The Winnipeg Jets Stanley Cup odds have been a hot wagering tip in the first month-plus of the NHL season, to go along with the team’s sizzling start.
Winnipeg has won 16 of its first 19 games going into Friday’s contest in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. The Jets have been so good that they have already clinched one of the best 20-game starts in NHL history, according to the Champs or Chumps website, even before their 20th game.
To compare the 2024-25 Jets to teams from the past, OntarioBets.com – where we review Ontario sports betting apps so you can choose which ones fit you – looked at the best 20-game starts in league history to spot some trends. Here’s what we found.
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
Made The Playoffs | 19 | 100% |
Won At Least One Playoff Round | 15 | 79% |
Reached Conference Final | 11 | 58% |
Reached Stanley Cup Final | 9 | 47% |
Won Stanley Cup | 5 | 26% |
*Rounded to nearest whole number
Of the 19 previous teams that have earned at least 16 victories in the first 20 games of an NHL season, all of them made the playoffs. And five of them (or 26%) went on to win the Stanley Cup. So if customers at Ontario sportsbooks are looking for a reason to go all in on the Jets, history might lean toward believing in them even though the franchise has never even reached a Stanley Cup final.
The most recent team to convert this strong of a start into a championship was the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks (normally we’d express that as the 2012-13 season, but that was a shortened, 48-game season that didn’t start until January 2013).
In the 2022-23 season, two teams got off to a start that fits our description, but both flopped early in the postseason. The New Jersey Devils were 16-4 that season and finished 52-22-8, but they lost in the conference semifinals to the Carolina Hurricanes. An even more painful postseason exit awaited the Boston Bruins, who got out of the gate at 17-3 and set a league record with 65 wins, only to squander a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series against the Florida Panthers and lose in seven games.
Follow the ebb and flow of Stanley Cup odds during the whole 2024-25 NHL season with OntarioBets.
Manitoba’s NHL team has never won 16 of the first 20 games in any season – neither the original 1979-96 version, nor the former Thrashers, who left Atlanta to become the Winnipeg Jets 2.0 in 2011.
Only 19 teams in NHL history, since 1918, have earned 16 victories in their first 20 games. And if Winnipeg wins on Friday night in Pittsburgh, the Jets will join truly rare company as the sixth team ever with 17 or more victories through 20 games. Our Winnipeg Jets betting guide has more about the team.
This history all comes with a caveat. Before the advent of an extra point for overtime, games often ended in ties and teams got one point each for those. Teams losing in overtime got no points. Starting in the 1999-2000 season, a team winning in overtime got two points and the loser one point, but games could still end tied with each team receiving one point. Then the NHL introduced the shootout for the 2005-06 season, meaning each game must end with a winner and that team always gets two points.
An illustration for hockey betting in Ontario in old math against new math: The 1929-30 Boston Bruins are the only team to win 18 of its first 20 games, starting 18-2 for 36 points. But those 2013 Blackhawks hold the record for the most points through 20 games. Chicago was 17-0-3, with three shootout defeats accounting for one point each, for 37 points.
That’s why in this case counting wins, not points, for the sake of comparison throughout the decades.
At Caesars Ontario Sportsbook, the Jets are co-favorites with the Edmonton Oilers, at +425 odds, to win the Western Conference as of Nov. 21.
The Jets not only have the most points in the league, with 32, but they lead the league in goals (80), goal differential (plus-34) and power-play percentage (35.7%). How good has the Jets power play been? They have 20 man-advantage goals in 19 games, an average of 1.05 per game. At that pace, they’d have 86 PPG for the season, far more than the Tampa Bay Lightning’s league-leading total of 71 last season. In the past decade, only the 2022-23 Oilers (89) had more, according to the official NHL records website.
Between the history and the current stats, it’s worth wondering if some bettors and sportsbooks have perhaps been a little slow to recognize Winnipeg’s start. The Jets have +950 Stanley Cup odds with Caesars, identical to the Oilers and just behind the Carolina Hurricanes, who are the favorites at +900. But at Sports Interaction Ontario Sportsbook, the Jets have +1400 odds to win the Stanley Cup, tied for eighth on the operator’s board.
USA Today photo by James Carey
Author
Jim Tomlin is an editor and writer specializing in sports, gambling and the intersection of those industries. He has 30+ years of journalism experience and his work has appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition.
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