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No trophy in professional sports is older than the Stanley Cup, which dates back to 1892. It was originally the award for the top amateur ice hockey club in Canada and was named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada. The Montreal Hockey Club were the first winners, back in 1893, and pro teams became eligible to vie for it starting in 1906. Today, there are three Stanley Cups: the original bowl, the “Presentation Cup” and the “Permanent Cup,” which has been corrected for spelling. The Presentation Cup is usually the one that you can see at the Hockey Hall of Fame, but when it’s not there, the Permanent Cup sits in its place. The Presentation Cup goes to the winners of the playoffs, and each player gets a day with it. That has led to some needed repairs, as when one of the Dallas Stars, who won the Cup in 1999, dropped it in his swimming pool and it received a noticeable dent. We’re still a couple of months away from the start of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but it’s time to start thinking about this event on your sports betting radar.
Let’s go over how the NHL playoffs work and how you can start building it into your wagering.
NHL News: How Do the Stanley Cup Playoffs Work?
What is the playoff format?
The NHL currently has 32 clubs, and 16 of them qualify for the playoffs. The league is divided into four divisions (Metropolitan and Atlantic in the Eastern Conference, and Central and Pacific in the Western Conference). The top three finishers in each division qualify for the playoffs, and then the next two best records from each conference qualify as wild cards. Standings are based on points – teams receive two points for regulation, overtime or shootout wins and one point for an overtime or shootout loss.
In the first round, the wild card team with the worst record opens against the division winner from that same conference with the best record. The other wild card team opens against the other division winner. The second-place and third-place teams within each division open against each other. All series are in best-of-seven format. If the division champions win their opening rounds, they would face the winner of the second- and third-place series from their own division.
To give an example, let’s look at how the Western Conference side of the bracket would look if the season ended today (February 11, 2025).
In the Central Division, the top three teams are the Winnipeg Jets, the Dallas Stars, and the Minnesota Wild. In the Pacific Division, the Edmonton Oilers, the Vegas Golden Knights, and the L.A. Kings are the top three. After those six teams, the team with the next-best record is the Colorado Rockies, who have 68 points. After that, the other wild-card team would be the Vancouver Canucks, who have 63 points.
The Jets have the best record in the conference, with 81 points. They would open against the Canucks. The Oilers would open against the Rockies. The Stars and Wild would square off, as would the Golden Knights and the Kings.
What wagers can you make right now for the playoffs?
There are a number of futures props out there for NHL bettors right now. You can bet on which team you think will win the Cup, as well as each division at the end of the regular season, and the conference just before the Cup Finals. There are futures props on each of the end-of-season awards, such as the Hart Trophy (league MVP), the Vezina Trophy (the top goalie), and the Art Ross Trophy (the individual scoring leader). There’s also the Jack Adams Trophy (for the league’s best coach), but it can be hard to find odds for that before the league names finalists late in the season.
Who will make the playoffs?
Western Conference
The Winnipeg Jets took off winning at an historic pace. They did cool off a bit, but they now have a six-game winning streak and an 8-2-0 record over their last 10 games. They lead the NHL with total points and their +64 goal differential. The question down the stretch is whether Connor Hellebuyck can carry them in net through the playoffs – as it has been for the last few seasons. In the playoffs.
The Edmonton Oilers finally have ownership willing to spend on talent – which is a must in today’s NHL. It’s not like the 1980s, when the Oil could run off multiple Cup titles without sinking big dollars into free agency. The Oilers are now the NHL’s sixth-most valuable franchise at US$2.45 billion. In 2002, they were only worth $86 million, which ranked 30th. Investing in quality pays off in franchise value, and the pairing of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl makes Edmonton one of the most dangerous teams in the league, night in and night out. In the playoffs.
The Dallas Stars are still rolling along despite missing Tyler Seguin and Miro Heiskanen. It’s possible that they won’t return for the rest of the regular season. They do have an elite goalie in Jake Oettinger, and they’ve added Cody Ceci and Mikael Granlund, but with those two big holes in the lineup, they need another scorer and another defenseman to secure things down the stretch. In the playoffs.
Did you know that the Vegas Golden Knights have made the playoffs each year of their existence as a franchise except for 2021-22? They won the Cup two years ago before getting bounced in the first round last year, and now they’re making another case as a contender, sitting in second in the Pacific. Imagine what might happen if Adin Hill and Ilya Samsonov (or at least one of them) started playing up to their past excellence in net. In the playoffs.
The Minnesota Wild have some injury worries, but they’re tight against the salary cap, so they don’t have a lot of room to bring in outside help. If they do make a move, they’ll have to do so by finding greatness in the bargain bin. The 10-game suspension that Ryan Hartman got for sending Tim Stutzle’s face into the ice with his whole body weight in the last seconds of their game against Ottawa hasn’t helped, either. However, they’re already at 70 points and are eight points clear of sliding out of the postseason…for now. In the playoffs.
