Best futures bets for the 2025-26 NHL season

The painful wait for the start of the NHL season is drawing closer to its conclusion, as at the time of writing we are 70 days away from opening night. It’s a good time for bettors to start building a futures portfolio, as the betting prices will generally be a little sharper by the time October rolls around.

During the four-and-a-half seasons in which I’ve worked writing NHL content, we’ve lucked into a pretty strong run on futures markets, and these offseason guides are among my favorite pieces of content to write each year. Across 219 futures bets tracked on the Action Network app my picks have yielded a +16.74% ROI.

The Jack Adams Award market has been good to us in that span, as we hit Darryl Sutter at +5000 in 2021-22 and cashed Spencer Carbery at +2000 last season.

Oddsmakers seem to be sharper at pricing the Jack Adams market compared to when I first started handicapping, as they have begun to give more credit to the idea that many of the winners come from teams that are likely to make the greatest year-over-year improvements, which is the narrative we are targeting with our first pick, though it does still appear to provide value at +850.

Joel Quenneville to Win Jack Adams +850 (bet365, play to +800)

While +850 is a relatively low price in a fairly wide-open market, Quenneville is entering into an ideal situation to win the award this season as he overtakes an Anaheim Ducks team with the potential to take significant steps forward this season. Given all of the boxes Quenneville checks, it seems easy to believe that he will win often enough to provide value at +850 (bet365).

Last season, the Ducks overachieved their preseason betting total of 70.5 points by nine, yet still opted to relieve head coach Greg Cronin of his duties. From the perspective of their overachievement in the standings, firing Cronin could be viewed as a puzzling decision; however, the vast majority of analysts and Ducks faithful would agree that the majority of information available to the public suggests that Cronin was inadequate.

Whether or not you agree with Quenneville being back behind an NHL bench, it’s hard to dispute that he features a highly impressive resume that suggests he is a drastically more competent coach than Cronin.

Despite offering a sneakily deep offensive core on paper, the Ducks scored the third-fewest goals in the NHL last season. While Cronin’s conservative systems were designed to help the team offer a respectable level of play defensively, they capped the team’s offensive upside while still ensuring the team would spend far too much time in the defensive zone.

Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, Cutter Gauthier, and Troy Terry all have the potential to take steps forward this season under a more adept coach in Quenneville, and Anaheim could end up with a much more productive top six. And 2024 third overall pick Bennett Sennecke also could be ready to be an impact player in the NHL after a spectacular season with the Oshawa Generals.

The Ducks’ defensive core also could end up being quite respectable, as a left side compiled of Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger, and Pavel Mintyukov offers plenty of upside.

In the 2024-25 season, the Ducks allowed 3.65 xGA/60, which was the second-worst mark in the NHL. Lukas Dostal saved 14.3 goals above expected, which helped to mask that flaw. While it could be viewed as a negative that the main reason Anaheim was respectable was the play of its goaltender, it seems quite clear that Cronin was not an overly sharp bench boss, and that bringing in Quenneville could lead to more detailed team play.

Dostal has the potential to remain one of the best goaltenders in the NHL next season, a point which will be far more obvious if his team’s defensive play is to improve significantly under Quenneville and with more key pieces closer to their true primes.

Swapping Petr Mrazek into the backup role in place of John Gibson certainly is a downgrade, but is something we can live with given that Dostal effectively handled 54 games last year and is ready to handle a true starter’s workload, ideally behind a much more competent team.

Last season, only three teams made the playoffs out of the Pacific Division: the Vegas Golden Knights, Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings. The remaining five teams in the division still look to be quite soft, and there’s an argument to be made that the Ducks have the highest upside of the bunch.

The Ducks should have a realistic chance of snapping their seven-year playoff drought in Quenneville’s first season as bench boss, and if that is the case, he will likely be firmly in contention to win the Jack Adams Award.

Carolina Hurricanes to Win Presidents’ Trophy +650 (bet365, play to +625)

Throughout Rod Brind’Amour’s seven-year tenure as head coach of the Hurricanes, they hold a points percentage of .654, and have finished second (twice) and third in the race for the Presidents’ Trophy. And there are a number of arguments that suggest they will be firmly in the mix for the Presidents’ Trophy once again this season, and I believe they deserve to be the outright favorites in this market.

It’s hard to dispute that the Florida Panthers are the best team in hockey, and they are the favorites to win the Presidents Trophy. However, they looked highly complacent throughout much of the 2024-25 regular season while finishing third in the highly competitive Atlantic Division, and it seems reasonable to expect a similarly lethargic regular season after another Cup run ending in late June.

The Hurricanes are the most heavily favored team to win their division entering this season, which is easy to agree with as the Metropolitan Division appears likely to remain quite soft.

While the Hurricanes’ defensive core was rock-solid last season, it seems quite reasonable to expect year-over-year improvement. K’Andre Miller had a shaky campaign last year playing on a bad New York Rangers side, but he has all the tools to bounce back under Brind’Amour and should fit in well in a more insulated role on a team that spends the majority of the game at the other end of the ice. Top prospect Alexander Nikishin also appears ready to offer above-average play at the NHL level.

Nikolaj Ehlers has always been an analytical darling that appeared worthy of a larger role than he typically received with the Winnipeg Jets. He held a +11.6 expected Goals Above Replacement rating last season with the Jets and will improve the Hurricanes’ offensive upside while offering underrated defensive play.

Carolina’s deep and well-rounded roster is well-suited for regular season success, and it should have a great chance of racking up points playing out of a soft Metropolitan Division. At +625 or better, there looks to be value in betting the Hurricanes to win the Presidents’ Trophy.