With the NHL’s season now formally underway, now’s time to preview how the Pacific Division will play out this 12 months.
This division is house to 2 of the groups most often picked as Stanley Cup winners forward of the 2025-26 season: Edmonton and Las Vegas.
However past these two on the prime, there are a lot of fascinating watchable groups and a few which can be most likely unwatchable however nonetheless fascinating.
Right here’s a full preview of the division with odds as of October 14.
Edmonton Oilers
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +775
- Win Convention Odds: +400
- Win Division Odds: +135
- Make Playoff Odds: -1100
Coming off a second-straight Stanley Cup Finals loss, the Oilers are the present favorites to win the championship this 12 months.
I spent the entire offseason feeling able to imagine in a Western Convention workforce aside from Edmonton and an Japanese Convention workforce aside from Florida.
However now, with the season underway, I don’t know anymore. The most secure factor to do within the NHL proper now’s simply to imagine that we’ll get the 2020s NHL equal of Cavs-Warriors once more.
My crutch for not believing within the Oilers was the legendary fable of ‘Connor McDavid’s UFA standing will change into a locker room downside.’ Even that’s gone now after McDavid took a two-year take care of a decrease AAV than Kirill Kaprizov, which is smart as a result of, as everyone knows, Kaprizov is the superior participant.
You don’t actually need me to repeat details surrounding Edmonton’s insane one-two punch comprised of two Hart candidates in McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The Oilers are a really related workforce to final 12 months. The identical considerations — goaltending and in any other case — will persist.
The Oilers are as sturdy a Stanley Cup contender as they’ve been lately. They only must convert on a championship window sooner or later.
Vegas Golden Knights
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +800
- Win Convention Odds: +425
- Win Division Odds: +140
- Make Playoff Odds: -1100
Vegas had an important summer time.
They signed the big-ticket free agent, Mitch Marner, to an inexpensive eight-year, $96 million contract. Then, proper earlier than the season started, they gave middle Jack Eichel one other comparatively affordable eight-year, $108M extension.
The Knights can pair these two prime forwards with a deep roster, each on the offensive entrance and the blue line.
So, two seasons after successful the enlargement franchise’s first Stanley Cup, they now have two of the league’s finest forwards locked up for eight years to respectable offers in a league with a rising wage cap.
One concern for Vegas, in my opinion, is the age of the roster. The Knights have a mean age of 28.83, which is the seventh-oldest roster within the league.
Marner, Eichel, and defenseman Noah Hanifin are all 28, and goalie Adin Hill is 29. Nevertheless, outdoors of those 4, all the opposite items on the roster are over the age of 30.
This isn’t totally a nasty factor, simply take a look at the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Panthers, who’ve the third-oldest workforce within the league. But it surely means fatigue and accidents are extra of a priority for the Golden Knights. Past that, it additionally signifies that Vegas’ contending window isn’t getting any greater.
Though Edmonton has barely higher odds than them to win the Pacific, I’d say that the Golden Knights will probably be simply nearly as good a regular-season workforce because the Oilers and possibly have a greater shot at successful the division simply due to their goaltending.
As for the essential half within the springtime, it stays to be seen how nicely Vegas’ new-look roster will stack up towards Edmonton in a playoff collection.
Proper now, I’d nonetheless give the Oilers the sting.
Los Angeles Kings
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +2800
- Win Convention Odds: +1100
- Win Division Odds: +650
- Make Playoff Odds: -250
It was an ungainly opening evening for the Kings as their main free agent signing, Corey Perry, bought booed by the Crypto.com Area followers due to his affiliation with LA’s primary rival, Edmonton.
Perhaps this can be a stretch, however I feel that’s metaphor for the way some followers might obtain the transitional 12 months the Kings have forward of them as they shake off the remnants of their 2010s Stanley Cup groups and put together for a brand new period.
The 2025-26 season would be the final for LA’s captain, Anze Kopitar. He and defenseman Drew Doughty are the final two gamers remaining from the Kings’ 2014 Stanley Cup-winning workforce.
Perry will not be a welcome sight for Kings followers who’d slightly ignore the age of their former core and proceed dancing with the Oilers with the proverbial one which brung ya, however he’s had extra playoff expertise than LA has had lately.
The Kings have misplaced in a first-round collection towards Edmonton for 4 years straight now.
Bringing in one among their depth items, Perry, could also be what shakes up that end result. LA really introduced in a good deal of latest blood this offseason, together with defensemen Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin, taking advantage of what was a restricted free agent pool within the NHL.
I see the Kings as a strong workforce that ought to make the playoffs, however most likely received’t do a lot after they get there, particularly in the event that they draw one other first-round matchup towards the Oilers. On the identical time, with the second-oldest workforce within the league, I might see them going full-rebuild on the deadline if there’s a tough begin to the 12 months.
Vancouver Canucks
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +6000
- Win Convention Odds: +3000
- Win Division Odds: +1400
- Make Playoff Odds: -105
Final 12 months, Vancouver continued a time-honored NHL custom of firing your head coach shortly after they’ve received the Jack Adams Award.
Rick Tocchet led the Canucks out of a three-year playoff drought within the 2023-24 season, incomes him the league’s coach of the 12 months honors, however he was dismissed after Vancouver didn’t make the playoffs final 12 months.
The short set off on a few of these workforce executives is surprising. Is it actually Tocchet’s fault that the Canucks had some regression final season?
It appeared that Vancouver’s downside was that its finest participant, Quinn Hughes, handled harm points all through the season and ended up lacking 14 video games. Is the Canucks entrance workplace concealing that Tocchet pulled a Tonya Harding sabotage transfer on Hughes that someway brought on a torn hand ligament and a torn indirect?
