The three local teams enter the 2025-26 NHL season in very different spots.
The Devils failed to meet the high expectations set before them last October, but the betting market is undeterred and believes New Jersey will be among the contenders in the Eastern Conference this season.
Only Florida, Carolina, and Tampa Bay boast shorter odds at FanDuel to win the East.
Speaking of missing expectations, the Rangers were the most disappointing team in the league last season, and sit in no man’s land in the futures market ahead of puck drop.
The Rangers are 28/1 to win the Stanley Cup (FanDuel) and have an Over/Under of 95.5 points, which would put them right in the mix for a wild-card spot.
The betting market is much cooler on the Islanders, who are expected to be in transition as the team turns the keys over to Matthew Schaefer.
The Isles own +220 odds to make the playoffs, are 100/1 to win the Stanley Cup and have been tagged with an 84.5-point Over/Under.
On a team level, the Devils are overrated, at least according to the betting market.
They should be a safe bet to make the playoffs, but they’re a ways behind the heavyweights in the conference as things stand right now.
There are just too many uncertainties to put them in the same tier as Florida, Carolina and Tampa Bay.
The bottom-six could use work, the blueline lacks depth, and their best player, Jack Hughes, has missed 40 games in the last two seasons combined.
Hughes has been a trendy MVP pick over the past two summers, but the injury bug has cooled that hype.
Instead, we’ll look to another high-ceiling player who has battled injuries for most of his career: Dougie Hamilton.
Hamilton missed 62 games in 2023-24 and 18 last season, so this is a risky bet. But the number is massive for a defenseman who scored 22 goals and tallied 74 points just two years ago.
Those numbers are certainly replicable if Hamilton stays on the ice, as the Devils should be an offensive force if their best players are healthy.
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tRY IT NOWA lot of folks will be picking Mike Sullivan to win the Jack Adams, but his number is too short.
The same goes for Igor Shesterkin in the Vezina race, Adam Fox in the Norris and Artemi Panarin to win the Hart.
That puts the focus on Gabriel Perreault, who is a big price to win the Calder Trophy because of how the race is shaping up.
Ivan Demidov (Canadiens) is a clear favorite at +190, but the chasing pack is incredibly deep with 11 players between 13/1 and 30/1.
With so much attention going to other players, Perreault has slipped through the cracks, falling to 50/1.
There’s a chance that Perreault starts the season in Hartford, but if he makes the team out of camp or is an early call-up, this number will get slashed quickly.
The range of outcomes for the Islanders is all over the place.
They could be terrible, or they could be this season’s version of the Washington Capitals, where everything clicks and they surprise everybody from the jump.
If you are bullish on the Isles and think they could be a playoff team, I’d bypass the +220 odds and scroll right to Sorokin to win the Vezina, as these are semi-correlated markets.
For the Islanders to exceed expectations and make a playoff push, they’ll need Sorokin to play at a Vezina-level, which he’s more than capable of doing.
A career .917 goaltender, Sorokin’s numbers have dipped in the past two seasons, but most of that has been because of poor play in front of the Russian netminder.
If things improve in front of Sorokin, his numbers will bounce back.
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.