Rasmus Andersson Trade Slashes Golden Knights’ Cup Odds
Posted on: January 23, 2026, 09:22h.
Last updated on: January 23, 2026, 10:12h.
- The Vegas Knights are in Toronto Friday night to take on the Leafs as betting favorites
- Mitch Marner makes Toronto return after signing with Golden Knights as a free agent last summer
- Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup odds shorten after Rasmus Andersson trade Sunday
Mitch Marner of the Las Vegas Golden Knights returns to Toronto on Friday night — the city where he was born — to take on the Maple Leafs, the team that drafted and developed him. It won’t be a warm welcome. Marner is going to be greeted with a frigidness that will match the city’s current Arctic-like temperatures.
Marner left the Leafs as a free agent this past summer — the one team he played with since joining the NHL as a fourth overall draft pick in 2015. The move severed a relationship with an organization and city that started so positively but ended with the bitterness of a Barnett Mega Sour candy.
As soon as the green light on NHL free agency flashed in July, Marner was out of Toronto like a bolt, off to Las Vegas, inking an 8-year, $96 million contract.
Las Vegas Gambling: Golden Knights’ Cup Odds Shorten
Marner, with 741 points in 657 games as a Maple Leaf, was supposed to have been on a path to his own chapter in Leafs’ lore by becoming the best homegrown player to ever don the blue and white. Countless playoff collapses over the past nine years put an end to all that. There’s a wonderful journalistic account of the Marner collapse in Toronto here.
Marner has been good for the Golden Knights. Not great, not a point-per-game player, as he was for the Leafs, although he has picked it up lately. He’s been manning the second line, at center, and now has 12 goals, 39 assists, 93 shots on net, in 49 games, and a plus-10 rating. Last season with the Leafs, he was a 102-point player.
Marner was hearing some boos from Leafs fans at T-Mobile Arena when the two teams met last week, so there’s no doubt those boos with a full home crowd on hand will hit a crescendo not seen in these parts in a long while. There’s still a lot of raw emotion regarding Marner.
Bettings Lines for Friday Night
DraftKings has Las Vegas as the slight betting favorite for Friday night at -120, the home team +100. Puckline is Golden Knights -1.5 (+195), Leafs +1.5 (-238), with the Over 6.5 (+110), and the Under 6.5 (-130). BetMGM also has Las Vegas as the slight betting favorite at -120, the home team +100.
So Friday night’s game is big news, with the Golden Knights sitting first in the Pacific Division at 24-13-12, for 60 points, coming off two losses, including a 4-3 loss to the Bruins Thursday night in Boston. Las Vegas is two points up on the second-place Edmonton Oilers, with two games in hand. In the Western Conference, the Golden Knights are fourth, five points behind the third-place Dallas Stars.
The other big news was another big trade involving Las Vegas. Whenever there’s a big-time player on the market, it always seems the Golden Knights are in there making an offer. And defenseman Rasmus Andersson is a big-time player, acquired from the Calgary Flames on Sunday, with Zach Whitecloud, two draft picks, and a prospect going the other way. Vegas was reportedly the defenseman’s preferred destination. Andersson is on the road with the team, and his debut is happening soon. Tonight maybe?
Andersson Trade Just Another Lineup Boost
Oddsmakers are definitely noticing. At Caesars Sportsbook the Vegas Golden Knights currently have the second-shortest Stanley Cup odds, at +700, after the Colorado Avalanche (+400).
“Coming into this season, the defense was arguably the weakest part of the roster,” said Karry Shreeve, head of hockey at Caesars Sportsbook. “Shipping Nicolas Hague and the ‘unexpected’ season-ending injury to Alex Pietrangelo really put them in a tough depth situation, which we’ve seen all year. Adding Andersson to a now relatively healthy blue line really gives them a chance to separate out in what’s been a super-tight Pacific Division.”
When he works his way into the lineup, Andersson will likely team up with former Flames defensive partner Noah Hanifin. Andersson is a defense-first, shot-blocking beast, fourth in the NHL last season with 196, down to 30th so far this season, with 90 so far.
With Vegas getting ‘right’ lately and some analytic metrics I personally favor, the addition of Andersson prompted me to move them from 10/1 to 7/1,” said Shreeve. “Andersson led the Flames in Time On Ice, a very underrated stat for impact. Say what you will about Pietrangelo, but he ate up so many minutes; it simply allows the other, less talented defenseman not to have to do ‘too much’. So now that VGK is adding a 24-minute guy, it really helps that depth and allows guys like Lauzon and Korczak to just do their job, nothing more.
“Game to game, even a top blueliner has a pretty minimal effect on the odds, and over time, his presence will be built into the line. The important key for us was to improve their odds to win the Stanley Cup and Western Conference overall.”
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