Colorado opens as Cup favorites but Dallas cracks top eight in early 2026-27 Stanley Cup betting odds.
The confetti has barely settled on the Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup celebration and the betting markets are already looking ahead to 2026-27, with sportsbooks wasting no time in making their feelings known about next season's contenders.
For the Dallas Stars, the early returns from the oddsmakers are encouraging, even if the road ahead this offseason is anything but simple.
Dallas enters the summer facing a financial juggling act of significant proportions. Pending restricted free agents Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque both figure to command substantial raises, and Stars general manager Jim Nill will need to perform some serious cap gymnastics to keep the roster intact while remaining competitive.
The sportsbooks, however, appear to have faith that Nill will find a way, installing Dallas with the eighth-best Stanley Cup odds for next season at +1500.
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The Colorado Avalanche open as the early favorites at +700, with the Hurricanes right behind them at +750 as they look to become the fourth back-to-back Stanley Cup champions since 2016. The Minnesota Wild sit just ahead of Dallas at +1400, while the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators check in behind the Stars at +1800 odds.
For Dallas, the optimism from the markets is a vote of confidence following a regular season in which the Stars were one of the league's elite teams, finishing with a stellar 50-20-12 record. The postseason told a different story, however, as Dallas was stunned in the opening round by the Wild, suffering a first-round exit for the first time since 2022. It was a bitter end to what had been a dominant regular season and left plenty of questions heading into the offseason.
The Stars have appeared in three of the last four Western Conference Finals and will be hungry to return to that stage and beyond after falling short of their Stanley Cup Final ambitions this spring. Their last appearance in the Final came in 2020 during the bubble season, and the window to make another run remains very much open.
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