Following a season where he had the most points for any player on a playoff team and failed to be named a finalist, it shouldn’t come as any surprise Claude Giroux is entering the 2018-19 with fairly low odds to be named the league’s MVP. The Bovada MVP odds came out today, and the Flyers’ 102-point center-turned-left winger has 25-to-1 odds to win the award. He is tied with Brad Marchand, Steven Stamkos, and Vladimir Tarasenko with the 13th-best chances to bring home the award.
Here are the Bovada MVP odds for the NHL 2018-19 season. Gimme Stamkos at 25-to-1 all day. pic.twitter.com/fsCTcgDo7F
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) August 16, 2018
Each player with better odds than Giroux has a case to ultimately be named league MVP, but some arguments can be made against a few. The top two centers for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins could all have amazing seasons, but if this happens it would likely lead to votes being spread out across the four rather than one coming out of the pack as a favorite. Mark Scheifele is a great forward, but will he even be the most valuable forward on his own team?
Realistically, Giroux will have to do serious work to win the award this season. Many felt he had too much help last season with Sean Couturier’s breakout campaign and Jakub Voracek producing 85 points. The signing of James van Riemsdyk won’t help that argument. Also, it’s going to be hard for him to duplicate his point production from 2017-18. It was his first time scoring 30 goals or more and it coincided with the year he produced his career-high for assists in a single season.
Regardless of the odds he is given coming into the season, hopefully our grilled cheese aficionado can rack up another 100-point season to help the Flyers set up a deep postseason run.
