Which Canadian NHL team do fans want to win the trophy?

Four Canadian hockey teams are vying for the Stanley Cup this season and there's a lot going for each of them, with fans from across the country weighing in on who they want to bring home this summer.

The Montreal Canadiens were the last Canadian team to lift Lord Stanley's Cup, and according to the Angus Reid Institute, fans seem overly confident that one of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks or Winnipeg Jets will end the drought.

Asked which team they think is Canada's best chance, more than 1,000 Canadian hockey fans polled were evenly split between the Maple Leafs (21 percent) and the Edmonton Oilers (20 percent).

The third most voted team is the Vancouver Canucks (14%), while only five percent believe the Winnipeg Jets have what it takes to win the Cup.

The third-seeded Maple Leafs face the second-seeded Florida Panthers in the first round of the playoffs, while second-seeded Edmonton could face the third-seeded Los Angeles Kings.

Toronto has suffered a second-round playoff loss in the last of these Panthers' playoff games. McDavid and the Oilers swept the Kings in six games last year before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.

The second-seeded Jets will face tough competition in this season's first-round matchup with the third-seeded Colorado Avalanche and Hart Trophy favorite Nathan MacKinnon. Winnipeg has significantly improved its regular-season scoring, with 106 points as of Monday, and will look to reverse the avalanche after last year's first-round elimination by the Golden Knights.

The Canucks were one of the NHL's biggest surprises after finishing with 83 points and missing the 2022-23 postseason. Vancouver enters Monday with 107 points and first in the Pacific Division. That means JT Miller and crew will host the wild-card Nashville Predators in the first round.

Who do Canadian hockey fans root for?

The Maple Leafs were Canada's top Stanley Cup hopes in the 2019 and 2021 Angus Reid Institute polls, but Toronto hasn't advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2002.

When it comes to which fans across the country are rooting for, the results tell a different story.

For Eastern Ontario, the Maple Leafs are the top choice for hockey fans, with three-quarters (73%) in Ontario and half (52%) in Atlantic Canada rooting for Matthews and company.

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In British Columbia, it's mostly Canucks or bust, with 83 percent of NHL followers in that province rooting for star defenseman Quinn Hughes and his team.

It's a similar story in Manitoba, where the province hopes the Jets can make a run to the Cup final in June. Two-thirds (64 percent) of Albertans who follow the NHL support McDavid and the Oilers.

In 2016, only 57 percent of Canadians said it didn't matter which team ended the Stanley Cup drought, while 43 percent said winning was important to them. In 2024, nearly two-thirds (64% of those surveyed) said they would support any team that calls Canada home.

The Stanley Cup playoffs begin on April 20.