2026 Stanley Cup Odds, Futures: Oilers edge Panthers in opening odds
The opening championship odds for most team sports generally features the two finalists from the previous season among the favourites, so it’s no surprise to see the Panthers and Oilers as top Stanley Cup contenders in 2026.
Despite losing to the Panthers in the Cup Final each of the last two seasons, it’s actually Edmonton favoured to win the Stanley Cup next year, just ahead of Florida.
Let’s check out the top 2026 Stanley Cup contenders.
The Oilers opened as +650 favourites to win the Stanley Cup next season, followed by the Panthers at +750.
As long as Edmonton has the two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, they’ll be in a Stanley Cup window. But, this team clearly needs some surgery in the off-season after coming up one win short of the Cup in 2024 and two wins short in 2025.
The elephant in the room is the goaltending. There were a ton of questions about Stuart Skinner’s ability to rise to the occasion and he answered those in the negative after getting pulled twice in the Stanley Cup Final. Skinner’s $2.6 million cap hit for one more year is reasonable to deal with, but if Edmonton sticks with him next year, it needs to be in a backup or tandem role. Whatever it takes, the Oilers need a different starting goalie to get over the hump if they reach a third straight Stanley Cup Final.
Florida, on the other hand, has been to three straight Cup Finals with Sergei Bobrovsky and they won’t change that up as they go for a fourth Cup Final appearance next year. The Panthers are aiming to be the first team to win at least three straight championships since the Islanders won four in a row from 1980 to 1983.
Before the Cats can make another Cup run, they have some burning questions. Sam Bennett is headed into free agency at the best possible time. Coming off a Conn Smythe win and second Stanley Cup, Bennett will command more in free agency than the Panthers are willing or able to give him. However, there’s a good chance he stays. It’s been beat to death, but Florida has no state tax, so Bennett can sign for a lower cap hit with the Panthers and actually take home more money than if he signed for a higher cap hit in Canada or some other U.S. states.
Brad Marchand was a perfect fit for Florida and he will go down as one of the best trade deadline additions in recent memory. The 37-year-old has massively increased his value and despite the fit, it looks more likely that he’ll find a new home in free agency.
As for the rest of the top five, there’s not a lot of creativity. Four of those teams were the conference finalists this past season and the fifth team, Colorado, won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
The Avalanche are intriguing at +800 to win the Cup in 2026. For the first time since 2022, Colorado has filled the 2C whole permanently with Brock Nelson and their goaltending tandem of Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood is arguably better than the tandem they had in 2022. They’ll also have a full season of captain Gabriel Landeskog for the first time since that Stanley Cup year.
Dallas has been to three straight conference finals, but they’ll definitely look different next year. Pete DeBoer is out as head coach and while they’ll have a full season of Mikko Rantanen, money needs to move out this off-season. That leads to questions about the future of Jason Robertson, Matt Duchene, Jamie Benn, Mikael Granlund and others.
Carolina rounds out the top five. Personally, I’d be much quicker to jump on Vegas at +1200 to win the Stanley Cup over the Hurricanes at +900. Carolina has a lot of cap space to make big moves this off-season, but they were so thoroughly outclassed by Florida in the conference finals, I don’t see them being able to completely change the DNA of their roster to become a true Cup contender.
