The Stanley Cup has been called the greatest trophy in professional sports. Its iconic shape and the inscriptions of all those that have won it simply make it more meaningful than all the new trophies given out every year for other sports leagues and competitions.  When looking for the odds on a particular National Hockey League team to win the Stanley Cup, one is actually looking for the odds on that team ‘to win outright’.  OddsJet provides a Stanley Cup winner odds comparison from several reputable online sportsbook companies.  This allows OddsJet to display the best odds for every team to win the Stanley Cup so bettors may maximize their potential returns when hoping to predict the NHL outright winner.  If you are interested in Money Line, Puck Line or Goal Totals betting markets for NHL regular season or playoff games, OddsJet also provides an NHL odds comparison.

NHL Futures and Ante Post markets explained  

Stanley Cup winner betting is by far the most popular NHL futures betting market.  Futures betting markets, also called Ante Post markets, are those that involve a wager that is contingent on a longer term result over the course of an entire season and/or playoffs, rather than a single game.  In general, the highest paying odds for Ante Post and futures betting markets will come before a season starts.  As the NHL season progresses and certain teams rise in the standings or advance in the playoffs, the odds will go down and pay less for those teams in position to lift the Cup.

Examples of Stanley Cup odds expressed in American, Decimal and Fractional formats

For American odds format, there are two sets of expressions to remember, but both involve the figure of $100. First, negative numbers express how much one needs to wager in order to win a profit of $100.  However, given how many teams have a chance to win the Stanley Cup and the nature of the NHL playoffs, rarely would any one team be such a favorite that their odds would be below even-money.  Most odds will be above even and thus will come expressed as a positive figure, expressing how much potential profit would be returned for a bet of $100.   For example, when you see odds of +750 on the LA Kings to win outright, you would need to stake $100 in order to receive a profit of $750, yielding a total return of $850.

With Decimal odds format, the figures express the full amount that will be returned on your wager including the stake amount.  The first 1.00 of the odds represent you potential stake return.  To calculate your entire potential payout, multiply the Decimal odds by the stake. For example, if the Montreal Canadiens are listed at 5.50 to win the Stanley Cup, a $100 bet would return a total of $550 including your stake, so the potential profit would be $450. 

For Fractional format, the odds express the potential amount of profit that will be returned on a wager.  For example, with a wager of $100 and odds of 7/1 on the New York Rangers to win outright (said seven-to-one), one could see a profit of $700 (7 divided by 1, multiplied by $100) plus the stake amount for a total potential return of $800.  

Betting odds comparisons for other top ice hockey leagues

KHL Odds (Russia 1st Tier, which includes clubs in Europe and Asia)

SHL Odds (Sweden 1st Tier)

SM Liiga Odds (Finland 1st Tier)

DEL Odds (Germany 1st Tier)

NLA Odds (Switzerland 1st Tier)

GET-ligaen Odds (Norway 1st Tier)

AHL Odds (North America 2nd Tier)