After the First Month of the NHL Season, Which Teams Have the Best Odds of Winning the 2022 Stanley Cup?

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With just over one month of the 2021-22 National Hockey League campaign now in the rearview mirror, we can now start to make some early predictions about how the season will play out, right?

Anywhere from 13 to 18 games will give us a perfect preview of how it will all go down in each NHL division, and into the playoffs, no?

Of course not: but I am still going to try to beat the sportsbooks, and get the best odds I can right now to win the Stanley Cup.

And there are some teams with a lot of value after one month: maybe the books have not changed the odds yet because it is too early, or they haven’t caught on.

Take a team like the Anaheim Ducks, for example: after 17 games, they had won eight in a row to move to the top of the Pacific Division standings. You would think they should be rocketing up the futures odds boards, right? Well, you can still get the mighty Ducks at +7500 (75-1), which is the 21st best odds to win the Stanley Cup, even behind expansion Seattle.

What gives?

There are other teams that are outperforming their futures odds as well. How about the Carolina Hurricanes, who won 12 of their first 14 games after a decent showing in the playoffs last season? They are well down the futures odds, at +1500 (eighth-best). The New York Rangers are flying in the Metropolitan, but you can currently still get them at +2500.

In fact, other than the Colorado Avalanche (who have been favored now two seasons running) at +500, every other team is priced at odds of 9-1 or greater in the early going.

Obviously, there is a lot of hockey left to play this season, and futures betting locks up money for a long time. But there is clear value right now in the market, and if you are adamant that a certain team is going to make a run in the Stanley Cup playoffs, now might be the time to back them and get the best value.

For the most part, the odds are not going to change too dramatically over the coming months. But if a team like Anaheim stays red-hot, and reels off 20 wins in 24 or something like that, its odds are going to plummet pretty quickly. This would be the time to back the high-flying Ducks IF you think they have the juice to go all the way to the title.

Remember, with the NHL, teams come out of nowhere relatively often to make runs to finals: just look at Montreal last season.

Top 10 odds to win 2022 Stanley Cup