2022-23 NHL futures odds: Bruins vs. Avalanche favored Stanley Cup matchup, Connor McDavid clear leader for Hart Trophy out of holiday break

The NHL has been dark since Christmas Eve – the longest stretch without games this season besides the All-Star break in early February. The holiday break ends tonight with 11 games on the schedule. There were originally 12, but Buffalo at Columbus was postponed. The Sabres were unable to fly out of Buffalo because of the heavy snow there. Let's take an updated look at various futures odds from Caesars Sportsbook.

The defending champion Colorado Avalanche were the +425 favorites to repeat entering the season but have been hit hard by injuries and have just 40 points, third in the Central Division. They are now +650 second favorites to win another Cup and +280 second favorites in the Western Conference behind Las Vegas (+260), although strangely the Golden Knights are +800 third favorites to win the Cup behind the Avs.

The Boston Bruins lead the NHL with 56 points and a plus-56 goal differential, and have just four regulation losses under first-year head coach Jim Montgomery. The Bruins are +550 Cup favorites and +300 in the East. Boston is 9-4-1 when allowing the first goal, the best mark in the NHL. It is -140 to win the Presidents Trophy.

Netminder Linus Ullmark was in a timeshare with Jeremy Swayman when the season began, but Ullmark is the clear-cut No. 1 now and the +350 Vezina Trophy favorite with an amazing 19-1-1 record, 1.94 goals-against average and .936 save percentage. His lone regulation loss was in Toronto on Nov. 5. The Leafs, who have the longest Cup drought in the league, are +500 second favorites in the East and +900 to end Canada's Stanley Cup drought.

Edmonton's Connor McDavid was the Hart Trophy favorite when the puck dropped on the 2022-23 campaign and is -150 to win it for a third time. Only eight players have done that and McDavid's childhood idol, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, isn't one of them.

McDavid leads the league with 30 goals (he's +120 to win the Rocket Richard Trophy for the first time as the NHL's top goalscorer) and 66 points. The Stars' Jason Robertson is a distant second on the Hart Trophy odds at +500. He has 24 goals and 50 points.

Colorado's Cale Makar is the +160 favorite to win the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman for the second year in a row. Seattle's Matthew Beniers, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft, is the +225 leader for the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie. The Bruins' Montgomery is +250 for the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year. 

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