A brand-new NHL season is just around the corner, and the general feeling is there are plenty of serious Stanley Cup contenders.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have finally won a playoff series, eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games at the start of last year’s postseason action in the Eastern Conference.
Their journey ended in the second round, though at the hands of the Florida Panthers, but the franchise generally has a lot of positives to carry ahead of the new season after clinching their maiden series win in almost two decades.
The Maple Leafs enter the 2023-24 campaign as one of the most serious Stanley Cup contenders with the most talented offensive unit in the league. The eight consecutive playoff appearances should not come into question, but can these Maple Leafs finally go all the way and perform in crunch affairs?
We have checked the bountiful options in the futures markets for the Toronto Maple Leafs ahead of the start of the season. Here are three of the highest-value picks.
No. 1 Maple Leafs Futures Bet — Mitchell Marner Over 99.5 Points (-115) at BetMGM
With the likes of Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, and newcomer Tyler Bertuzzi, we can all agree that Toronto’s offensive line is elite. On paper, no team in the NHL has such offensive talent at their disposal in their ranks. Toronto was the top-10 team in goals scored per game (278) last season. We have all the reasons to expect a richer output this time around.
The focus of the first bet is on Mitchell Marner, though. Marner is not the best scorer in this team, but his playmaking talent and ability to thrive on both ends of the puck is extraordinary. Marner was in the closest Selke trophy race last season with his 99 points (39 goals and 69 assists). He has managed these outrageous assist numbers in a season in which Austin Matthews had a fairly disappointing scoring campaign for his standards.
With a healthy Matthews and the addition of Tyler Bertuzzi to the roster, we have all reasons to expect Mitchell to shine in the 2023-24 campaign. We will back Marner Over 99.5 points in the regular season at the -115 odds with BetMGM.
No 2 Maple Leafs Futures Bet — Auston Matthews to Score 60+ Goals in the Regular Season (+700) at BetMGM
This is one of our favorite betting options from the futures market for all NHL teams, not only Toronto. Auston Matthews finished the last season with 40 goals in 74 appearances. You must then wonder what would be wrong with the 700 odds for him to bag 60 goals this time around.
Well, Auston massively underperformed in the previous NHL term. We are talking about the man who won the league’s MVP, Hart Trophy, and the Rocket Richard Award two years ago when he delivered 60 goals and 46 assists. Auston is the guy who has a bit of pride.
Make no mistake, he will be super-motivated to get his name back on top of the goal-scoring charts. Matthews is all but guaranteed to net 50+ goals, particularly now that he is also in the top penalty-killing unit. We also have reasons to expect the head coach, Sheldon Keefe, to give him the full two minutes of the majority of the power play situations.
To sum it all up, according to the Ontario sportsbooks, we have the best scorer of the most talented offensive unit in the league in the team that is among the main Stanley Cup favorites. What’s not to like about Matthews repeating the excellent campaign from two years ago and hitting 60+ goals once again at the super-attractive +700 odds with BetMGM?
The more conservative punters can take a much safer option and back Matthews to score Over 50.5 goals in the regular season at the -115 odds, also with BetMGM.
No 3 Maple Leafs Futures Bet — Toronto to Win Atlantic Division (+220) at BetMGM
At +1000 to win the Stanley Cup, Toronto is among the top five contenders for the prestigious trophy ahead of the start of the season. As odd as it sounds, the Maple Leafs have never gone all the way and taken the league title to their cabinet, which is one of the reasons why we will skip such a big longshot. The other reason is the postseason effect. The Maple Leafs have secured the playoffs in seven consecutive years, only to celebrate the first series win in over 20 years last season by eliminating the Lightning in the opening round.
Instead, we will keep the focus on the regular season as the sportsbooks have come up with some nice and attractive betting options for the Maple Leafs. The best one is Toronto to win the Atlantic Division at the +220 odds with BetMGM. Boston and Tampa Bay are traditionally Toronto’s main division rivals. At the moment, we consider the Maple Leafs to be in a much better shape than either of these outfits. The Bruins enjoyed a record-breaking 135-point campaign last time out, but they’ve drastically changed the roster in between the two seasons. It remains to be seen how Jim Montgomery will adjust to life without the likes of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
The Lightning have also lost a lot of their important supporting cast in the last several years (hence the weaker displays last season), and they will be without goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy for at least three months, according to the latest preseason reports. The Maple Leafs enter the season stronger than last year with a healthy roster. We really like these +220 odds.
Head to BetMGM Sportsbook to place your bets and back the Leafs this season »
