Future Odds: The Presidents’ Trophy

With the start of the NHL season only a few short weeks away, the next chapter in my Future Odds series is looking at where people are putting their money when it comes to which team will win the Presidents’ Trophy for having the most points in the regular season. 

Of all the trophies the NHL hands out every year, the one that always makes me laugh is the Presidents’ Trophy. It’s not that I think that having the most points of any team in the league is a joke or something, but rather that the correlation between hanging that banner and winning the Cup is basically non-existent. As I’m sure you remember, the Boston Bruins ran away with the regular season point race in 2022-23 — they actually had the best regular season on record — but that achievement didn’t mean squat when it came to playoff time. To find the last team in the NHL to win both the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup, you have to go back to the 2013 Blackhawks, which was the second of three wins for Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. But if you’re looking to put a few nickels down on a team to run through the regular season as the league’s best, that’s what we’re looking at in the latest chapter of Future Odds.

Let’s check out what’s happening for the Western Conference Champions.

If you’ve read any of the other articles in this series, you already know how bullish I am on this year’s team. With a little luck, I think the Oilers have as good of a chance as anyone to win the Stanley Cup, and I truly believe they’re going to be in the mix to make that happen. And while I think the Oilers have the skill and firepower needed to be the league’s best team, betting on them to win the Presidents’ Trophy is something that I personally couldn’t care less about. As for the odds shown above, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I do enjoy seeing the Oilers near the top of the pile as favourites to put up the most regular season points. At the same time, I can absolutely see someone from the East winning the award after a season spent feasting on horrible teams — I’m looking at you Columbus, Montreal, and Philadelphia.

At the end of the day, winning the Presidents’ Trophy takes skill, luck, goaltending, special teams, health, and basically any other item you can think of to pull off the best season of the year. And when it comes to betting, I think it’s too hard to predict which team will have everything go right for them during an 82-game season, especially with the quality of teams at the top. I mean, regardless of my own feelings about the Oilers, I could absolutely see the Hurricanes or Devils going on a run through the Metropolitan Division and building themselves an uncatchable buffer. For me, this is one of those season long awards that are too tough to predict and that’s why I’ll be staying out of it even though I really, really like the idea of winning a 6:1 bet.

What do you think?