NHL Extends COVID-19 Hiatus, What Are The Futures Odds Now?

• The NHL has decided to continue its game suspensions due to the Coronavirus through April 15.
• This has led to some unique odds listed for teams that now have a chance at winning the Stanley Cup should it be played this year.

BOSTON – The NHL has extended its period of not playing due to the Coronavirus pandemic until April 15.

Should they return this season and play the Stanley Cup, this could lead to some very interesting outcomes for the NHL sports betting community that would like to gamble on the games.

Conference winner odds, as well as Championship odds, are currently listed on sportsbooks.

The league’s teams have at least eleven games left to play in the regular season as their quarantine began on March 12. Hockey playoffs to get to the Stanley Cup were originally scheduled to start on April 8. However, the extension to the quarantine goes a week beyond that date.

It remains unknown whether or not the NHL will come back to finish their regular season, go straight into playoffs for the Championship or cease play for the remainder of the year altogether. Different options are being looked at through August for the current season.

“I’d like to think we’ll find a way, but ultimately we want to guarantee the safety of everyone involved whether that’s players, staff, fans, families – we don’t want to do anything at the expense of any of that,” said James van Riemsdyk, the Philadelphia Flyers’ NHLPA representative. “This is a way bigger issue than sports.”

The Odds Currently Out

According to online sportsbooks, there are odds listed using the season statistics as a stand-in for the finals of the NHL season. The top five teams to win the NHL Western Conference are the Vegas Golden Knights (+325), the Colorado Avalanche (+350), the St. Louis Blues (+450), the Dallas Stars (+900), and the Nashville Predators (+1000).

The top five teams listed to win the Eastern Conference are the Boston Bruins (+325), the Tampa Bay Lightning (+400), the Philadelphia Flyers (+500), the Washington Capitals (+600), and the Pittsburgh Penguins (+800).

The Stanley Cup Championship odds are in favor of the Boston Bruins taking home the trophy with odds of (+600). The other four teams to balance out the top five to win the Stanley Cup are the Tampa Bay Lightning (+700), the Vegas Golden Knights (+700), the Colorado Avalanche (+800), and the Philadelphia Flyers (+800).

In The End

Those looking to legally bet on sports will have some very different odds than what might’ve been for the NHL season should it continue.

There is no way of knowing at this point what the fate of the NHL will turn out to be for this year because of the continued COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine guidelines.

In the meantime, the league will try and figure out a new way to end their season that doesn’t have it left as an open-ended question mark due to the pandemic.

“Ultimately it’s going to come down to timing and how we can fit everything in. In a perfect world, you’d like to finish the regular season and play it out as it may and go from there,” said van Riemsdyk.

“But if some of those time frames become a little bit too shortened where we can’t fit that in, it kind of creates a unique opportunity, in my opinion, to maybe try something a little bit unique with the playoff structure. We’ll cross those bridges when we get there as far as time-wise and when we’re able to start things up and how that might look.”

News tags: Coronavirus | COVID-19 | NHL | NHL Eastern Conference | NHL Western Conference | NHLPA | Odds for NHL return | Stanley Cup