A Lot of Research
So much goes into a team having an excellent regular season: the coach, players, regular season trades, depth on the roster, and consistent goalie play. The team pretty much has to be the best on the ice just about every night for all three periods.
Finding a team you feel confident enough to place a wager on takes a lot of understanding of all 32 teams in the NHL.
Knowing what teams got better, having a young star coming up in the lines, who will make a necessary trade to alter their season, and predicting possible injuries.
There are so many variables that could change a winning bet into a loss, and with only one winner of the President’s Trophy, you have to make sure you got the right one.
Pair Your Bet With Other Futures
Say you have done all your research and are confident that a team will win the Presidents’ Trophy. You can use all the research you already did to parlay your bet with other season-long futures surrounding the team, focusing on team and player success. This could turn a solid pay out into a much bigger one.
Parlaying your bet on a team to win the Presidents’ Trophy, with one of their players leading the league in goals or points, could only increase your winnings.
The same can be done with team stats, picking a team to go over their win or point total during the regular season.
Few Repeat Winners
Being the top point earner in the NHL is hard enough to do just once, with only 18 teams able to do so. Winning it in consecutive years is harder, with that only happening six times in the trophy’s history.
That means, more likely than not, the team that won it the year before will likely not win it again. That does help a little when placing a wager on a team.
However, it still does happen sometimes, which makes understanding a team’s offseason crucial. The race is also genuinely close, with teams winning the trophy by a margin of 10 or more just seven times.
Maybe Wait a Week
Future season-long bets like this can be extremely tricky. Anything can happen in an NHL season as it plays out. Players can get injured, new players may not connect with a team, or a slow start could derail an entire season.
The best odds are available before the beginning of the season, but they probably won’t change that much a week or two into the regular season.
If you don’t have a team, you feel confident in placing a wager on before the season starts. Maybe wait a little to see how they play.
The odds might shift a little, possibly having you lose some of the money you could win, but you would be more confident in your bet.
Select a Different Stanley Cup Winner
Finding success in the regular season and the playoffs is difficult in the NHL. The playoffs are incredibly hard to predict due to the pure chaos that can happen.
That is reflected in the fact that the winner of the President’s Trophy has won the Stanley Cup eight times since the award was created.
Many variables go into regular season success, from depth and staying healthy, to having a good enough team to win nearly every game.
Heading into the playoffs after winning the Presidents’ Trophy can be difficult due to the expectations and the toll a long season has on a team.
