NHL Trade Deadline Reshapes Cup Race: Futures Odds Updated

Noah Strang breaks down his best NHL plays for Wednesday night's nationally televised doubleheader featuring action between the Blackhawks and Red Wings as well as the nightcap between the Ducks and Canucks. He also examines fallout from major trades across the league.

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We saw a huge shakeup in the odds for some of the league's best teams following the hectic last few days leading up to the March trade deadline. With all rosters now set in stone for the rest of the season and playoffs let’s check out the updated Stanley Cup winner odds. 

Stanley Cup Champion

The Boston Bruins, back on track for the greatest regular season of all time, are currently riding a 10-game winning streak which has their odds all the way down to +325. This is mainly due to their dominant performances on the ice but is also aided by their trade for Tyler Bertuzzi who figures to play significant middle-six minutes for them in the playoffs. They are now the runaway favorites in terms of betting odds to lift the Cup as their closest competition sits at +675.

That ‘competition,’ however, is the defending champion Colorado Avalanche, who are still sitting with the second best odds to win it all despite those odds ballooning to +675 from +550 last week. The reasoning for this odds shift is likely a combination of their three-game losing streak and their relatively quiet trade deadline. While seemingly every other top-tier team made significant moves to improve their rosters heading towards playoffs, Colorado stayed relatively stagnant only acquiring fourth liner Lars Eller and a third-string goalie in Keith Kinkaid. 

The Hurricanes and Leafs also saw their odds shift back to +800 and +850 from the +700 they were sharing last week. Carolina’s odds shift likely followed similar logic as the Avalanche’s, as they failed to make the same type of splash that many of their Eastern Conference foes did. The Leafs on the other hand made lots of moves, however they’ve now lost two of their last three games and saw Ryan O’Reilly sent to LTIR with a broken finger. 

Trade Deadline Postmortem

With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, let’s take a look at some of the biggest moves that came in during the days leading up to the deadline.

We saw an absolute arms race take place in the Eastern conference, which began two weeks ago and continued until the last hours of Friday’s trade deadline. 

The Toronto Maple Leafs, desperate to make it past the first round of the playoffs, backed up their previous acquisitions by adding depth to their defensive core with Luke Schenn and Erik Gustafsson. They sent out a third round pick for Schenn and managed to receive a first-round pick in the deal for Gustafsson which saw Rasmus Sandin head to Washington. In unfortunate news for the Leafs, deadline pickup Ryan O’Reilly suffered a broken finger in a Saturday loss to Vancouver and has been placed on LTIR. Luckily however, all indications point to him returning for the playoffs.

As was mentioned in last week’s article, the New York Rangers finally completed their long awaited deal for Patrick Kane as he now joins old friend Artemi Panarin in one of the leagues scariest top-6’s. It was a complicated three-team deal in which the Rangers only gave up a conditional second round pick in 2023, third and fourth round picks in 2025, along with defenseman Andy Welinski.

Not to be outdone by their Eastern conference rivals, the league leading Bruins bolstered their roster with the addition of middle-6 forward Tyler Bertuzzi. The Bruins sent a conditional 1st round pick in 2024 and a fourth rounder in 2025 to the Red Wings in return. 

The Carolina Hurricanes also finally got in on some of the trade fun by adding Shayne Gostisbehere from Arizona for a 2026 third rounder and Jesse Puljujarvi for unsigned draftee Patrik Puistola. 

The Western Conference teams made significantly less splashes than their Eastern Conference counterparts but many playoff teams still made improvements. 

The Avalanche acquired Lars Eller, the Oilers bolstered their lineup with moves for both Mattias Ekholm and Nick Bjugstad, Vegas traded for Teddy Blueger and Jonathan Quick, and the Stars picked up Max Domi. All of the aforementioned players are projected to play significant roles in their respective team's Stanley Cup aspirations. 

In a non-playoff team related trade we saw the Ottawa Senators acquire coveted defenseman Jakob Chychrun for a shockingly low price of just a conditional 1st rounder in 2023, a second rounder in 2024, and another second rounder in 2026. The Coyotes reportedly had better offers on the table but their refusal to retain any of Chychrun’s cap hit left them with no other option. 

Chicago Blackhawks @ Detroit Red Wings-250 (6)

This Wednesday features an original six matchup, as the Chicago Blackhawks visit the Detroit Red Wings. The two teams have met once this season with the Blackhawks winning 4-3 in overtime. As far as predicting a winner for this game, it’s somewhat of a shot in the dark as there are numbers and statistics that would support an argument for either team. 

The Blackhawks have the second worst record in the league, but have managed an impressive 6-4 record in their last ten games. Meanwhile, the Red Wings have the tenth worst record in the league, but are 3-6-1 in their last ten, and have lost six games in a row. When you look closer however, you’ll see Chicago is 1-4 in their last five games, with the dropoff in form coinciding with some big names departing before the deadline. The Blackhawks will be without three of their four leading scorers on the year as Max Domi and Patrick Kane were traded whilst Jonathan Toews is still on injured reserve. 

For a team that already ranks dead last in the NHL in goals-per-game, that is not ideal. For that reason, combined with the fact that the Wings are a solid 15-12-2 at home while the Blackhawks are just 9-18-2 on the road, I would lean Red Wings here. However, after factoring in the odds as the Wings are around -250 favorites, the moneyline in this game is an undoubtedly tricky proposition. 

I see the under as a safer bet for this matchup. As previously mentioned, the Blackhawks are last in the league in goals per game and are now missing their three highest scoring forwards. The Red Wings aren’t an elite defensive team by any means, but at 3.25 goals allowed per game they are a respectable 19th in the league. Detroit is also unlikely to light up the scoresheet as they have a total of just nine goals during their current six game skid.

Anaheim Ducks @ Vancouver Canucks-225 (6.5)

Over on the west coast, Wednesday will feature a Pacific division rivalry game as the Anaheim Ducks visit the Vancouver Canucks. With Vancouver currently sixth in the Pacific and Anaheim seventh, this one is a battle of the basement dwellers. In the only previous meeting of the two this year the Canucks won a high scoring game 8-5.

Both teams have been exceedingly average as of late with the Ducks at 4-4-2 in their last ten and Vancouver at 5-4-1. The Canucks have a surprisingly good record within the Pacific division as they currently sit at 10-5. The Ducks on the other hand are just 6-8-1 against divisional foes. The Canucks are -225 favorites so although I believe they will win the game, it’s not the greatest risk/reward ratio.

Rather, I suggest playing the over in this one. The line is likely to settle in at 6.5 and neither of these teams can keep the puck out of their own net for the life of them. The two teams are last and second last in the league in goals allowed per game with the Ducks at 4.03 and the Canucks at 3.89. Along with this, Thatcher Demko is expected to start in what will be just his fourth game back from a near three-month injury so he will likely still be shaking the rust off. At the other end of the ice, Anaheim is expected to give the start to youngster Lukas Dostal who has a 3-5-1 record and is sporting a 4.00 GAA. Both goalies’ save percentages are below .900. 

One way you could go about betting on this game could be with a parlay between Canucks moneyline, the over, and a player prop. The Canucks are a high scoring offense at tenth in the league in goals per game which lends itself to the belief in both Canucks moneyline and the over. Couple that with an anytime goal or over 1.5 points for Canucks superstar Elias Pettersson and you should be looking at solid odds for a reasonable parlay.