Oddsmakers just dropped a bombshell for the 2026 NHL season and the Avalanche are stealing the spotlight
Photo credit: Dustin Bradford / Icon Sportswire
The 2024-25 NHL season officially came to a close on Tuesday night, as the Florida Panthers embarrassed the Edmonton Oilers to claim their second consecutive Stanley Cup .
With this season now in the rearview, attention has already shifted to 2025-26, and less than 24 hours after the final buzzer, talk has begun about who might headline in the next Stanley Cup Final.
Avalanche are front and center with oddsmakers latest announcement.
Trent Finnegan from Denver Sports writes that as for the Colorado Avalanche, they're once again near the top of the league with the fifth-best odds to bring Lord Stanley back to Denver for the fourth time in franchise history. Their +1000 line is also the third-shortest among Western Conference teams.
This marks the seventh straight year the Avalanche have ranked in the preseason top five (including ties) for the Stanley Cup odds, a run that included four consecutive seasons as the outright favorite from the 2021 to 2024.
"The odds for the individual awards are out as well, and Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are right back at the top of the board for their respective trophies. MacKinnon sits at +500, the second-best mark only to Edmonton's Connor McDavid, to win the Hart Memorial Trophy for the second time in three seasons, and +1,200 to win the Rocket Richard Trophy (tied fifth-best), annually awarded to the NHL's top goal scorer." -Finnegan
Fresh off accepting his second Norris Trophy in four years, Makar enters the 2025-26 season as the odds-on favorite to win it again, opening at +175.
"There's still plenty of work to do for an Avalanche team that was 12 minutes away from advancing to the Conference Semifinals but instead were sent home by the Dallas Stars. They still have some tweaks to make on the coaching staff after Ray Bennett was let go of his duties in May, finalize the roster with some potential free agent moves and most importantly of all, stay healthy." -Finnegan
If all three of those things break Colorado's way, there's no reason they shouldn't be right back among the frontrunners to win the Cup next season.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 18 | 28 ANSWERS Oddsmakers just dropped a bombshell for the 2026 NHL season and the Avalanche are stealing the spotlight Do you think the Avalanche will get past the first-round of the playoffs next season? | ||
| yes | 25 | 89.3 % |
| no | 3 | 10.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
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