Welcome to the 2022-23 season preview as brought to you by Betway Sports. We’ll be taking a dive into each teams offseason and what their Stanley Cup odds are for next season from the worst odds to the best. All odds current as of the time of writing.
Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup Odds: +10000
If we want to talk about some tidy work, look no further than what new GM Kent Hughes did with the Montreal Canadiens. Not only did they stick to their guns drafting their guy Juraj Slafkovsky first overall, but they made some fine looking trades, too.
At the draft, they traded defenceman Alexander Romanov and a 4th-round pick to the New York Islanders for 13th overall, then flipped that pick with a third-rounder to the Chicago Blackhawks for Kirby Dach.
A week later, they moved defenceman Jeff Petry — who wanted out of Montreal for family reasons — alongside Ryan Poehling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for defenceman Michael Matheson and a 2023 4th round pick.
On paper, the Habs should be a better team than they were last year. I’m shocked the Blackhawks moved on from Dach this offseason, and I think he’s a great bounce-back candidate with Les Canadiens. Matheson’s a solid defenceman and will definitely offset the loss of Petry.
While rumors swirled about a potential Josh Anderson trade, I don’t mind them holding onto the forward. Injuries have been an issue for him throughout his career, but he’s scored at a 20.5 goal per game pace prorated over an 82-game season.
Are we betting on the Canadiens to win the cup? No, we’re not. They’re not a terrible team, per se, and as we saw from their run to the cup a few years ago anything can happen, but with an injured Carey Price, it’s hard to imagine them making much noise out east.