Predicting The NHL’s 2025-26 Stanley Cup Champion

The NHL’s 2025-26 regular season is underway, so it’s a perfect time to make a stand and put out this writer’s pre-season prediction of who will make the Stanley Cup final – and who will win.

Earlier this summer, we made our predictions for who would win their respective divisions this year: 

– Atlantic Division
– Metropolitan Division
– Central Division
– Pacific Division

Now, we’re making an educated guess as to which two teams will win their conference and who will win the 2026 Stanley Cup championship.

Eastern Conference champion: Toronto Maple Leafs

Western Conference champion: Colorado Avalanche

Stanley Cup champion: Colorado Avalanche

The Breakdown: For our conference final winners, we’re going with two teams that didn’t make it out of the second round last season. But in today’s parity-filled NHL, it’s entirely possible that a team can struggle one season and then go on a long playoff run the next. 

With that in mind, we think the Maple Leafs will have unheard-of modern-day success in the post-season this year.

With the Florida Panthers suffering major injuries to star forwards Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, the door is wide open for Toronto to repeat as Atlantic Division champions.

Now that Toronto GM Brad Treliving has changed the makeup of his team with the additions of gritty forwards Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua, the Leafs are much better built for playoff hockey than they were in the Mitch Marner Era.

The Maple Leafs’ odds of winning the Eastern Conference are 8.50 (+750) on BetMGM. Their odds of winning the Cup are `17.00 (+1600).

In the Western Conference, the Avalanche have failed to get beyond the second round in the last three seasons since they won a Cup in 2022. But last season’s seven-game first-round loss to the Dallas Stars could’ve gone either way, and Colorado’s experience, superstar power and tremendous depth will serve the Avs well this season as they try to navigate their way through Western powerhouses in Dallas, Edmonton and Vegas.

The Avalanche have the in-house know-how to power them through three playoff rounds and into the Cup final. So long as they stay healthy, the Avs have what it takes to win the fourth Cup in franchise history. Having a full year with veteran forwards Gabriel Landeskog and Brock Nelson will help Colorado earn home-ice advantage next spring – a feat the Avalanche couldn’t muster this past year, but a crucial element that they’re likely to benefit from this season.

The Avalanche have 5.25 (+425) odds of winning the West and 9.50 (+850) odds of winning the Cup on BetMGM.

Why The NHL’s Stanley Cup Favorites Could Or Couldn’t Win
Entering a new NHL season, all 32 teams begin with the same record, but each of them has different goals.

If the Maple Leafs do win their first three rounds, their key players will be experiencing the Cup final for the first time.

Toronto has indeed added players with Cup-winning experience – including center Nicolas Roy, left winger Steven Lorentz, defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and goaltender Anthony Stolarz.

But the difference between the Leafs and Avalanche is that Colorado’s core star players – Landeskog, center Nathan MacKinnon and defensemen Cale Makar and Devon Toews – all know what it takes to win a championship.

You can’t say the same about Maple Leafs stars Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares, and that’s why we’re ultimately going with the Avs beating the Leafs in the Cup final.

Leafs fans will be thrilled if Toronto wins three rounds next spring, but that may make it all the more painful if they fail to finish the job and once again don’t come away with a Cup win. Still, a long Leafs run will feel like manna from heaven for Leafs Nation.

It’s nearly impossible for teams to repeat as Cup champs – a fact that makes the Panthers a major long shot to do that for the third straight season. The door is open for a different Cup winner this year, and you can do much worse than putting your chips behind the Leafs to win the East and the Avalanche to win the West and the Cup final. 

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