NHL Betting News This Week | Best Bets For Stanley Cup Final Four, Market Watch & Betting Analysis | May 19, 2026
The Stanley Cup playoffs are down to the final four, and there’s a familiar feel to the surroundings. It will be the Carolina Hurricanes facing the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference final. In the West, the conference final matchup pits the Colorado Avalanche against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Since entering the NHL in 2018, the Golden Knights have advanced to the final four of the Stanley Cup playoffs five times. This will be Carolina’s third appearance in the last four years and the fourth visit to the East final by the Hurricanes since 2019.
The Avalanche entered the NHL playoffs as the regular-season champions. Colorado is in the final four for the second time in the past five years. Montreal is there for the second time since 2021 and the third time since 2014.
Vegas (2023) and Colorado (2022) are recent Stanley Cup winners. Carolina most recently won in 2006, while Montreal has been without a Cup since 1993. For the Golden Knights and Hurricanes, those were their only Cup victories in franchise history.
Best NHL bets for Stanley Cup conference final matchups
Eastern Conference: Carolina Hurricanes vs Montreal Canadiens
Western Conference: Colorado Avalanche vs Vegas Golden Knights
Each spring, the grueling four rounds of competition for the Stanley Cup not only make for compelling entertainment, it also offer bettors a bunch of wagering opportunities. It starts with the traditional standard fare of game betting on moneylines, puck lines, and total goals. There are also player and game prop options, as well as regular and same-game parlay plays.
Beyond that, NHL bettors can wager on the outcome for each of the eight first-round series. Longer range wagers include future book betting on the winners of the Eastern and Western Conferences, as well as the Stanley Cup. Exact final matchups and precise series outcomes are other betting choices. And there’s also the chance to bet on which player will take home the coveted Conn Smythe Trophy as Stanley Cup MVP.
Before making a deeper assessment of which way to lean in the NHL playoffs best bets, why not take a look at our handy best NHL betting sites list to make the most out of your bets, including the latest props and futures wagering. It’s still not too late to get a wager down on which of these NHL teams is going to win the title. Check out the latest betting lines on our Stanley Cup futures page to do so. In fact, there are already betting lines on the Stanley Cup winner for the 2026-27 season. Have a look at our NHL futures page to see what other wagering options are available during the NHL postseason.
Best Stanley Cup playoff future bets
Avalanche favored to win the Stanley Cup
Hurricanes the pick to storm to East title
Colorado the odds-on choice to win the West
Best Stanley Cup playoff prop bets
The Hurricanes are the sixth team in Stanley Cup history to open the NHL postseason 8-0. No team has ever won the Cup by going 16-0. A prop bet on the Hurricanes offers a +6600 line that Carolina will go 16-0 and win the Stanley Cup.
Carolina is the first team in Stanley Cup history to open the NHL playoffs 8-0 and allow no more than two goals in any of the eight victories. The Hurricanes swept the Ottawa Senators in the first round and the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round.
They are the first team to open the postseason 8-0 since the 1985 Edmonton Oilers. Every one of the other five teams to open 8-0 went on to win the Stanley Cup.
Edmonton actually began the 1985 NHL playoffs that spring with nine successive victories. The Oilers finished that playoff year with a 15-3 record.
In 1976, the Canadiens started the playoffs 8-0. Montreal wound up going 12-2 and winning the Cup. In 1969, Montreal opened the playoffs 8-0, winning the Stanley Cup while finishing with a 12-2 slate.
In the six-team NHL era, when it took only eight wins to capture the Cup, two clubs managed to go 8-0 and complete a perfect playoff season. The Canadiens did it in 1960, and the Detroit Red Wings went 8-0 while winning the Stanley Cup in 1952.
Conn Smythe Trophy Odds
Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes players each dominate the top places in Conn Smythe Trophy future betting. Avs captain Nathan MacKinnon is the +175 chalk to be Stanley Cup MVP. Defenseman Cale Makar (+1700) and forward Martin Necas (+8000) are also top contenders.
Makar won the Conn Smythe Trophy when the Avs won the Cup in 2021-22. Necas has 1-10-11 totals through Colorado's first nine games.
