NHL Hockey Betting: Eastern Conference Championship Futures

By BetOnline October 1, 2019

0 Comments

We’re working our way through the various NHL futures betting markets. We’ve already covered the four divisions and the Western Conference Championship futures and we’ll now head to the Eastern Conference. The process is a bit trickier than the West simply because the Metropolitan Division might be the most wide open in hockey.

NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP FUTURES BETTING

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS +700

The Toronto Maple Leafs very nearly stopped the Boston Bruins’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals in the first round. Now their ridiculous array of young talent has another year of experience under their belts. The Leafs’ defense needs to improve but the team improved along the blueline during the offeseason with the acquisition of former Colorado Avalanche Tyson Barrie and former Ottawa Senator Codi Ceci. Barrie is great at running the power play and the Leafs already had a top ten power play last year. Ceci languished in Ottawa but has spent the preseason on Toronto’s top pair with Morgan Riley. They could use some goaltending depth behind Frederik Andersen but otherwise Toronto looks extremely good up front and solid everywhere else.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS +1000

The Caps’ biggest issue all of a sudden could be goaltending. Braden Holtby’s play was off a bit last year though the suggestion that he’s ‘past his prime’ sure sounds premature. Ilya Samsonov is expected to be the team’s goaltender of the future but isn’t ready yet. At age 22, he might end up in the AHL this year to make sure he gets the playing time he needs. Brooks Orpik retired during the off season but the team should be OK on defense with Jonas Siegenthaler likely moving into the top six. Just not a lot of weaknesses throughout the roster. This might be the Caps final shot before some significant re-tooling as Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby will be free agents after this season. Overall, they’re a balanced veteran team that has now put up 100+ points in five consecutive seasons.

Get the latest NHL hockey odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter!

BetOnline.ag on Instagram–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!