The Golden Knights are just favored to win the Stanley Cup at BetMGM, as a computer simulation of the NHL season run 100 times has Vegas as the overwhelming favorite to hoist its second Stanley Cup in four years.
The Knights, who opens its 2025-26 campaign Wednesday at home against the Los Angeles Kings, made the playoffs 89 times in the 100 simulations, and won the title 42 times - 16 more than the next team, the Dallas Stars.
The study, conducted by RotoWire.com, was run through ChatGPT to simulate the entire 2025-26 NHL season 100 times, to see how often each team would advance to the playoffs and predict who would win the most Stanley Cups.
Vegas is the co-favorite to win the Cup, along with Edmonton, both at 8-to-1 at BetMGM Sportsbook.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers made the playoffs a league second-highest 95 times, one less than the Tampa Bay Lightning, but were predicted to three-peat just two times.
Two-time Western Conference champion Edmonton made the playoffs 89 times during the simulation, but was predicted to win the title just three times.
Every team in the NHL was predicted to make the postseason at least twice, but only seven won the Stanley Cup a minimum of two times: Vegas (42), Dallas (26), Carolina (20), Tampa Bay (5), Edmonton (3), Florida (2) and Winnipeg (2).
Per the site: "Anyone trying the same experiment likely would get different results; your mileage may vary depending on the query that's fed into the system."
Also, according to the website, the Golden Knights "have been one of the best franchises in the league since the day they started in 2017-18. That season, the expansion Golden Knights stunned the hockey world by winning eight of their first nine games in their debut season and they kept steamrolling all the way to the Stanley Cup final before losing to the Washington Capitals."
It wouldn't surprise many if Vegas advanced to the postseason, as it's made the playoffs in seven of the eight seasons it's been a part of the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup in 2022-23.
Vegas has added firepower to this year's team when it traded for 100-point forward Mitch Marner just before free agency, to join forces with top-tier center Jack Eichel.