthy offseason to rest they should be fresh and ready to go. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson and Braden Holtby still make up a championship core, and they have all of the right depth pieces around them. 

The Flames were the top seed in the Western Conference a year ago but were pretty easily eliminated in Round 1 by a faster, more talented Colorado Avalanche team. The Flames are still a really good team, but they have serious question marks in goal that could hold them back. 

The Jets regressed significantly a year ago and look like they could be on the verge of taking another big step backward. The defense was decimated this offseason, Patrik Laine may not want to be there long term, and it just seems like they may have missed their best chance to win with this current core. 

They made a lot of changes to their roster after a disappointing performance in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs...but were they the right changes? Their forwards should still be good, even after the offseason trade of Phil Kessel, but they still have some big flaws on their defense after their top pairing. 

A healthy Taylor Hall and the additions of Jack Hughes, Nikita Gusev, P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds all make this team worth watching — especially when you combine that group with Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmieri. The big unanswered question: Who is going to stop the puck? Cory Schneider has declined rapidly, and they do not really have anyone else behind him. 

The Islanders were probably the biggest surprise in the NHL a year ago, overcoming the free agent departure of their former franchise player to make the playoffs and sweep the Pittsburgh Penguins in Round 1. It was a great year. But can they repeat that? A lot of their success was goalie driven, and they made a big change in net going from Robin Lehner to Semyon Varlamov. Everyone around them managed to get better, while they remained mostly the same. 

These seem like really low odds for a team that was in the Eastern Conference Final a year ago and added some nice pieces over the summer. They are young, they are really good and if the goaltending is even somewhat decent they should be a major factor in the Eastern Conference. 

The Flyers have made a lot of changes to their roster, but are they any better? It still seems like a pretty mediocre roster on paper outside of a few really high-end players at the top. Carter Hart will be the big X-factor in net. If he fulfills his potential, he could be a franchise-changing player. 

They could have a championship-caliber offense, but the defense is a serious question mark. They attempted to address it in the offseason, but was it enough? If Corey Crawford and Robin Lehner can stay healthy, they should have a strong goaltending duo who could mask some of the flaws on the blue line. 

It is amazing that a team can have two of the top four scorers in the league and still be so far away from a championship. But that is the situation the Oilers are facing, as they hope Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can carry the team to a playoff spot. Even in a weak Western Conference, that may be asking way too much. 

They are clearly behind the top three teams in the Atlantic Division, which probably sets their ceiling as a wild-card team in the Eastern Conference. They just missed the cutoff a year ago and did not really do much over the summer to add to their roster. They not only need Max Domi and Tomas Tatar to repeat their big seasons, but they also need some other players on the roster to take big steps forward. 

They had one of the best offseasons in the NHL, but it's important to keep expectations within reason. They are a better team than they were a year ago and they have a bright future but still too many holes (especially down the middle of the lineup) to be a Stanley Cup contender. 

Phil Kessel brings a lot of excitement to the Coyotes lineup. His addition, along with some better luck in the injury department, might be enough to get this team back in the playoffs. That is a realistic goal. The Stanley Cup, however, is still probably a few years down the line. 

Vancouver's front office operates like it has a team that is a contender right now. That would be fine if the Canucks were actually contenders. They are not, and instead of having some sort of clear long-term plan to build a champion, the goal seems to be to try to win 38 games instead of 34 games. If everything goes absolutely perfect this team might be good enough to compete for a wild-card spot — and that is IF everything goes perfect. 

The Blue Jackets went all in at the trade deadline last year, pulled off a stunning upset in Round 1 and hit their ceiling in Round 2. Then things got ugly in the offseason when a free agent exodus took away some of their top players. They still have a lot of talent, but the goaltending hole left behind by the departure of Sergei Bobrovsky will hurt quite a bit. 

Paul Fenton was only on the job for one year as the Wild general manager before being fired, and he left quite a mess behind. This is an older team that lacks superstar talent. It's not a bad roster, but it's not a particularly good one either. 

Ralph Krueger is the latest new coach to attempt to turn this ship around. The Sabres have two core players in Jack Eichel and Rasmus Dahlin, but the holes on this team are still significant. This rebuild has taken far longer and been far less productive than anyone in Buffalo could have hoped. 

With John Gibson and Ryan Miller the Ducks have one of the best goaltending duos in the league, and that should give them a chance on most nights. But there is simply not enough around them to make them a contender. The offseason departure of Corey Perry and the injuries to Ryan Kesler and Patrick Eaves open the door for some of their top young prospects to get chances, but they will experience some growing pains in the NHL. 

The Kings have yet to fully commit to a rebuild, and it has left them stuck in neutral for too many years. They have a good farm system, but the current NHL roster is full of aging players who are past their primes and on bad contracts. All of that together points to a long season. 

There are reasons for optimism in the long run. They have some good young prospects and Steve Yzerman is one of the NHL's top general managers. But he has his work cut out for him in turning this team back into a winner, and it is not going to happen this year, especially with a lineup that is similar to the one from a year ago. 

The Senators have some good young players to build around, but the short-term outlook for this team is bleak. If Ottawa finishes with anything other than the worst record in the league the season would be a small success. But there is not anywhere near enough talent to compete for a playoff spot this season, let alone a championship.