NHL 2025-26 Season Preview: Can Florida Claim the Hat-Trick?

What Teams Could Be On the Decline

The truth of the matter is that every teams goal is to be better the following season, but in reality some teams are going to go backward, so let’s check out three teams we believe could be on the decline in 2025-26.

Toronto Maple Leafs

They looked like they had their best chance of making the Stanley Cup finals last season, but they couldn’t get past the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers. In fairness, Florida is really hard to beat.

The Maple Leafs have lost Mitch Marner to free agency, a 100 point a year player. They will likely look to lean on Auston Matthews a lot more but they also have to deal with the fact that they are in the toughest division in the NHL. Toronto could struggle to make the playoffs this season.

Toronto is currently +2000 NHL betting odds to win the Stanley Cup, we would like to get at least +3500 to consider them as a potential bet.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets are still going to be strong, but we don’t believe they will be 116 points strong like last season. The Jets were the best regular season team last year, with their goaltender Connor Hellebuyck picking up both the Vezina and Hart trophies.

Winnipeg also lost Nikolaj Ehlers to the Carolina Hurricanes in free agency, and he will be a big loss to the team. The Jets should make the post-season, but not be a top three team in the regular season.

The Winnipeg Jets are +2500 NHL betting odds to win the Stanley Cup, which is a fair set of odds.

Washington Capitals

They are probably the only team we can guarantee will not finish with as much points as they did last season. Washington scored 111 regular season points last year, and honestly we would be surprised to see them hit 95 points this upcoming season.

The Capitals won’t be the worst team by any means, but they had a bit of an anomaly season last year as the team played way above their ability, and a lot of it seemed to be the rally behind Alexander Ovechkin to get Wayne Gretzkys record, and of course a lot of credit goes to their coach Spencer Carbery for getting the best out of this group last season, but somehow we can’t see a repeat this upcoming season.

The Washington Capitals odds to win the cup at +3000 reflect how much of an outsider they are this season, honestly we would like to get +4500 to consider taking the Capitals to win the cup this season.

Who Are The Front Runners

Let’s break it down as simple as this, a recent poll showed only 4.3% of NHL fans feel the Edmonton Oilers can win the cup this season, yet their NHL Stanley Cup odds reflect a 10% chance to win it all. According to the poll the Oilers should be +2200 to win it all.

Now we know it’s only a poll and it could be completely way off, but we tend to somewhat agree that we don’t feel the Oilers are worth betting to win the cup at +850 NHL betting odds, at the very least we would want to be getting +1200. We don’t feel they have another run in them.

What about the back-to-back champions Florida? They are +600 and for good reason, because they are likely going to go deep yet again in the playoffs. The Panthers have now been to three Stanley Cup finals in a row, and of course, won two in a row. We like the +600 odds available on the Panthers to go all the way. Shop around at the top sportsbooks, as +700/750 would be amazing odds to get on the Panthers.

In With a Shout

In truth theirs a few teams who could surprise this season, yes the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes are a danger and could pose a treat this season but Colorado haven’t been as strong a team since their 2021 winning campaign and Carolina keep falling right at the final hurdle which makes them a hard team to trust to get the job done.

The Dallas Stars are going to be dangerous yet again this season, and we like their odds at +10000 to win it all. Finally, the Vegas Golden Knights are looking like one of the best pre-season bets at the moment, having acquired Mitch Marner from free agency. The Knights’ Stanley Cup winning odds went from +10000 to win the cup to +750 following Marner’s addition.

*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.