The three-week break from NHL betting won't mean that hockey fans will go without their favorite sport. That's because the Winter Olympics are coming and NHL players are going to participate for the first time since 2014.
Which NHL teams might benefit most from the league's stoppage and which ones likely won't? To find out, RotoWire.com came up with a system for figuring it out. Here are the teams, with the explanation below (teams with the fewest points are assumed to get the most rest and thus are at the top of the list). Olympic rosters are updated from NHL.com as of Feb. 3:
Teams Getting Most And Least Rest During Olympics
| Team | Athletes | On Favorites | Total Points |
| Calgary Flames | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| New York Islanders | 2 | 1 | 2.5 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 2 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Washington Capitals | 3 | 2.5 | 5.5 |
| Seattle Kraken | 3 | 2.5 | 5.5 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 3 | 2.5 | 5.5 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 3 | 2.5 | 5.5 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| New York Rangers | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 4 | 2.5 | 6.5 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Utah Mammoth | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| San Jose Sharks | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 4 | 3.5 | 7.5 |
| Nashville Predators | 4 | 3.5 | 7.5 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| Ottawa Senators | 5 | 3.5 | 8.5 |
| St. Louis Blues | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 5 | 4.5 | 9.5 |
| New Jersey Devils | 7 | 4 | 11 |
| Dallas Stars | 7 | 6.5 | 13.5 |
| Florida Panthers | 8 | 7 | 15 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 8 | 7 | 15 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 8 | 7.5 | 15.5 |
| Minnesota Wild | 8 | 7.5 | 15.5 |
| Boston Bruins | 8 | 8 | 16 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 10 | 7 | 17 |
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Our method for determining total points was as follows: Each NHL player on an Olympic roster for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, Italy, was worth a point. Then we added one point for each player who is on an expected medal contender (USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland) and half a point for each player on a team that we think might earn a surprise medal with an upset or two (Czechia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany). We assigned no extra points for players representing Latvia, Denmark or France. The roster for host Italy, which was released on Jan. 20, has no NHL players.
Who Might Benefit Most From Olympic Break?
The New York Islanders are in the Eastern Conference playoff race. As of Feb. 3, they had 65 points and sat third in the Metropolitan Division. BetMGM Sportsbook has -125 odds on the Isles to reach the playoffs, as opposed to +105 odds that they miss out. They are only sending two players to the Winter Games, Canadian forward Bo Horvat and recently acquired Ondrej Palat, who will represent Czechia.
The Chicago Blackhawks only have one Olympic representative, F Teuvo Teravainen of Finland. The team at the top of our rankings for getting rest during the NHL break, the Calgary Flames, went from two Olympic players to one when they traded Swedish defenseman Rasmus Andersson to the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 19. Forward Martin Pospisil of Slovakia is now Calgary's lone Olympic representative.
Four teams have only two players each on Olympic rosters, including the two-time defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers (F Connor McDavid, Canada, and F Leon Draisaitl, Germany). The Buffalo Sabres went from three representatives to two when it was announced on Feb. 3 that goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will miss the Games with a lower-body injury.
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Which Teams Might Expend A Lot Of Energy In Italy?
According to our metrics, several teams won't benefit much from the February stoppage in NHL play. The current Atlantic Division leaders, the Tampa Bay Lightning, have the most points in our computations with 17.
Tampa Bay has 10 players listed on the Olympic rosters at NHL.com, the most of any team. That includes forwards Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point for Canada, F Pontus Holmberg and D Victor Hedman for Sweden and American F Jake Guentzel. Point (leg injury) is trying to overcome his injury before the Games. Four other Lightning players are headed to Milan: F Oliver Bjorkstrand, Denmark; F Zemgus Girgensons, Latvia; D Erik Cernak, Slovakia; and D J.J. Moser, Switzerland.
They'll be joined by Bolts head coach Jon Cooper, who will occupy the same role for Team Canada during the Olympics. At BetRivers Sportsbook, Tampa Bay is the +200 favorite to win the East. Even if Team Canada must replace Point because of his injury, the Bolts would still send a league-high nine players to Italy.
Injury replacements have caused a few changes on this list in the past couple of weeks.
The Boston Bruins are now second on our list with 16 points, derived from the fact that all eight of their players headed to the Games are playing for top medal contenders. Two recent additions from Boston's roster are G Joonas Korpisalo, who replaced Luukkonen on Finland's roster, and Swedish D Hampus Lindholm, who takes the spot of injured Minnesota Wild D Jonas Brodin.
The Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche, and Minnesota Wild also have eight players each headed to Italy. In each case, almost all of their players are suiting up for an expected medal contender.
Team Canada is the gold-medal favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook with +120 odds as of Feb. 3, followed by Team USA (+175), Sweden (+600) and defending Olympic champ Finland (+1000).
A Hidden Factor In Teams Getting Rest
There is one major hockey power missing from this year's Olympics: Russia. Their nation is banned from Olympic competition because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine (so is Belarus for its support of Russia).
Normally, the Lightning would have sent even more players to Italy because two of Tampa Bay's other stars would have been locks for Team Russia had there been one: G Andrei Vasilevskiy and F Nikita Kucherov. Vasilevskiy, 31, is a one-time Vezina Trophy winner and a five-time finalist. Kucherov. 32, has earned the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer three times, including the past two seasons; he has won one Hart Trophy and finished in the top three of MVP voting two other times.
The Panthers, who are perhaps even more banged-up than the Lightning, will also get to give top forwards Sam Bennett, the reigning Conn Smythe recipient as playoff MVP, and Carter Verhaeghe some time off. Neither made Team Canada's roster. D Seth Jones was named to the Team USA roster, but he'll miss the Olympics with an injury.
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