Stanley Cup Betting: Top Sportsbooks & Odds to Win Stanley Cup

The NHL has 16 teams make the playoffs, eight from the Eastern Conference and eight from the Western Conference. Below you can find the outright odds for each team to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup.

This can be a great way to do your Stanley Cup betting if you’ve got a bit of foresight or you’ve got a hunch about any remaining team. Since they’re outright odds with the result a long ways away, all 16 teams are offering decent Stanley Cup odds here.

The Stanley Cup playoffs are structured in a classic bracket format. The top eight teams in the Eastern Conference compete in their bracket while the top eight teams in the Western Conference compete in another bracket. The best playoff teams play the worst playoff teams in each conference in a best-of-seven series where the winning team needs to win four games to advance.

The East and West sides of the bracket start at eight teams apiece, and are then whittled down to four and two before the winners of the East and West brackets meet in the Stanley Cup Finals to determine the champions of the 2023 NHL season.

To ensure that no one reading this is led astray, we’ve put together an in-depth look at the step by step process you must generally follow to successfully make and win bets on the Stanley Cup playoffs. 

• Sign Up → The first thing you need to do is decide on which Stanley Cup betting site you want to bet with. Ensure that you sign up with a few different ones that tickle your fancy so that you can take full advantage of as many betting bonuses or promotions as you can, which allows you to play with a lot of ‘house money’ in the form of bet credits that you can turn into cold hard cash.
• Deposit Funds → Once you’re all signed up, proceed to the deposit stage where you can put as much money as you’d like in your account—but ensure you don’t put in more money than you’re willing to lose. Obviously also make sure that your sportsbook of choice accepts your preferred banking methods for both deposits and withdrawals.
• Find the Hockey Section → Once your account is funded, surf over to the sportsbook’s hockey betting section, which is usually denoted by a hockey stick or puck logo.
• Place Your Bet → Once you’ve gotten to the NHL section, it’s time to decide on which betting markets are offering the most value in your eyes based on the research you’ve done. Once you’ve decided on that, figure out how much you’d like to generally put down on your bets. Being consistent and using the same amount for each bet, which becomes what is called a unit, is a good way to keep track of your betting wins and losses.
• Be Decisive → True for any bet, but this is especially important when participating in live or in-play betting, where the odds can change second to second. You never know when a piece of news might come down the pipeline and change the odds on your selection. Make sure to be decisive and trust yourself and your gut when you’re betting on the NHL.

One of the most important aspects of a successful Stanley Cup betting run is to ensure that you’re choosing the sportsbook that works best for your needs and preferences. There are literally hundreds of options out there though, so it can be overwhelming searching for where to bet on Stanley Cup games.

To give you a jump start in your search, we’ve put together a list of our most highly rated and recommended online sportsbooks operating legally in Canada.

There are tons of different ways to bet on the Stanley Cup playoffs, but sometimes it’s difficult to pinpoint which one is best for you in certain circumstances. We have provided breakdowns of all the basic betting markets you’re likely to come across during your Stanley Cup betting so that you’re prepared for anything.

• Moneyline → The easiest type of bet you can make, you are simply betting on which team you think will win the game. But since there is overtime quite often in the NHL, you can also do a three-way moneyline bet where you can bet on the result at the end of regulation, including a tie.
  
  
• Puck Line → The puck line is similar to the point spread and the run line in that it’s a bet on how many goals a team will win or lose by. It’s almost always set at -1.5 and +1.5, and allows for bettors to get more reasonable odds for big time favorites or underdogs.
  
  
• Total Goals → Also commonly known as over/unders, this is a bet on how many goals both teams will combine to score in a game. The sportsbooks will set a number of goals, for example 5.5, and you will be betting on whether you think the two teams in question will combine for over 5.5 (6 or more) or under 5.5 (5 or less).
  
  
• Player Props → One of the most popular ways to bet these days is not on the team’s results, but instead on the performance of a single player. You can bet on tons of different aspects of the game including goals, assists, goals + assists, shots on target, penalty minutes, and saves.
  
  These are also over/under propositions, so you will have to bet on whether you think the player will rack up more or less than whatever number the sportsbook is offering.
  
