The Canadiens took a swing on Cole Caufield in 2019, and the bet has turned into one of the biggest wins of their draft era.
When Montreal grabbed Caufield with the 15th overall pick at the NHL Draft in Vancouver, the team didn’t expect he’d still be sitting there. Former assistant general manager Trevor Timmins said, “Well, we were a little bit surprised and happy he was there at 15,” adding, “We expected him to be gone in the top 10. ...
We were really high on him. We had a tough decision - not a tough decision, but we had a decision to make at our pick.
At the time, Caufield was listed at 5-foot-7 and 163 pounds. Now 25, the winger has filled out to 175 pounds, and the production has caught up to the belief Montreal showed on draft day.
He scored 30 goals in 31 games for the University of Wisconsin in the 2020-21 season and took home the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in U.S. college hockey. Then last season, Caufield erupted for 51 goals, becoming the first Canadiens player to reach the 50-goal mark since Stéphane Richer scored 51 in 1989-90.
And over the last two seasons, nobody in the NHL has scored more than Caufield’s 88 goals. Leon Draisaitl is next with 87, followed by Nathan MacKinnon at 85, Tage Thompson at 84, Nikita Kucherov at 81, Kyle Connor and Alex DeBrincat and Jason Robertson at 80, Jake Guentzel at 79, and Wyatt Johnson at 78.
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Mooney is the one who already looks closest to forcing a decision, since his play at Minnesota has put him on the radar for a possible entry-level contract if he keeps trending up. Hages return gives Montreal another important look at a player whose development path has already been tested, while Runtso adds another fresh layer of intrigue once he settles in at Miami. The Canadiens do not need all of these prospects to hit at once, but they do need some of them to keep moving, and this fall should tell the team a lot about which ones are ready to push forward. [Read more 🡒]
Kirby Dach Just Put A Canadiens Bounce-Back Season Back In Focus
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The bigger question around Dach remains the same one that followed him through the spring: whether the flashes he showed in the playoffs can carry into a full bounce-back season. Montreal has spent much of the summer talking about growth, health and internal improvement, and Dach sits right in the middle of that conversation as one of the players whose next step could shape the teams outlook. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Goalie Situation Suddenly Hinges On Winnipegs Next Move
The Canadiens goaltending picture is suddenly tied to a bigger conversation out in Winnipeg, where any serious trade talk involving Connor Hellebuyck could ripple across the market and put Montreal in a spot it may have to address before long. Samuel Montembeault sits at the center of that uncertainty, with the current chatter suggesting the Canadiens could be watching the deadline landscape closely rather than treating their crease as settled.
Montembeaults future is already a talking point because a move before the deadline has been viewed as plausible, and the uncertainty only grows if the Jets decide to shift course. If Winnipeg starts asking around on Montreals goalie, the discussion could widen quickly, but for now it remains all speculation and there have been no confirmed transactions to report. [Read more 🡒]