The drop should not come as a surprise as the Bruins traded away……..

Despite a handful of early offseason moves, the Boston Bruins still find themselves on the outside looking in to hoist the Stanley Cup next season based on the latest odds.

At plus-2000 odds, Boston currently has the 11th-best odds. Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers occupy the first two spo following their instant-classic series in this year’s Cup Final. The Dallas Stars round out the top three with plus-1000 odds. Even though the Bruins eliminated them from the postseason, the Toronto Maple Leafs have the best cup odds within the Atlantic Divison at plus-1500.

Compared to last season, the Bruins find themselves even farther from the top, as they had plus-1300 odds ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.

The drop should not come as a surprise as the Bruins traded away Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators and let key offensive players such as Jake DeBrusk, who finished the year fifth on the squad with 19 goals, walk in free agency.

Still, Bruins general manager Don Sweeny feels he has the answers within the team to improve their cup odds.

“You can take a little bit of minutes away from those top guys and situations and change momentum. The game is really important as the year goes along,” said Sweeny. “Every one of these guys is looking for that opportunity to continue to grow their game.”

Heading into the 2024-25 campaign, the Bruins can look within, as Sweeny said, as they return all four of their top scorers and defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who anchored the defense and led all defenders in goals with 12 and points with 47.

The B’s have found support on their blue line with the addition of Nikita Zadorov and Jordan Osterlee and in net with former Ottawa Senators netminder Joonas Korpisalo as part of the return for Ullmark. For Korpisalo, he comes to Boston after winning 21 games across 49 starts with the Ottawa Senators, a team that ended the year with 37 wins. For comparison, Ullmark won 22 games with 39 starts last season.

As for Zadorov, the journeyman defender spent the 2023-24 season out on the West Coast with the Calgary Flame to begin the year before being traded and finishing the year with the Vancouver Canucks. Across 75 total games, the Moscow native totaled 20 points with six goals.

Even with moves to bolster the defense and a new secondary netminder, oddsmakers feel it hasn’t been enough to boost the B’s odds, let alone enter the top ten ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.