  
• Futures → These are long-term bets that generally stretch across an entire season, playoff tournament, or playoff series. You can bet on who will win the Stanley Cup in 2024 or who will make it to the finals, but you can also bet on who will win a specific series, how many games a series will be, the exact score of a series, and a lot more.
  
  
• Parlay Betting → Unfortunately, nonstop advertising by sportsbooks on parlays has turned this type of betting into arguably the most common. That’s a shame, because it’s the kind of betting that wins sportsbooks more money than anything else.
  
  Basically what you’re doing here is combining several bets into one. This does two things. One, it boosts your odds and cash out significantly, and two, it reduces your likelihood of winning drastically. For example, if you create a five-bet parlay and you get four out of five right, you still lose. You need to get every leg of your parlay correct for you to win your bet, which is a lot more difficult than it sounds.
  
  If you’re just getting started, betting on parlays is not the way to go, and even if you’re an experienced bettor, try to avoid making too many parlays, because losing parlay after parlay by one pick can be exhausting.

One of the biggest advents in sports betting in recent years was the creation of live or in-play betting. This type of betting allows you to make wagers on a game that is currently in progress. It’s a great way for people watching the game to take advantage of patterns they’re seeing in the game, or bet on momentum, or bet on a mid-game hunch. Any Stanley Cup betting site worth its salt will offer at least some live betting markets during the NHL postseason.

If you enjoy Stanley Cup live betting or the idea of live betting, the best way to go about it is by using mobile betting apps. That way, you can get your live bets in no matter where you are, whether you’re at home on the coach or in transit on the way back from work or a social event.

Live betting odds can change in the blink of an eye, however, so it’s important to make your play at exactly the right time in the game. Odds for different markets will change from minute to minute, shift to shift, period to period, so the odds you see for something during the first period are likely to be very different by the time the third period comes around. 

The flow of the game, the momentum, and what has already happened are all taken into account by oddsmakers when creating and updating live odds for Stanley Cup playoff games. If you want to have success with live betting, be sure to use a mobile app, don’t overbet, don’t chase losses if a pregame bet is not going your way, and never hesitate when you want to lock one in because those odds could be vastly different a minute later.

While there are 16 teams that make the Stanley Cup playoffs, outright bets on most of those squads are not recommended. Every team that makes the postseason is a good team, but that doesn’t mean that every team in the tournament has realistic championship hopes. Below is our list of the top five Stanley Cup betting favorites for the 2024 NHL Playoffs.

• Carolina Hurricanes - Sports Interaction/Betway odds: +900/+1000
  
  The best team in the Metropolitan Division is no slouch. The Hurricanes are tied with the Avalanche with +900 odds on Sports Interaction. They don’t score a ton of goals, but they defend their net like nobody’s business as evidenced by their 215 goals against in the regular season, second-fewest in the league.
  
  They played great in the first round against the New York Islanders and were primed for a deep playoff run. The Hurricanes will be looking to bounce back this season after losing to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals.

• Colorado Avalanche - Sports Interaction/Betway odds: +604/+600
  
  The defending champs have had another stellar campaign with guys like forward Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar still leading the charge for them. They were tied for the second-most regular season points in the Western Conference and are seemingly primed for a Finals matchup with Boston.

• Colorado Avalanche - Sports Interaction/Betway odds: +900/+900
  
  The Avalanche had another stellar campaign in 2023 with guys like forward Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar still leading the charge for them. They were tied for the second-most regular season points in the Western Conference and were seemingly primed for a Finals matchup with Boston. They are tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for the best odds this season at +900 on Sports Interaction.

• Toronto Maple Leafs - Sports Interaction/Betway odds: +1000/+800
  
  It’s the hope that kills you. Every year the Maple Leafs have an exciting group of young talent and every year they let everyone down in the first round. Well, maybe not every year, but most recently. The Leafs won their first round series in 2023, a welcome sight for Maple Leafs fans after years of disappointment. The Maple Leafs are among the betting favourites this year, and this might be the year to bet on the Leafs to win their first Cup since the 1960s.

• Edmonton Oilers - Sports Interaction/Betway odds: +1000/+800
  
  When you’ve got a juggernaut like Connor McDavid on your team, you’re always in the mix. While it can be a one man show sometimes, the Oilers had tons of quality around him to make some noise in the playoffs last season. They are now tied for the third best odds to win the Stanley Cup on Sports Interaction with two teams. Some of their other top players are Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who are both very dangerous attacking players as well, with both having topped 100 points last season.
  
