Editor’s Note: This story was updated April 18, 2024.
A milestone regular season for Auston Matthews ended on Wednesday with the superstar long having clinched the NHL goal-scoring title. Will that distinction be enough to earn Matthews a Hart Trophy, as he did in the 2021-22 season?
It’s among the most interesting questions for Ontario sports betting as the playoffs start this weekend, with the Maple Leafs set to square off in the first round against the Boston Bruins.
Auston Matthews Vs. 2021-22 Hart Trophy Season
Auston Matthews’ Case For Winning Hart Trophy
Not just Maple Leafs fans, but certainly anybody who placed a wager on Matthews to win the Hart Trophy at Ontario sportsbook apps, might be well justified in asking: What else do media members who vote on league MVP want the guy to do?
Matthews finished with a career-high 69 goals and 107 points in the 2023-24 regular season, though his pursuit of 70 goals fell short when he was unable to put a puck in the net in Wednesday’s regular-season finale, a 6-4 loss on the road to the Tampa Bay Lightning. But he still had the most in a season since Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux also had 69 in 1995-96.
NHL Hart Trophy Candidates
Other players who had quite the milestone seasons of their own are striving to earn the league’s top individual honor. See our NHL Hart Trophy odds page here at OntarioBets.com.
The heavy favorite to earn his first MVP from the Professional Hockey Writers Association is Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Going into the Avalanche’s regular-season finale, on Thursday at home against the Edmonton Oilers (more on their Hart candidate in a bit), MacKinnon is second in the league in scoring with 138 points. He is fourth in goals with 51 – those numbers are career highs and he leads the league in shots with 404. The Colorado forward has been a Hart Trophy runnerup twice.
Another major candidate is one Matthews and the Leafs saw on Wednesday, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov. The right wing has +420 odds at FanDuel Ontario Sportsbook to win MVP, second behind MacKinnon (-350). Kucherov ended his regular season in dramatic style on home ice, earning his 100th assists this season on Brayden Point’s second-period goal. Kucherov also had a goal in the first period, bringing his final tally to 44 goals and a league-high 144 points on the season. He became only the fifth player in NHL history with 100 assists in a season, joining Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, and a certain Oilers centre who hit the magic mark this week.
You probably figured out by now that the Edmonton star in question is three-time Hart Trophy winner Connor McDavid. But going into tonight’s finale at Colorado, his goal total is exactly half of last season – 32 this season compared to 64 in the 2022-23 campaign, when he was named MVP. That might be why McDavid is a +2500 longshot with NorthStar Bets Ontario Sportsbook to win the honor again.
2024 Stanley Cup Odds
The odds on the 2024 Stanley Cup champion keep fluctuating, even with the playoff picture almost complete going into tonight’s final NHL regular season games.
How unpredictable has it been? The Vegas Golden Knights are the defending Stanley Cup champions. The New York Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy as the top regular-season team, with 114 points. The Oilers had a 16-game winning streak this season, coming within one of tying the NHL record.
Are any of those teams the consensus title favorite? Nope. That would be the Carolina Hurricanes. Among six operators we surveyed Thursday morning, five had Carolina at the top of the board. The exception was Caesars Ontario Sportsbook, which had the Rangers as favorites with +675 odds. Anybody looking around will know why OntarioBets.com recommends that bettors have more than one Ontario sports betting account if they can afford it – because the team you want to bet on might have a better price at one book than at another.
As for Ontario’s favorite team? The Leafs had 102 points this season, good for third in the Atlantic Division. A 100-point season used to be a major milestone. But nowadays, with so many extra points on offer in overtime and shootouts, Toronto stands No. 10 overall in the league. See our Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup odds before their first-round, best-of-seven series starts on Saturday (8 p.m. Eastern) in Boston.
