Obviously it’s way too early to get a good sense of who will win the Stanley Cup in 2015 as the team rosters aren’t even set yet. Still, the online oddsmaker Bovada is already releasing odds on who will win it all and just for fun, here are their very early chances:
1) Chicago Blackhawks -- 15/2
2) Boston Bruins -- 8/1
3) Pittsburgh Penguins -- 9/1
4) Los Angeles Kings -- 10/1
4) St. Louis Blues -- 10/1
6) Anaheim Ducks -- 14/1
6) San Jose Sharks -- 14/1
8) Colorado Avalanche -- 18/1
8) Minnesota Wild -- 18/1
8) New York Rangers -- 18/1
For the sake of comparison, Bovada’s odds also favored the Blackhawks in July 2013, with Pittsburgh, Boston, Los Angeles, and St. Louis rounding out the top-five. In other words, a year hasn’t changed a lot, which isn’t surprising given that given that all of those teams have strong cores in place that will allow them to stay very competitive for quite some time.
If Chicago does end up winning the championship, then they will combine with Los Angeles to become the first duo to trade the Cup back-and-forth for four straight years since Montreal and Boston did it for five campaigns from 1969-73.