  
• Boston Bruins - Sports Interaction/Betway odds: +1400/+1500
  
  Most of the hockey world was on the Boston bandwagon last season. After losing in the first round to the first round to the Florida Panthers 3-4 last season, the Bruins are not among the betting favourites this year. They have the seventh best odds to win the Stanley Cup on Sports Interaction. They were the massive favourites to win Stanley Cup 2023 and had by far the best record in the regular season.

Betting bonuses and promotions are a great way to make the most of your Stanley Cup betting experience. During times of increased betting like the NHL playoffs, most sportsbooks are looking to attract both experienced and new bettors with valuable bonuses and promotions that can come in many different forms.

One of the most popular types of betting bonuses with Stanley Cup betting sites is the first deposit or welcome bonus. These types of bonuses are directly targeting new users and bettors and are often worth the price of admission. Generally they are structured so that either your first bet or first deposit will be matched by the sportsbook, giving you the same amount in betting credits. Some sportsbooks offer 50 percent of your first deposit in bet credits, some will offer 100 percent, and some will offer to match your first bet stake in bet credits.

Other common betting bonuses include the no sweat first bet, which allows a bettor to make their first bet with a new sportsbook up to a certain amount, and if they lose, the sportsbook will give you a refund. There are also odds boosts which increase the odds of certain markets to add value for the bettor, and referral bonuses for when you use a friend’s referral code to join a sportsbook, resulting in both you and the person who referred you receiving free bet credits.

To give you a bit of context into the recent history of the Stanley Cup playoffs, we’ve put together a short list of the most recent NHL champions and who they beat in the Finals to earn the right to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup. The last 10 winners have been split evenly between the Eastern and Western Conferences, with six of the last ten series going for exactly six games.

2023: Vegas Golden Knights defeat Florida Panthers 4-1 (MVP: Johnathan Marchessault)

2022: Colorado Avalanche defeat Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 (MVP: Cale Makar)

2021: Tampa Bay Lightning defeat Montreal Canadiens 4-1 (MVP: Andrei Vasilevskiy

2020: Tampa Bay Lightning defeat Dallas Stars 4-2 (MVP: Victor Hedman)

2019: St. Louis Blues defeat Boston Bruins 4-3 (MVP: Ryan O’Reilly)

2018: Washington Capitals defeat Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 (MVP: Alex Ovechkin)

2017: Pittsburgh Penguins defeat Nashville Predators 4-2 (MVP: Sidney Crosby)

2016: Pittsburgh Penguins defeat San Jose Sharks 4-2 (MVP: Sidney Crosby)

2015: Chicago Blackhawks defeat Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 (MVP: Duncan Keith)

2014: Los Angeles Kings defeat New York Rangers 4-1 (MVP: Justin Williams)

2013: Chicago Blackhawks defeat Boston Bruins 4-2 (MVP: Patrick Kane)

The Stanley Cup playoffs started on April 17th and will run for about two months depending on how quickly teams beat one another in their best-of-seven series. The Stanley Cup Finals generally start in mid to late June and run for about two and a half weeks.

Games during the Stanley Cup playoffs are played at the arenas of the teams competing in that series, with the higher-seeded team playing at home in Games 1, 2, 5, and 7 while the lower-seeded teams play at home in Games 3, 4, and 6.

In Canada, you can watch the Stanley Cup playoffs on regular cable or stream them through Sportsnet NOW and the CBC Sports website or app. In the U.S. fans and bettors can watch the action through ESPN+, and those in countries apart from Canada and the U.S. can watch the games via NHL.TV.

We’ve covered nearly all of the information you need to make a smart, winning bet on the Stanley Cup playoffs, but to ensure we’re covering all the ice we need to here, we’ve put together a list of common questions bettors have had about Stanley Cup betting.

Hopefully you now feel fully prepared to go out to one of our top-rated Stanley Cup betting sites and put down some winning wagers during the NHL playoffs. You should now know everything there is to know about Stanley Cup betting from the top Stanley Cup sportsbooks, to the top teams in the NHL, to the best types of bets to make on the Stanley Cup playoffs. Good luck out there on the ice!