NHL Jack Adams Award Odds: Coach Of The Year Picks

With the NHL about a quarter of the way through its season, oddsmakers are looking at candidates for the Jack Adams Award, presented every year to the coach judged to have contributed most to his team’s success.  

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Online sportsbook BetOnline Sportsbook has listed Calgary coach Darryl Sutter (+600) as the favorite in Jack Adams Award odds, with Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour (+750), Minnesota’s Dean Evason (+750), Edmonton’s Dave Tippett (+800) and the Rangers’ Gerard Gallant (+1000) rounding out the top five.

For more hockey betting content, head over to our NHL page. Take a look at the book’s full list of odds:

NHL Jack Adams Award Odds

Odds as of December 1 at BetOnline Sportsbook    

NHL Jack Adams Award Odds: Top Choices

Betting Strategy

Picking a winner in NHL Jack Adams Award odds can be a bit tricky because the award tends not to go to the coach of the league’s best team. Since the 2004-05 lockout (16 seasons), only twice has the Jack Adams gone to the coach of the team with the league’s best record.

Instead, the award usually goes either to the coach of a team that “overachieved” in the eyes of voters (often because of a hot goalie), or a coach of a team that overcomes some sort of adversity (injuries, etc.) and ends up one of the league’s better teams.

A clear narrative must be crafted around why the winning coach deserves the award over the coach of a team that just dominates the league.

That’s likely why coaches such as Jared Bednar (+1800) and Peter DeBoer (+2000) are further down the list. Their teams are so good they likely won’t get the credit for any success the club has.

With that in mind, here are a couple of value options in NHL Jack Adams Award odds.

Jon Cooper (+1400)

One of the best coaches in hockey, Jon Cooper has somehow never won a Jack Adams Award. That’s probably because his teams have been too good (see above), but it’s easy to see why this could be the year he finally bags one.

The Lightning lost a considerable amount of talent off their Stanley Cup roster, including their entire third line, and have plenty of new faces and players in new roles.

If Cooper is able to pull the team together and win the Atlantic Division (or come close) once again, he should be one of the favorites to win the award at season’s end. It would really be quite the feat considering the shortened summer break following two Cup wins in eight months. The narratives write themselves.

Sheldon Keefe (+2200)

The Leafs have had a great run of late and sit atop the Atlantic Division with a 16-6-1 record as the calendar turns to December. 

But Keefe is not getting a lot of love in NHL Jack Adams Award odds, currently tied for the 15th-best odds. We aren’t sure why. The Leafs are legitimately one of the better teams in the league (maybe that’s why, see above again) and play in a quality division.

Maybe it’s because it’s the Leafs. Maybe it’s a product of the playoff failures. But if the Leafs end up being one of the top teams in the league, Keefe should absolutely be higher on this list. And right now, nobody has more wins.

+2200 is fantastic value.

Andrew Brunette (+1600)

Right before the season started, then Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville was tops on the list for NHL Jack Adams Award odds. But after Quenneville was fired for his role in the Kyle Beach sexual assault scandal from his days in Chicago, Brunette was forced into an interim role.

The Panthers have not skipped a beat since the coaching change. Brunette has his team in second place in the Atlantic Division, third in goal differential in the entire league and looking like a true Cup contender. 

At +1600 and tied for the ninth-best NHL Jack Adams Award odds, Brunette is a great value considering the situation he has been thrust into for his first head coaching job and how well he has done.

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Best Bet: Gerard Gallant (+900)

Gallant won the Jack Adams Award after taking the expansion Vegas Golden Knights all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural campaign. He was a shoo-in for the award that season.

But this year presents an interesting challenge for Gallant, taking over the New York Rangers, one of the league’s highest-profile teams, after a year of underachieving. However, the team is stacked from top to bottom with high-end talent, including recent top picks Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko plus reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox and an emerging star goalie in Igor Shesterkin.

The Rangers sit third in the Metropolitan Division as of the beginning of December and look like a strong contender to be the most improved team in the league.

A bonus suggestion is to throw a little bit down on Capitals coach Peter Laviolette (+1200). The Capitals sit atop the Metro Division and have the second-best goal differential in the league. Laviolette is a good bet if Washington can keep winning after being counted out by so many pundits.