Tocchet now coaches for the Flyers and can most likely hope to remain out of the coach of the 12 months dialog so his children don’t have to alter faculties once more.
It wasn’t simply firing coaches for the Vancouver brass this offseason. Additionally they managed to get some extensions finished with forwards Brock Boeser and Conor Garland and with goalie Thatcher Demko.
The chances don’t just like the Canucks this season, most likely due to a lingering dangerous style from the way in which final 12 months went. However I feel Vancouver is an injury-free-Hughes season away from being a contender within the Western Convention once more.
Anaheim Geese
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +12500
- Win Convention Odds: +5000
- Win Division Odds: +3500
- Make Playoff Odds: +260
Anaheim enters this season with a brand new coach, a brand new top-line middle, and hopes that they’ll break a seven-year playoff drought.
This summer time, the Geese employed former Blackhawks head coach and three-time Stanley Cup winner Joel Quenneville. Quenneville has been out of the league since a suspension in 2021 stemming from the Chicago sexual assault scandal. The NHL reinstated Quenneville in addition to different former Blackhawks personnel in July 2024.
Quenneville is at the moment a +750 favourite to win the Jack Adams Award for coach of the 12 months.
Hiring a brand new coach wasn’t the one main shakeup this offseason for Anaheim. Additionally they traded would-be franchise icon Trevor Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The principle deadlock between the Geese and Zegras appeared to be Zegras desirous to be paid and handled like a famous person, whereas Anaheim didn’t assume he was one. Zegras had 12 targets and 20 assists in 57 video games performed in his closing season with the Geese.
Now, 20-year-old Leo Carlsson will fill that top-line middle spot for Anaheim and hopefully fulfill a number of the promise that Zegras as soon as had.
One other main storyline for the Geese this summer time was the unimaginable advertising and marketing marketing campaign they mounted round tenth general choose Roger McQueen.
Anaheim has a long-standing relationship with the Walt Disney Company and has leveraged that after once more to make McQueen share an identification with the Automobiles protagonist, and seven-time Piston Cup champion, Lightning McQueen.
Roger McQueen took a a lot filmed and photographed journey to Disneyland after being drafted to announce that he’ll put on 95 this season, the identical quantity that Lightning McQueen had in Automobiles.
Perhaps Roger can co-opt a few of Lightning’s championship pedigree to assist the Geese get again into the playoffs.
Calgary Flames
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +15000
- Win Convention Odds: +6000
- Win Division Odds: +6000
- Make Playoff Odds: +350
Calgary appears to be in that awkward limbo between contending for a closing wild card spot and totally rebuilding.
The Flames completed final season with a 41-27-14 report, touchdown them within the fourth-place spot within the Pacific Division. It was the third season in a row that Calgary missed the playoffs.
They didn’t rebound from the tip of the Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Guadreu, and Sam Bennett period of the workforce — for those who may even name it an period.
Nothing of be aware ever grew out of the returns that the Flames bought for that group, and the remaining gamers from that interval haven’t achieved a lot both. Calgary does have a Vezina-Trophy-caliber goalie expertise in Dustin Wolf, however outdoors of that, there actually isn’t a lot to put in writing house about.
If issues get actually ugly for the Flames this 12 months, I might see them transport off the complimentary items they’ve on their roster and going after the coveted number-one-pick in Gavin McKenna.
Seattle Kraken
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +20000
- Win Convention Odds: +10000
- Win Division Odds: +6000
- Make Playoff Odds: +360
Seattle is hoping to construct again some momentum this season after two straight playoff misses.
The Kraken had a 35-41-6 report final 12 months, their fourth season as a franchise, which earned them a seventh-place end within the Pacific.
You’d assume that after making the playoffs of their second 12 months as a franchise and taking down the defending champion Colorado Avalanche within the first spherical, they’d be in a greater spot heading into this 12 months.
I like a number of the items on the Kraken roster. They’ve an intriguing core of gamers, together with middle Matty Beniers, who scored 20 targets final season, and defenseman Vince Dunn.
However I don’t know if there’s sufficient there for them to make a run in direction of the playoffs.
Seattle is a kind of groups that wants a bit of extra time within the oven.
It’s not that they’ve had any managerial blunders or main disappointments on the roster. They only want a bit of extra time to construct.
San Jose Sharks
- Win Stanley Cup Odds: +50000
- Win Convention Odds: +25000
- Win Division Odds: +30000
- Make Playoff Odds: +1000
Proper now, San Jose is the great vibes capital of the NHL.
For those who took the Sharks and moved them to an East Coast metropolis or an Unique Six metropolis, we’d be having a wildly totally different dialog about them. However they’re a enjoyable workforce, with younger gamers, and restricted expectations.
In a metropolis like Toronto, Chicago, or Boston, the followers and media can be on the Sharks on daily basis, melting down concerning the workforce having six shedding seasons in a row.
In California, they’ll simply inform you to chill out and be affected person. Perhaps extra cities ought to comply with the same mannequin.
Final season, that they had an abysmal 20-50-12 however Macklin Celebrini lived as much as his hype, so nothing else mattered. In his rookie season, Celebrini, nonetheless solely 19 years previous, scored 25 targets and had 38 assists final season with San Jose.
This season, the Sharks have Celebrini and fellow rookie Will Smith coming into sophomore seasons, and one other highly-rated prospect, Michael Misa, becoming a member of the workforce as nicely. Misa had an astounding 134 factors in 65 video games performed final season with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit.
Don’t count on San Jose’s playoff drought to get snapped this season, however the future is shiny for the Sharks.
