Preseason odds for the NHL Awards have been announced for the 2020-21 season and the Boston Bruins have a couple of players who have decent odds to bring home hardware.
Preseason odds were announced for the annual NHL Awards that are handed out at the end of each year and according to betonline.ag, the Boston Bruins have a couple of players that they believe will be in the running for some of the major awards.
Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask has the best odds to bring home an award. He is a +700 to win the Vezina Trophy. He is behind the last two winners of the award, Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning who won the award in 2019, and last year’s winner Connor Hellebuyck of the Winning Jets. Rask finished second to Hellenbucyk in voting and last won it in 2014.
Surprisingly, Bruins backup Jaroslav Halak has better odds than some starting goalies at +4000 to win the award.
David Pastrnak has odds for two awards. He has the fourth-best odds at +900 to win his second consecutive Maurice Rocket Richard Trophy, which he shared with 2021 favorite Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals last season. Ovechkin is a +500, just ahead of the Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers who is +600, and Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs +700. Connor McDavid is third, just ahead of Pasta at +800.
That award might be tough for Pastrnak to repeat this season if the NHL season begins in mid-January as they hope to. He will still be recovering from hip surgery he underwent in September and has a mid-February return date, which gives the player’s head of him, and below him for that matter, a month ahead of him.
Pastrnak also appears on the Art Ross Trophy list with +2000 odds, tied with teammate Brad Marchand for the award given to the player who leads the regular-season in points. McDavid at +275 is the favorite to win the award.
Marchand is also +2000 to win the Hart Memorial Trophy, given to the player who is judged to be the most valuable to his team. Again, McDavid is the favorite at +400, just ahead of Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. Pastrnak is at +2500 on the list.
Last season, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy won the Jack Adams Award given to the NHL’s top coach. This season, he is +1200 to win the award again. That puts him with the eighth-best odds, with Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders leading the way at +600, just ahead of Jared Bednar of the Avalanche who is +700.
The Bruins have some players, and a coach, with a chance to bring home awards in 2021, but right now, the Black and Gold would rather have everyone healthy and ready to go to make another run at a Stanley Cup championship to being the new season.