Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl will enter his first career Stanley Cup Finals with high expectations, that we fear won’t be met.
The Stanley Cup Final starts this Saturday with the Edmonton Oilers representing the West as they take on the Panthers, who represent the East. It’s the time of the year all hockey fans wait for as a new Champion is crowned and legends are made.
The public also has an opportunity to make this Stanley Cup Final historic by earning a huge payday for hitting on special prop bets to celebrate the Finals. You can pick from wide variety of bets like if Connor McDavid or Matthew Tkatchuk will get a point in every game.
The choice is up to you but if you do want to get in on the action, here are some prop bets on the series to avoid.
All betting lines are from BetMGM and are subject to change. Hockey is a difficult sport to predict so please gamble responsibly.
Avoid: Leon Draisaitl props
There’s been a conversation heading into the Stanley Cup Final as to who Aleksander Barkov will look to shut down defensively. He’s made a name for himself as a dominant two-way forward and has made it known this postseason with six goals and 11 assists for 17 points in 17 games.
The bigger stat that people don’t pay attention to is the star forwards of opposing teams Barkov has faced off against. According to Sportsnet Stats, when facing off against Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, Boston’s David Pastrnak and New York’s Artemi Panarin this postseason, he allowed just one goal.
He knows how to shut down elite goal-scorers as the trio of players have combined for 260 goals over the last two seasons. He will look to target Edmonton’s top goal threat, which people may believe to be Connor McDavid but in actuality it’s Draisaitl.
He’s got ten goals so far this postseason and I know you may be thinking why we aren’t thinking of Zach Hyman but Barkov may look at the bigger target, who generates more overall offense in Draisaitl.
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It’s worth keeping note of this for potentially not betting on Hyman, but with Barkov’s attention coupled with how hot Sergei Bobrovsky has been between the pipes, it makes me not even want to consider taking Draisaitl either.
The German forward has been consistently landing shots with three shots in four of his last seven games. He has slowed down on offense with two goals and five points in his last five games.
The popular pick so far has been a big multi-point night from Draisaitl, which may not work out so well as has just one in his last nine games.