Buy or Sell: Seattle Kraken to Win the Western Conference

The Seattle Kraken have been a great story in 2022-23, continuing to surprise people with its results.

After finishing near the bottom of the league in their inaugural season, the Kraken have flipped the switch in Year 2, doing an excellent job of putting themselves on the map. 

There’s a lot to like about the direction this team is headed in, and the West appears to be more open for the taking than we’ve seen in previous seasons. 

Let’s dive into the Seattle Kraken’s odds of winning the Western Conference on the FanDuel Sportsbook and if there’s value in their current price.

Kraken Making Big Leap to Contender Status

When you finish near the basement, it’s sometimes hard to fathom that a team could become a contender the following year, but that’s what the Kraken have done. With a good mix of youth and some wise spending in free agency, the Kraken have one of the NHL’s highest-scoring offenses and have done a great job of scoring by committee. There isn’t a lot of star power on this roster, but that hasn’t deterred them from picking up victories. Matty Beniers is in the running for the Calder Trophy and is likely the closest player this team has to a star. This team is deep up front and can add ahead of the trade deadline. We’ll see if they’re more comfortable continuing to develop their core instead of throwing futures away when they’re still a young team. 

Despite heading into the All-Star break sitting atop the Pacific Division with 63 points, oddsmakers aren’t giving the Kraken much respect. The second-year franchise is sitting with the seventh-shortest odds to win the Western Conference at +1100, and it’s easy to make a case that those odds should be higher. We’re now at the point where it should be reasonably clear that what this Kraken team is doing is sustainable and that they aren’t just going through a hot stretch. They boast a +26 goal differential, which is the best in the division, yet they aren’t getting the same respect as some of their other Western Conference foes. This is reminiscent of what the Vegas Golden Knights did early in their existence.

It’s hard to put big-money bets on a relatively unproven Kraken team in the postseason, but they have some players that have postseason experience. With their odds at +1100, the Kraken are being undervalued in the futures market to win the Western Conference. As a result, there’s value in backing the Kraken and their odds of winning the West. 

Buy or Sell: Buy the Kraken to win the West at +1100