- Despite a first round playoff upset, the Boston Bruins were the most profitable team during the recently completed NHL season.
- The Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken both finished with double digit unit profits.
- Only 11 NHL teams finished ‘in the black’ with only nine banking more than 1 unit.
The NHL season is in the books and we can now assess which teams made the most money for bettors. We’ve already run down the teams that *lost* the most money for bettors. To be honest, the ‘money lost’ list is much more interesting than the profitable list. In fact, this might be a historic season in terms of just how much money the bottom feeders lost for bettors.
Biggest Betting Money Losers In The 2022-2023 NHL Season
The two teams that made the most money for bettors couldn’t be more obvious. The way they went about it was different, but if you were to guess the identity of these teams you’d likely come up with the two teams with the best records in each conference during the regular season. Right at the top, we’ve got the Presidents’ Cup Champions:
BOSTON BRUINS (+25.6 UNITS)
How will history treat the 2022-2023 Boston Bruins? On one hand, you can’t take away their regular season performance. On the other hand, it’s hard to get *too* excited about that in light of their first round playoff flameout. The team that the Bruins passed in the ‘most points in a season’ derby was the 1976-1977 Montreal Canadiens. That team is arguably the best NHL team in history and followed up their record breaking regular season performance by winning the 20th Stanley Cup in franchise history. The Habs didn’t just win the Stanley Cup, they were flat out dominant during the playoffs beating the St. Louis Blues 4-0, the New York Islanders 4-2 and the Boston Bruins 4-0.
From a betting standpoint, the Bruins’ short playoff run just made an extremely profitable season a little less so. The four games they lost in the series with Florida were as favorites of -200, -255, -190 and -220. Even so, when a team wins 76.4% of their games (regular and postseason) they’re going to be profitable.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS (+21.9 UNITS)
The biggest difference between Boston and Vegas is that the Bruins played a total of 89 games during the 2022-2023 regular and postseason while the Golden Knights played 104. Since Vegas won the Stanley Cup, that’s not much of a shock. Comparing the two teams does underscore just how incredible the Bruins were during the regular season: Boston won a total of 68 games, only three coming in the playoffs. Vegas won a total of 67 games en route to the Cup.
The playoffs clearly shows the influence of ‘public’ money on betting lines. Unlike the Bruins, the Golden Knights were never a ‘public’ team during the postseason. One of the more interesting series was the West Semifinals against Edmonton which Vegas won in six. VGK were underdogs in all six games! At home, the were +110, +110 and +120. At Edmonton, they were +160, +160 and +165. The highest chalk price on Vegas came in Game 5 at home against Winnipeg (-180) and the Cup clinching win in Game 5 against Florida (-190).
SEATTLE KRAKEN (+16.6 UNITS)
Seattle benefited greatly from their run to the Western Conference Finals. The Kraken played 14 playoff games and were never favored. Their playoff wins: at Colorado (+170), at home against Colorado (+120), at Colorado in Game 5 (+170) and again in Game 7 (+120). In the semifinals they won at Dallas (+170), at home in Game 3 (+125) and at home in Game 6 (+140). Of course, it’s not like the Kraken didn’t surprise a lot of people during the regular season finishing with 100 points.
