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Knights favored to win Stanley Cup next year, too

Updated June 6, 2023 - 11:26 am

The 2023 Stanley Cup is still up for grabs, but the Golden Knights already have been installed by one sportsbook as the favorites to win the 2024 NHL title.

The Knights are the 8-1 favorites at Caesars Sportsbook to win it all next year, followed by the Avalanche at 9-1.

Colorado, the 2022 Stanley Cup champion, is the 8-1 favorite to win the 2024 Stanley Cup at the South Point and Westgate SuperBook, where the Knights are tied for the 12-1 fourth choice behind the Oilers (10-1) and Maple Leafs (10-1).

“The grind that a team has to go through (to reach the Stanley Cup Final), it takes a toll,” SuperBook vice president of risk Ed Salmons said. “Most likely, it will be a tough year for the Knights to have the success they had this year.”

Circa Sports made the Bruins the 9-1 favorites, followed by the Avalanche and Oilers at 10-1 and the Knights and Devils at 11-1.

“At this time last year, Colorado was the favorite. But it’s just so hard to repeat in anything,” Salmons said. “As long as the Avalanche have (Nathan) MacKinnon, (Mikko) Rantanen and (Cale) Makar, it’s impossible to discount them. They have the pedigree. They just had a ton of injuries this year.

“The Edmonton team has won playoff series. They just haven’t gotten over the hump yet. Their power play was phenomenal. When you have two players the way they do (in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl), that team will be dangerous.”

Toronto hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, but that hasn’t stopped bettors from loading up on the Maple Leafs.

“They’re just an automatic bet,” Salmons said. “It’s just bet after bet on the Leafs. It’s kind of like how it was with the Cubs before they won the World Series.”

Salmons expects some young players to step up next season for the Knights.

“In sports, if you want to stay good, you always have to rotate in young guys and keep it fresh,” he said. “The Knights actually have some young guys I think are going to rotate in next year. In years past, we weren’t sure if they had young guys to be able to mix in. But through all the injuries they’ve gone through, especially this year, they made a couple trades that have really helped their depth.

“And having to play other guys, they’ve had a couple young guys really step up and they look like they could be players next year.”

Besides goalie Adin Hill, the breakout star of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Salmons praised the play earlier this season of Pavel Dorofeyev, who had seven goals and two assists in 18 games for the Knights.

$41 to win $70K

A Barstool Sportsbook bettor who needed the Panthers to win the Stanley Cup and the Heat to win the NBA title to turn $41.25 into $763,835.33 cashed out the four-team parlay early Monday for $70,429.98.

The bettor hit the first two legs of the parlay in April on an Orioles-Nationals game to go under nine runs and Zizou Bergs (-134) to beat Patrick Kypson in a tennis match on the ATP Challenger Tour in Tallahassee, Florida.

The other two legs of the 18,517-to-1 long shot were on Miami (80-1) and Florida (70-1) to win it all.

After the Heat beat the Nuggets on Sunday night to even the NBA Finals at one game apiece, the gambler cashed out for the reduced, but still lucrative, amount.

Parlay cashouts are not available at Las Vegas sportsbooks.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.

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