Exploring betting options for the Red Wings ahead of the 2025-26 season.
The 2025-26 NHL season draws closer and closer with sportsbooks starting to roll out seasonal bets that fans can ride for a majority of the season. These kind of bets are known as futures and can be something like if a certain player will win an award like the Hart or if a team like the Red Wings will make the playoffs.
There's several betting options for the Red Wings early on that fans may want to look at. We can further explore what's needed to make the bet hit and hopefully win fans some extra cash if they feel confident.
We broke down in a recent story what is needed for the Red Wings to make the postseason. We can say with a level of certainity that they likely won't occupy a top three spot in the Atlantic Division as perennial contenders in the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning and back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers will likely finish ahead of them.
This means they'll need to secure a wild card spot and during the 2023–24 season, Detroit finished with 91 points and missed the playoffs by a single point. Over the past decade, 95 points has consistently been the number that gives teams a reliable shot at a wild-card spot.
This means anywhere between 45 to 48 wins will be required with some extra time losses included. It is certainly doable as Tankathon has the Red Wings listed with the third-easiest schedule this upcoming season.
This one is a bit of a reach as the field of goaltenders now is truly elite with several contenders that could win the award every season in Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck, New York's Igor Shesterkin and Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Recent Vezina winners from the past decade have mainly averaged a goals against average under 2.30 and finished with a save percentage above .920 with league placements typically landing in the top three or needing to lead the league in one of the two categories to win.
An example of this is Connor Hellebuyck's 2023-24 season, when he posted a 2.39 GAA with a top three save percentage at .921 and the second most wins at 37 on the season.
Gibson has hit close to these numbers before with his 2015-16 season, when he finished with a league-best 2.07 goals against average and a .920 save percentage through 40 apperances. He has finished with a goals against average under 2.30 twice but finished with a save percentage above .920 three times, which means if he can pull it all together, it's possible. In a defensive Todd McLellan system, who knows the potential upside for Gibson.
This one requires slightly more than the playoff bet as the Red Wings are desperately looking to snap their nine-year playoff drought and with a top two or three divisional seed, it could win McLellan the award for the turnaround. Detroit has been right on the verge of having a big season like when they came just a point short of making the postseason in 2024.
If McLellan can massively improve the Wings like he has with several other teams like his early years in San Jose and LA, he could find his way into an award win.
