The start of the 2026-27 NHL season is officially upon us! As the puck drops on the new campaign, we’re taking a look at the betting landscape for futures and awards betting markets. There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned goal to send a crowd to its feet and get the adrenaline pumping, so we’re taking a look at some of the league’s top goalscorers as we try to narrow down candidates for the Rocket Richard Trophy.
Here are the Rocket Richard Trophy odds along with some predictions and best bets to win the award on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Rocket Richard Trophy Odds
Goals, goals, goals – that’s what we’re looking for when it comes to this award market. The Rocket Richard Trophy is presented to the top goalscorer in the NHL each season, so finding high-quality and high-volume finishers is the name of the game here.
Here are the leaders in odds to win the 2026-27 Rocket Richard Trophy on DraftKings Sportsbook:
- Nathan MacKinnon (+475)
- Cole Caufield (+550)
- Leon Draisaitl (+550)
- Kirill Kaprizov (+850)
- Jason Robertson (+950)
- Macklin Celebrini (+950)
- Connor McDavid (+1000)
- Auston Matthews (+1000)
- David Pastrnak (+1600)
- Nikita Kucherov (+1600)
Best Bets to Win the Rocket Richard Trophy
Leon Draisaitl (+550)
The interesting thing about this award is that generally, it’s extremely hard to repeat as an elite finisher. Over the last 10 seasons, only a handful of guys who finished as a top-five goalscorer managed to do so in the following campaign as well. Nobody has more instances of accomplishing that feat than Leon Draisaitl, who’s done so four times. Now, he’s only won the Rocket Richard Trophy once, which came two seasons ago with 52 goals. He did, however, finish as a top-three finalist in three additional seasons. Dating back to the 2018-19 campaign, the Oilers superstar has scored 40+ goals in six of his eight seasons and notched 50+ four times. The two exceptions to that streak of 40+ goals were both abbreviated seasons for Draisaitl, one of which was due to the shortened schedule and the other due to injury. When he plays 70+ games over this sample, though, he’s averaging 48.83 goals per season. There are few finishers who can stack up to his prowess, so as long as he’s healthy, he’s perhaps the best bet on the board to win the Rocket Richard.
Tage Thompson (+1900)
A longshot pick for this award, Tage Thompson brings a legitimate case to the table. The Sabres forward has been one of the NHL’s best shooters for a while now. The first season in which he played a truly significant role came back in 2021-22 as he began to take the leap to stardom – he finished with 38 goals that year across 78 games. Since then, he’s logged 47, 29, 44 and 40 goals. After hitting that coveted 40+ mark three times in the last four years, Thompson has established himself as one of the best in the business at burying the puck in the net. He’s been at a 14.7% shooting percentage or better in four of the last five seasons and was 11th in shot attempts per game last year and seventh in shooting talent-adjusted expected goals, per MoneyPuck’s stats. With Alex Tuch now out of the picture for Buffalo, this team may rely on Thompson even more as an offensive weapon this year. He should see great volume and generally makes the most of his chances, so he makes for an interesting value bet at these +1900 odds.