The Colorado Avalanche brought in Martin Necas via trade, and he has fit in quite nicely. Along with Jack Drury, Necas has come to Colorado to push their chances of another Cup. He already has five points in five games, including a SportsCenter Top 10 goal. However, the scoring drought of Casey Mittelstadt (two goals in his last 38 goals, 10 straight games without a goal) could make him expendable if the Avs can find a taker before the deadline. In the playoffs.
The L.A. Kings got Drew Doughty back on January 29, and the next night he played 27:43 of ice time against Tampa Bay. Their offense ranks last in scoring per game (2.18) since January 1, and the power play is a primary culprit, lighting the lamp only 9.1% over the time during that time frame. Even so, defense wins games. In the playoffs.
The Calgary Flames shipped Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier to Philadelphia in exchange for Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost. Frost had been struggling with the Flyers and looks for a fresh beginning. Farabee focuses on the penalty kill, and anything that boosts the Calgary D is a bonus. In the playoffs.
The Vancouver Canucks finally solved their drama problem by shipping J.T. Miller east to the New York Rangers. Quinn Hughes is a Norris Trophy contender and could get some Hart Trophy nods as well. They also brought in defenseman Marcus Pettersson. How long will Thatcher Demko be absent in net? The Canucks won’t get back to their winning ways consistently without him. Also, Elias Pettersson, known to the fans as EP40, must figure out how to score. He has just 17 goals in 52 games so far, and the team needs more from him.
Eastern Conference
The Washington Capitals are galvanized by Alex Ovechkin’s chase for the all-time goal record. However, their offense is much bigger than one skater, even a skater for the ages. Over their last 10 games, the Caps have gone 7-1-2, and part of their 2024-25 legacy, even if the Cup doesn’t come to D.C., should be a new record holder for goals scored. In the playoffs.
The Florida Panthers are rolling along, but they could use a big blueliner. Dmitry Kulikov has to play just about 20 minutes a night, which is too much of a workload. The fatigue of the long season is likely to wear him down, particularly once we get to the grind of the playoffs. The Panthers need to add another name to their defense to help get them a deep run. In the playoffs.
The Carolina Hurricanes made a seismic move when they added Mikko Rantanen. That made their offense legit again, and now they’re back in Cup contention. Before that, they had to rely too much on their defense. Rantanen has taken a bit to fit in, but he’s rehabbing an injury and had no idea the trade was even coming – this was the NHL’s version of the Luka-for-AD trade that rocked the NBA. In the playoffs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in second in the Atlantic Division, but they could really use a third-line center who can find the back of the net in the playoffs. Once the postseason rolls around, opposing teams find ways to lock down the top two scoring lines, so having some scoring depth will help the Leafs finally make that deep run we’ve been hearing about since Mike Babcock took the reins. In the playoffs.
The Ottawa Senators are hanging around in fourth place in the Atlantic and would have the top wild card slot in the East if the season ended today. They do have some holes in the forward group and on the blue line, but they need to add scoring. Forward Josh Norris should return from injury soon after the 4 Nations Face-Off, but Nick Cousins’ knee surgery will keep him out until the end of March. Playing competitive hockey without those two contributors is a positive sign, though. In the playoffs.
The Tampa Bay Lightning still have a fired-up coach in Jon Cooper. His name is on the Cup twice already, and he’s been to another Cup Final. They could use one more player on the second scoring line to go along with Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli. Having that third contributor on that line would make the Lightning much more dangerous once they start running into better defenses in the postseason. In the playoffs.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are looking to get back to the Cup chase for the first time in five seasons. They should be buyers, but not for short-term rentals. This is a young team with a potentially long title window, so the additions they make should be in their prime but also come with team control for multiple seasons down the line. In the playoffs.
The Detroit Red Wings currently hold the last wild card in the East, although they’re just a point ahead of Columbus and Boston. Their biggest flaw right now is the penalty kill, which has only stopped 69.7% of man advantages on the season. Their biggest trade deadline priority should be someone to help lock down that defense. Their core is young, fast and talented, with none of their key contributors over the age of 24. The top players in that group have been Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, but Simon Edvinsson, Elmer Soderblom, Jonatan Berggren, and Marco Kasper have all been chipping in. In the playoffs.
The New Jersey Devils have started to take on some water. Over their last 10, they’re just 4-4-2. They lost captain Nico Hischier and top goalie Jacob Markstrom, and the Metropolitan Division, where they sit third, is extremely crowded. They need to find some ways to deal with adversity until they get those two contributors back. It’s hard to see them holding their own as some of other teams around them pick up steam. Out of the playoffs.
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