NHL Western Conference Odds: Who Will Win the West?

As we exit the dog days of the NHL offseason, now’s a good time to look to the future and see what the current odds for next spring’s Western Conference winner look like. 

Despite a lot of the league’s best talent living out west — Connor McDavid, Macklin Celebrini, and Nathan MacKinnon to name a few — the conference hasn’t fared great in the Stanley Cup Finals in recent years. First, McDavid’s Oilers fell in back-to-back Finals to the Panthers, and last year’s representative, the Golden Knights, lost to a dominant Hurricanes team. 

The task of finding a Western Conference Cup winner may be hard again this season with a lot of the Eastern Conference’s best teams reloading in the offseason. 

That, though, is ultimately a question for another day and another article. Here’s a look at where the odds stand for who’ll win the Western Conference next summer. 

NHL Western Conference Odds

Who’s Favored to Win the Western Conference?

Colorado Avalanche (+350)

The Avalanche are favored to win the Western Conference, coming off a historic season that ended somewhat disappointingly. 

A 55-16-11 record and 121 team points earned them the Presidents’ Trophy this season, their fourth in franchise history. However, they got swept in the Conference Finals by a Vegas team that had been stuck in a rut at the end of the regular season and replaced their coach. Going into the Conference Finals, Colorado was favored to win the series and the Stanley Cup.

In that series against Vegas, their two stars, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, did not score a goal, and Makar didn’t register a point. Goalie Scott Wedgewood, who had a league-leading .921 save percentage and 2.02 GAA, had an .877 save percentage and lost the starting job before the series-ending Game 4 loss. 

The Conference Finals collapse put a sour note on a season that was incredibly dominant from the jump, but maybe, looking closer at the season, there were a few signs of what was to come.

The Avalanche had only one regulation loss in the 2025 portion of the season, and they seemed like a runaway, unimpeded favorite for the Cup and the league’s best record. Between New Year’s and the Olympics, Colorado had an abysmal 6-7-2 record. They then finished the year on a solid 18-7-2 run.

While the Avs’ made some changes to their front office during the offseason, from an on-the-ice perspective it was a quiet summer. The team’s previous President of Hockey Operations, Chris MacFarland, left Colorado for a role in Nashville and was replaced by former Hart Trophy winner Joe Sakic, who had already been a member of the Avs’ front office. 

Colorado’s biggest move came just a few days ago when the team announced a contract extension for superstar defenseman Cale Makar. Makar’s new deal is the largest contract in league history, at $163.2 million over eight seasons. 

The Avalanche roster is almost identical to a season ago so it makes sense that they’ll be just as strong a Western Conference contender as they were in 2026.