NHL Playoffs 2024: Odds, Hot Takes, Top Storylines Entering Postseason

The depth of potential Stanley Cup winners is as high as its been in quite some time.

Ten teams finished the regular season with at least 100 points and most of the races for division titles and wild-card spots went down to the final two weeks of the regular season.

The 16-team postseason begins on Saturday with a pair of Eastern Conference matchups, including the 2024 playoff debut of the current Stanley Cup favorite Carolina Hurricanes.

Carolina is only a slight favorite over the other top contenders on the odds board.

Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers are tied with the Colorado Avalanche for the lowest Stanley Cup odds out of the Western Conference.

Edmonton carries the best odds to end Canada's 31-year Stanley Cup drought, but with the way its bracket is set, it may not be the best positioned Canadian team to reach the Stanley Cup Final.

Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook.

Carolina (+650; bet $100 to win $650)

Florida (+700)

Edmonton (+700)

Colorado (+700)

New York Rangers (+800)

Dallas (+850)

Boston (+1100)

Vegas (+1300)

Toronto (+1400)

Vancouver (+1600)

Winnipeg (+2000)

Tampa Bay (+2500)

Los Angeles (+3000)

Nashville (+4000)

New York Islanders (+5000)

Washington (+15000)

The 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs have the potential to be one of the best postseasons in recent memory.

All of the four division titles were decided by five points or less. The Eastern Conference wild-card race and the competition for the No. 3 spot in the Pacific Division came down to the final games for those respective teams.

Additionally, the New York Rangers had to wait until Monday to clinch the Presidents' Trophy. They were one of five teams to reach the 110-point mark.

The quality at the top of each conference should lend itself to more competitive series than blowouts.

A year ago, four of the eight series after the first round wrapped up in four or five games, including the Vegas Golden Knights' 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.

That should not be the case regardless of which teams advance to the second round. The only team who you could make a case that is out of its depth is the Washington Capitals, who overachieved in a rebuilding year and earned the second wild-card spot in the East.

The Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks are representing Canada in the Stanley Cup Playoffs field.

All of them are aiming to become the first Canadian Stanley Cup winner since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

Edmonton has the lowest odds to win the Cup among the quartet, but it has a difficult path just to get to the Western Conference Final.

The Oilers start with their third-straight postseason matchup against the Los Angeles Kings. Edmonton beat the Kings in 2022 and 2023, but then it ran out of gas later in the postseason.

Vancouver could be best positioned to reach the West final because it has an easier matchup with the Nashville Predators and would face a worn-down Edmonton or Los Angeles in the second round.

Winnipeg's playoff run is dependent on how well Connor Hellebuyck can play in net. The Jets are outmatched on the top line against the Colorado Avalanche in the first round, but if Hellebuyck is the goalie that gets hot in the postseason, they could be in for an extended playoff stay.

Toronto has had trouble just winning series in the postseason lately. The Maple Leafs ended a six-year opening-round losing streak last season and then fell in the second round.

Auston Matthews and Co. have the toughest path to the conference final of the Canadian quartet because it has to go through the Boston Bruins and then either Florida or the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Edmonton and Vancouver appear to be the best Canadian hopes, but even getting to the third round has been tough for teams from north of the border. A Canadian team appeared in the conference final round twice since 2015.

There's always one team that outlasts its expected stay in the postseason because of a hot goalie.

A year ago, Adin Hill stopped 90 percent of the shots he faced in 12 of Vegas' 15 postseason games on the way to winning the Stanley Cup.

Andrei Vasilevskiy was a vital part to Tampa Bay's back-to-back titles in 2020 and 2021, as was Jordan Binnington with the St. Louis Blues in 2019.

Hellebuyck seems like the obvious candidate to be the goalie that helps a team overachieve in the postseason.

The Winnipeg netminder produced a 2.39 goals against average and .921 save percentage in the regular season. He finished in the top five in both categories.

Vancouver's Thatcher Demko and Florida's Anthony Stolarz were the other two goalies to finish in the top five of each category.

Florida has a good chance of returning to the Stanley Cup Final, so the play of Stolarz and Sergei Bobrovsky would not be a surprise.

Demko just returned from a month-long injury absence, but if he is in top form, he could lead Vancouver on a deep run.

Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders could be the goalie that surprises us the most. He finished third in save percentage and allowed three goals or less in his last eight starts.

The Islanders are not expected to beat the Hurricanes in the first round, but Varlamov could neutralize the Carolina offense and deliver the biggest upset of the early postseason.

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