NHL Betting

NHL Betting Dark Horses: Anaheim Ducks

Published

5 months ago

November 17, 2023

The latest NHL Betting Dark Horse is the Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks have been the laughingstock of the NHL since their last trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs in the 2017-18 season. If the standings today dictated the playoff teams, the Ducks would return to the dance and are still a great future bet to hit it rich with Gigadat inc casino payments.

Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek has been doing a solid job of drafting, incorporating young talent, and sprinkling in veteran leaders who could serve as mentors to the prospects getting more NHL minutes. This past offseason, though, Verbeek made arguably his two best moves so far as the Ducks GM. First, he hired longtime NHL assistant and, most recently, the Colorado Eagles (Colorado Avalanche AHL affiliate) assistant coach Greg Cronin as his head coach. Then he drafted top Swedish prospect Leo Carlsson with the second overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.

All Cronin has done has given the Ducks’ roster structure, snarl, and, most importantly, confidence, and all the 6-foot-3, 194-pound, and 18-year-old Carlsson has done is score six goals and two assists on a load management schedule of ten games thus far. He also scored his first career hat trick on Nov. 10 against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Leo Carlsson became the youngest @AnaheimDucks player to score a hat trick and just the 14th different 18-year-old in NHL history to post a three-goal performance.#NHLStats: https://t.co/lLny2vmcVH pic.twitter.com/SRPUqYyNfS

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 11, 2023

The Ducks are still +10000 to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. A small sprinkle on that could bring back a lot. If you want a more sure bet, then get on the Frankie V Train! Ducks forward Frank Vatrano is second in goal-scoring with 11 lamplighters and has been a gift to goal-scoring prop bettors. Jump on him, but don’t stop there. As mentioned above, Carlsson has also made his mark and could be a great future in the Calder Trophy race for NHL Rookie of the Year. Behind the bench, Cronin is great value for the Jack Adams and Verbeek is a steal for the Jim Gregory Award as NHL GM of The Year. Quack-quack, get on the Ducks!