Welcome to the 2022-23 season preview as brought to you by Betway Sports. We’ll be taking a dive into each team’s offseason and what their Stanley Cup odds are for next season from the worst odds to the best. All odds are current as of the time of writing.
Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup Odds: +1600
Few teams could be in a tougher spot than the Vegas Golden Knights.
They lost Max Pacioretty in a cap dump this offseason, and early returns on the Jack Eichel blockbuster have been… less than ideal. Another cap casualty? Evgenii Dadonov, who was sent to the Montreal Canadiens for Shea Weber‘s contract.
On that front, the Golden Knights are going to be in tight with starting goaltender Robin Lehner out for the entire season due to hip surgery. Yeah, not great.
Vegas recently picked up Adin Hill to help share the load, so it will be between him and career backup Laurent Brossoit to steady the ship behind Logan Thompson.
With cap space tight, the only negligible move they made in free agency was bringing in Phil Kessel, who is projected to play on their top line.
The Golden Knights have some nice pieces. Eichel will hopefully look rejuvenated alongside Reilly Smith and Kessel, while superstar Mark Stone and scoring winger Jonathan Marchessault will help steady the top six.
On the backend, Alex Pietrangelo will be looked to as the Golden Knights’ number one defenceman, but the hope is Shea Theodore can continue to develop and take another big step forward this year.
Are we betting on the Golden Knights to win the cup? No, we’re not. While they have some nice pieces, their goaltending is a definite weak point and I’m not convinced they have the depth up front to compete with the top teams in the West. Despite the +1600 odds looking decent, this is a team I want no part of in the betting markets.