From the Hurricanes, there's Frederik Andersen (+400), Taylor Hall (+1400), Logan Stankoven (+1400), and Jackson Blake (+1700). Hall (3-9-12) leads the Hurricanes in scoring this postseason. The club’s offensive catalyst, Hall, has tied the franchise’s most assists and points by a player through the first eight games of a playoff year.
One of the sickest goals you'll ever see. Mitch Marner WOW 🔥pic.twitter.com/X2sWAl0OKl https://t.co/i1pUr34Q5i
— TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) May 15, 2026
It's Vegas center Mitch Marner (7-11-18) who is leading the NHL playoffs in scoring. He's the third betting choice to win the Conn Smythe at +1400. Jack Eichel (+2700) is another Vegas player in contention. Goalie Jakub Dobes (+2200) and defenseman Lane Hutson (+2200) are the top contenders with the Canadiens.
Montreal captain Jean Beliveau was the first winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy back in 1964-65. Only five players have ever been voted playoff MVP from a team that didn't win the Stanley Cup. The most recent was Edmonton's Connor McDavid in 2024.
If you're looking for Conn Smythe Trophy betting trends, the last three winners of the award were all forwards. Interestingly, two of the past five winners of the playoff MVP were defensemen. Since 1972, just one defenseman has been recognized as the NHL regular-season MVP. Six different goaltenders have had their names inscribed on the Conn Smythe Trophy since 2001.
NHL Playoffs Series Props
Six games are set as the +225 favorite for the length of the Eastern Conference final between the Canadiens and Hurricanes. However, Carolina winning the set in five games is the +325 chalk in a series correct score outcome.
Montreal forward Cole Caufield is the +350 favorite to score the most goals in the Eastern Conference final. Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki is showing as the +280 betting choice to top the series in points.
Six games are also the +220 betting line choice on the length of the Western Conference final between the Avalanche and Golden Knights. But it's Colorado winning in five games that is the +325 chalk in a series correct score outcome.
Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon is the +140 betting choice to be the top goal scorer in the series. MacKinnon is also the +120 chalk to be the leading point getter in the set.
Stanley Cup betting trends to watch
Will the Presidents' Trophy curse bite the Colorado Avalanche? This is the 40th season that the NHL has awarded the Presidents' Trophy to the top regular-season team. Of the previous 39 winners, only eight teams have gone on to win the Stanley Cup. The most recent to do so was the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks.
This will be the first Stanley Cup final not to feature a team from the state of Florida since 2019, when the St. Louis Blues beat the Boston Bruins. The Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2020 and 2021 Cups, then lost to Colorado in the 2022 final. After losing to Vegas in the 2023 final, the Florida Panthers wound up winning over Edmonton the past two springs.
The Oilers are the first team to lose back-to-back Stanley Cup finals since the Boston Bruins in 1977 and 1978. No team has lost three Cup final series in a row since the Blues in 1968, 1969, and 1970.
Here's an omen that favors the Canadiens. An Atlantic Division team has played in each of the past eight Stanley Cup final series. The 2021 final pitted two Atlantic Division teams against each other when Tampa Bay beat Montreal.
Canadiens Offering Canadian Content
Montreal is carrying the flag for the NHL's Canadian clubs. No Canadian-based NHL franchise has won the Stanley Cup since the Canadiens in 1992-93. Canadian teams were losing finalists in three of the past five Stanley Cup final series.
ALEX NEWHOOK, GAME 7 HERO 🤩 pic.twitter.com/0MPq4HL3ik
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 19, 2026
The Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups overall, including 23 since the NHL was formed. They are also the only team among the Stanley Cup final four that’s beaten each of the other three remaining teams in a playoff series. They beat Vegas in the 2021 final four and defeated the Avalanche in their previous life as the Quebec Nordiques.
Montreal's path is similar to the one taken by the 2010 Canadiens. Those Habs also won the first two rounds by taking Game 7 of each series on the road. This spring, Montreal has won Game 7 outcomes at Tampa Bay (first round) and Buffalo (second round).
They've done so behind Czech goalie Jakub Dobes. It was Czech goalie Jaroslav Halak who backstopped Montreal to the 2010 final four. However, the bad news in his betting trend is that the Canadiens were eliminated in the 2010 Eastern Conference final.
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