Best nhl future bets

AJ's Pick: Last season, the Panthers edged out the Avalanche by three points to take home the Presidents' Trophy but it's Colorado that finds itself as the favorite here. For the second straight yet, the club will enter the season with a new starting goaltender after letting Darcy Kuemper leave in free agency and signing Alexander Georgiev. The team will also have to overcome the potential loss of Gabriel Landeskog lower body for an undetermined timeframe.

AJ's Longshot Pick: Check out this portion of my preseason longshot last year: "Over the past three seasons, nobody has scored more points than teammates Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for the Oilers. The problem in Edmonton has always been the goalie duo Still, it's the Avalanche's trophy to lose here. The only reason I didn't take them as my best bet in the Divisional section is that they don't return great odds in that spot.

As I mentioned, the only real question mark is the fact that for the second straight year, Colorado enters the season with a brand new netminder. It didn't slow them down last year and I would expect it won't this time around either. AJ's Longshot Pick: Historically, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin has played some of his best games when his opponents have gotten him angry. With the dust settling on an eventful first week of NHL free agency, three teams outside of the five favorites have done enough to warrant futures Stanley Cup considerations.

All five teams are built for success now and will want to capitalize on their respective stacked rosters. What a difference a week has made for Ron Hextall and Co. The Pens, against persuasive conjecture, managed to re-sign Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to long-term deals, both of whom have devoted their entire careers to the Pens after joining the club in Despite their injury-riddled resumes, that is pure speculation, similar to the wholesale belief that Malkin was about to hightail out of Pittsburgh.

The Pens also solidified their blueline last week, signing stalwarts Jan Rutta and Jeff Petry, who are entering the twilight of their respective careers. Rutta is 31 years old, and Petry is Pittsburgh is also buoyed, knowing Tristan Jarry has recovered fully from a foot injury that prevented him from suiting up against the Rangers in the opening round. For all their wondrous talent, Letang, Malkin — and Sidney Crosby for that matter — are like the antithesis of fine wine.

Their bodies are deteriorating, increasing the propensity for potential injury. All three acclaimed players will know their time to win a fourth Stanley Cup is quickly waning. The accelerated timeline the triumvirate has to work with could provide the motivation and inspiration required for one final Stanley Cup run.

But the Blueshirts recovered well, with Chris Drury convincing Vincent Trocheck to sign on the dotted line.

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With the Avalanche chalk Stanley Cup favorites — Nate has an edge for this award. Look for Point to carry his momentum into this season and continue to be the newfound offensive driver of his championship-caliber squad as they look to be the first team to repeat as Stanley Cup champions since the Pittsburgh Penguins teams.

While Crosby has battled injuries in recent seasons, he is still one of the premier players in the game and sustains over a point-per-game pace when on the ice. He put up 41 goals — surpassing his previous career-high of 30 in a mere 57 games. That was good for the league lead in goals per game 0.

While his teammate, Artemi Panarin, receives a majority of the hype, Mika possesses world-class skill while shouldering a larger defensive responsibility than his aforementioned teammate. He was a worthy Vezina finalist and has a great chance to earn consideration again in At 27 years old, Saros should be at the peak of his powers.

He'll have more help this season, too. Realizing a top-heavy offense wasn't enough to contend - even with great goaltending - the Predators added some much-needed reinforcements this offseason. They signed Nino Niederreiter , a very strong defensive winger who can also chip in offensively, and pried Ryan McDonagh from the cap-strapped Tampa Bay Lightning. Those additions should make Nashville a much better defensive team and make Saros' life easier at five-on-five.

If Saros continues to do his part - and the Predators move up the standings a little bit - he's a legitimate Vezina threat. While the Calgary Flames lost plenty of firepower this offseason, they replaced a lot of it with the additions of Jonathan Huberdeau , Nazem Kadri , and potentially Sonny Milano. Perhaps more importantly, Calgary improved defensively. Adding him to a defense corps that already features Rasmus Andersson , Chris Tanev , and Noah Hanifin should give Calgary one of the best blue-line groups in the league.