Men's Olympic Hockey Futures & Best Bets

One of the premier events (if not THE premier event) at this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy is set to begin on Wednesday, as the men’s hockey tournament begins in Milan, Italy. This is perhaps the most anticipated event of these Olympics because, for the first time in 12 years, NHL players will be filling out the rosters of the tournament, as the league has gone dark for most of February to accommodate this. Let’s find some spots to win some money on the action!

Men’s Olympic Hockey Futures & Best Bets

Round Robin Start: Feb 11th – 10:40 am EST

Quarterfinals: Feb 18th – 6:10 am EST

Gold Medal Game: Feb 22nd – 8:10 am EST

First, a primer on the tournament’s format for those new to this. Twelve teams are competiting in the tournament, split into three groups of four teams. The teams will play a round-robin format within their group, with the top team in each group advancing to the quarterfinals, along with the best second-place team from the three groups. The remaining eight teams will be in the qualification playoffs to try win their way into the quarterfinals.

Got it? Good. Here are some winning bets now.

Gold Medal Winner

As you can probably guess from the photo accompanying this article, I’m going with Team Canada to win the gold medal again this year, as they did the last two Olympics that had NHL players competing (2010 and 2014). Improbably, Canada still has two players from the 2014 team playing on this year’s edition: the pictured Sidney Crosby, and Drew Doughty.

What can I say? The Canadian roster is stacked with the best players in the world: Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar…the rest. Goaltending is always the question mark with Canadian teams, but the offense should carry the day, regardless.

Best Bet: Canada to win gold (+105)

Group Winners

Betting each of the three group winners is a bit chalky this year, as Canada and the USA are clear and away the favorites to win Group A and C, respectively. Group B is a bit closer, but the injuries that have ravaged Finland’s roster leave Sweden as the clear favorite to win that group.

So, to get us some plus money, I’m parlaying Canada, the USA, and Sweden to win their respective groups and automatically move on to the quarterfinals.

Best Bet: Canada Group A Winner + Sweden Group B Winner + USA Group C Winner (+117)

Tournament MVP

I swear I’m not being a homer here – all the best hockey players just happen to come from my country, ok?! The two best players in the world, not just this season in the NHL (but especially this season), but over the past few years, are Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. That’s not a wild statement, right?

Yet you can get real wide odds on both of these guys winning the MVP of the tournament. If you expect Canada to win, as I do, I’d first bet on McDavid to be MVP, but also sprinkle some on MacKinnon.

Best Bet: Connor McDavid to win MVP (+700); Nathan MacKinnon to win MVP (+900)