NHL Best Bets – NHL Futures

Anaheim Ducks players Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier celebrate with teammates after scoring a goal.

The Pacific Division will be a three horse race this season. The Los Angeles Kings seem to have lost a step, so that leaves the Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers to block the Ducks from taking the division. And the Anaheim Ducks will have a head start, as both the Golden Knights and the Oilers will have major changes, both behind the bench and throughout their roster. And at 5-t0-1, I don't mind the Ducks to take a quick division lead and never look back as one of my NHL best bets for the season.

The Golden Knights just played the most improbable run in recent playoff memory — going 7-0-1 to close the regular season under new coach John Tortorella, then knocking off Utah, Anaheim, and the Presidents' Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche before losing to Carolina in six games in the Stanley Cup Final. It was an incredible run. It was also an incredibly draining one, which players sustained major injuries and the Golden Knights moved from the coach who gave them the run. The Knights hired their AHL coach Ryan Craig to be the bench boss for this upcoming season and history tells us this adjustment period is real. First-year NHL coaches routinely struggle with the pace and pressure of 82 games, and that's without inheriting a veteran roster still processing the emotional hangover of a Stanley Cup Final loss. New systems. New voice. New dynamic.

And Edmonton is in a similar boat, with the hiring of controversial coach Mike Babcock. Both of the Pacific Division's top heavyweights are walking into October with new coaches, new philosophies, and the weight of high expectations. That is precisely the kind of environment where a motivated, cohesive, and experienced-but-young team like Anaheim can steal points early, build confidence, and find itself in a division race it wasn't supposed to be in, making this a high value NHL best bet.

The Ducks to win the Western Conference is set at +1,200, which is a reach but isn't out of the realm of possibility. 

The Ducks enter the offseason with a projected $38.7 million in cap space, even after signing Carlsson and Gauthier to extensions. That flexibility gives Verbeek the ability to address any remaining roster needs — whether that's adding a veteran center from a roster that may need to move salary, or targeting one of the names available through teams in an ongoing teardown. The Ducks can get better this offseason while their primary competition is navigating coaching transitions and cap crunches

There's also something to be said for the momentum factor. Anaheim played meaningful hockey in April for the first time in nearly a decade. That experience — learning what it takes to compete, to manage pressure, to execute in games that matter — lives in the room now. Add it all up to see why this is one future NHL best bet.

Connor McDavid said the Oilers were "an average team with high expectations" after their elimination. Leon Draisaitl was even more direct: "I am concerned because we're not trending in the right direction. We've taken big steps backwards and have to get a grip of this and head back in the right direction." These are not the words of players who have accepted decline. These are the words of two of the greatest players of their generation, locked in a two-year championship window with the scoreboard counting down, demanding accountability from everyone around them — and then backing it up by personally signing off on the most decorated available coach in the world to come fix it. The Edmonton Oilers to win the Western Conference at +500 is the NHL best bet of the offseason, and the case for it is built on urgency, talent, experience, and the arrival of a coach who builds champions.

The Edmonton Oilers are +1,100 to win the Stanley Cup

The Oilers made a bold decision at head coach. And it is one that seems to point to great success due to a winning pedigree, or a collapse due to recent controversy. The winning pedigree they found belongs to Mike Babcock. Over parts of 17 NHL seasons, the 63-year-old compiled a 700-418-183 record while capturing a Stanley Cup championship with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. He also guided Team Canada to Olympic gold medals in both 2010 and 2014. He is the only coach in hockey history to have won a Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal, a World Championship, and the World Cup of Hockey. He is, resume-wise, the single most decorated coach in modern hockey history.

While Babcock's recent track record as a head coach is much more spotty, and littered with questionable coaching decisions, it was Connor McDavid who indicated he would approve the hiring. This acceptance from the top player in the world lead to a sense of trust between coach and team that is needed to propel Babcock back into relevance.

Strip away the coaching narrative and the contract urgency for a moment, and consider purely what the Oilers bring to the ice. Since McDavid's rookie season in 2016-17, he has accumulated 1,220 points and Draisaitl has 1,044 — the two top scorers in the NHL over that entire span. Those numbers don't age overnight. Both players are 29 and 30 respectively — not declining, but entering the window where great players with great coaching produce their finest work

I'm willing to take a gamble on the motivation from the two stars who NEED a Cup win and a bounce back from a veteran coach to push this team back to the Stanley Cup Finals as a future NHL best bet.