2019 NHL Awards Odds: Betting Lines and Favorites
by OddsShark (@OddsShark) – Sponsored Post
The NHL regular season probably seems like a while ago after two months of playoffs, and it appears to have been enough time for significant favorites to emerge on the NHL Awards odds at sportsbooks.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the exception to the rule is the one award whose criteria has divided voters since the beginning of time: the Jack Adams Award. The Tampa Bay Lightning’s Jon Cooper is the -105 favorite, according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, after guiding him team to a record-tying 62 wins. The New York Islanders’ Barry Trotz (+130) did work wonders getting a team widely picked to be an also-ran to finish first in its division, while the St. Louis Blues’ Craig Berube (+550) was an in-season replacement who, as you likely know, got a team that was in the league basement on January 1 into the playoffs.
Voting was tabulated at the end of the regular season, so the Blues’ run to the Stanley Cup is not a factor in the vote.
Speaking of Tampa Bay, Nikita Kucherov (-1100), who won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s regular-season scoring champion, is the favorite on the Hart Trophy odds to win MVP. Fellow Hart finalists Sidney Crosby (+750) and Connor McDavid (+1200), were their usual superlative selves but may end up being held down by their teams’ average to mediocre seasons.
Lightning teammate Andrei Vasilevskiy (-333) is favored to earn the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie, ahead of the Dallas Stars’ Ben Bishop (+250) and the Islanders’ Robin Lehner (+1800). Lehner, who had a career year after publicly detailing his battles with mental illness, is an overwhelming favorite (-3333) in odds for who will win the Masterton Trophy as the “player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”
The Norris Trophy, presented to the top defenseman, has had a first-time winner in nine of the past 10 seasons. The Calgary Flames’ Mark Giordano (-1000) likely has the first-time nominee bounce to carry him past two previous winners, the San Jose Sharks’ Brent Burns (+650) and Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman (+1400).
The most lopsided prop is for the Calder Trophy, the rookie of the year award, where the Vancouver Canucks’ Elias Pettersson (-5000) is a massive favorite over St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington (+650) and Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (+2200) on those NHL odds. Fifteen of the last 20 Calder winners have been forwards and Pettersson, who had 66 points in 71 games without much offensive support in Vancouver, is likely to continue the trend.
There is a chance for a unique award double involving the Cup-winning Blues, since center Ryan O’Reilly (-270) is the chalk pick to win the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward, after also being voted the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the most valuable player in the playoffs. The other nominees are the Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron (+240) and Mark Stone (+650) who played for both the Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights.
If O’Reilly picks up the second award, he would just be the second player in NHL history to win the Selke and Conn Smythe in the same year.
The NHL Awards will be presented in Las Vegas on June 19.
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