Even with the team's captain out and the uncertainty of several players' return, the Colorado Avalanche are favored to hoist the Cup in June next year.

The Colorado Avalanche will be missing captain Gabriel Landeskog for the 2023-24 season and there are still several unrestricted free agents who have not signed new deals yet. Despite those facts, the team is still favored to win the Stanley Cup, according to BetMGM.

The Avalanche were favored to win the Stanley Cup at the beginning of last season after winning it in 2022. As only a couple of teams have repeated in the last 20 years, the odds of a team doing so are usually pretty low.

But even with one of the team’s best players on long-term injury reserve and having some question marks for players returning, the betting gods favor the boys in burgundy and blue.

As of June 21, BetMGM has the Avalanche at +800 with the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs behind at +950.

The Avs pushed through a tough season without Landeskog and key players who were out for more than a few games. But they still managed to win the Central Division and make the playoffs. Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen had career seasons. And Alexandar Georgiev proved he can more than handle the starting goaltender position.

A big factor in the Avalanche’s favorability is in the front office. President and former general manager Joe Sakic has spent the last decade or so building a Stanley Cup-winning team. The GM position being handed to Chris MacFarland hasn’t changed much as he and Sakic work closely together to maintain the vision of the organization.

That said, the duo is expected to make some moves this offseason in order to create some depth in the lineup. Landeskog’s absence frees up quite a bit of salary space so the shot callers have been assessing who would best fit in their system. Sakic and MacFarland already are or soon will be making some deals.