The Carolina Hurricanes are the Stanley Cup champions: they beat the Vegas Golden Knights four games to two in the 2026 Final, finishing it with a 3-0 win in Game 6 in Las Vegas on 14 June. The 2026-27 NHL season starts on Tuesday, 29 September, and the Hurricanes open it at home against the Florida Panthers.
This guide covers how the Stanley Cup is decided, the bets you can make on it, and the numbers worth reading before you do. No sportsbook price for the 2027 Stanley Cup was on ESPN’s futures board when we read it on 25 September 2026, so none is quoted here.
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How the Stanley Cup is decided
The Stanley Cup goes to the winner of the NHL playoffs. The trophy was donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, then Governor General of Canada, and every team that has won it since 1893 is engraved on it, NHL Records says. Since 1926-27 only NHL teams have played for it.
Sixteen teams make the playoffs, eight from each conference: the top three in each of the four divisions, plus two wild cards per conference on regular-season points. Every round is a best-of-seven series, and the Eastern and Western Conference champions meet in the Stanley Cup Final.
Home ice and overtime
Home ice in the Final goes to the team with more regular-season points. That team hosts Games 1, 2, 5 and 7, and the other hosts Games 3, 4 and 6. In 2026 that was Carolina, which hosted Games 1, 2 and 5.
Playoff overtime is sudden death, and a game keeps going until someone scores. Game 2 of the 2026 Final went to overtime and Game 3 to a second overtime. For a bettor, that matters on two markets: a regulation-time line (a three-way price with the draw) settles at the end of 60 minutes, while a moneyline includes overtime.
| Game | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | Vegas 5, Carolina 4, in Carolina |
| 2 | Carolina 4, Vegas 3 (overtime), in Carolina |
| 3 | Vegas 5, Carolina 4 (double overtime), in Vegas |
| 4 | Carolina 5, Vegas 3, in Vegas |
| 5 | Carolina 4, Vegas 2, in Carolina |
| 6 | Carolina 3, Vegas 0, in Vegas |
Types of Stanley Cup bets
Moneyline: a bet on who wins the game, overtime included. A favorite carries a minus price, an underdog a plus price.
Puck line: hockey’s point spread, almost always 1.5 goals. The favorite at -1.5 has to win by two or more; the underdog at +1.5 wins the bet by winning or losing by one.
Total: over or under a number of goals for the game, set by the book.
Series price: a bet on who wins a best-of-seven series, and in many books the exact series result as well (4-2, for example).
Futures: a bet on the eventual champion, open before and during the season and repriced after every round of the playoffs.
Props: bets on something inside a game, such as the first goal scorer or a goalie’s saves. Our props guide covers them.
Live bets: placed during the game, with prices that move with the score and the clock.
Reading a futures price
A futures price is a probability with the book’s margin on top. At +600 a team is priced at 14.3%; at +1500, 6.3%. A futures bet is worth making only when you rate the team’s chance higher than the price does, and a long season gives that price a lot of time to move against you.
Add up every team’s implied chance on one futures board and the total comes to more than 100%. The gap is the book’s margin.
The numbers worth reading
Goals for percentage (GF%): the share of all goals in a team’s games that the team scored. Above 50% means it outscores its opponents over the span you are measuring.
Corsi and Fenwick: Corsi counts every shot attempt (on goal, missed and blocked); Fenwick is the same count without blocked shots. Both stand in for time with the puck. “Close” versions count only when the score is close, so a team sitting on a lead does not distort them.
PDO: shooting percentage plus save percentage, centered on 100. A team far above 100 is converting and stopping more than usual, which tends to come back toward the middle over a long run.
Even-strength save percentage: a goalie’s save rate at five-on-five, leaving out power plays and penalty kills. The goalie faces every shot against his team, which is why this is the number to read before each game of a series.
What changes in the playoffs
The schedule tightens. In the 2026 Final, the six games came two or three days apart, with the teams flying between Raleigh and Las Vegas. Check each team’s rest days and the goalie’s workload before a game, and read the lineup news on the day.
Special teams matter more in a series than in one regular-season game, because the same power play meets the same penalty kill up to seven times. Read the series so far as well as the season.
Where to go next
Our game-by-game calls for the new season are on NHL predictions, and our team pages are under NHL teams. For the regular season, read the NHL betting guide.
If you would rather follow a handicapper, see the SportsHub leaderboard. Picks are sold through our Buy Picks page, and you can sign up here. A handicapper’s past record does not promise the next pick.