For the first time since 2022, the St. Louis Blues are headed to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as the Western Conference squad currently holds the eighth and final postseason berth, with 96 points through the NHL’s 82-game regular season slate.
To get a sense of where St. Louis ranks among other recent Stanley Cup champs, BetMissouri.com – where we await legal Missouri sportsbooks to launch – broke down the numbers on where each of the last five league winners have gone since hoisting the hardware.
Note: The number of playoff berths includes this season, as all five teams on this list have qualified for the 2025 postseason. The total points percentage includes the 2024-25 season thus far, as the season ends on Thursday. We calculated points percentage because not every team played the same number of games in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season and not every team has completed the current regular season.
Our Missouri NHL betting guide gives you a primer for wagering on the sport – perhaps by next hockey season, the Show Me State’s sports betting program will be underway.
Of the five Stanley Cup winners since 2018 (Tampa Bay won it twice in a row), the Blues have posted the worst cumulative points percentage since winning the title. St. Louis, which finished its 2024-25 regular season on Tuesday, has accumulated 535 points in 455 games since winning their Cup for a.588 points percentage. In 2019 the Blues had to rally just to make the playoffs and they have done the same this season, so perhaps another surprise is in store?
The Washington Capitals have racked up 653 points since winning the club’s first title in 2018. That adds up to a .611 points percentage – but notably, Washington has not won a playoff series since lifting Lord Stanley’s hardware.
The Tampa Bay Lightning followed their consecutive Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 with one run to the finals (in 2022) and two first-round exits. Among recent champs, the Avalanche have fared best in the regular season with a .646 points percentage. The Vegas Golden Knights have a small sample to work with, just two seasons since winning the Cup in 2023, but they have not fallen off. The one blight is their first-round loss last season.
This season, oddsmakers from DraftKings give the Dallas Stars (+700) the best odds of winning the title. We expect that a DraftKings Missouri promo code will be available once sports betting gets underway in the state, as it is one of the biggest operators in the nation.
The Stars are slightly ahead of the defending champion Florida Panthers and the Avs (+800 apiece). The Lightning and Edmonton Oilers have +900 odds as the playoffs start this weekend.
Down the list a bit, you’ll find St. Louis at +4000 to win the club’s second Stanley Cup title on the Boston-based sports betting goliath’s Stanley Cup odds board. That ranks ahead of only the Montreal Canadiens (+10000) and Columbus Blue Jackets (+40000), the two teams fighting for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
St. Louis clinched the second wild card in the West and will face the Winnipeg Jets, the Presidents’ Trophy winner this season, in the best-of-seven first round of the playoffs, starting this weekend.
BetMissouri.com will offer real money Missouri sports betting promo codes when the market launches, some time in 2025.
USA Today photo by Sam Navarro
Author
Christopher Boan is a lead writer for BetMissouri.com, specializing in covering state issues. He has covered sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
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