The Hockey News ran a poll ahead of the season, and a few Montreal Canadiens players fared well, including sniper Cole Caufield.
As we approach the start of the season, The Hockey News polled 39 of its writers and contributors on various topics, including who will win every major award, including the Rocket Richard Trophy awarded to the league’s top goal-scorer. Out of 39 voters, only seven picked Montreal Canadiens sniper Cole Caufield as the winner. That lands him in second place, tied with Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews (who has won it three times) and two votes behind Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl (who has won it once so far).
Caufield came close last season, scoring 51 goals, just two short of winner Nathan MacKinnon’s total of 53. However, Draisaitl dealt with injuries last season and played just 64 games, scoring 35 goals; projected over a full season, that’s 45 goals. The year he won it, he only had 52 goals, just one more than Caufield did last season. Of course, there’s the Connor McDavid factor. Running shotgun with the league’s top player sure helps light up the lamp, but Caufield is riding with Nick Suzuki, who scored over 100 points last season, and Ivan Demidov, an elite power-play passer.
As for Matthews, he also battled injuries and played just 60 games, scoring 27 goals. That works out to just 37 goals in a full season, but to be fair, it was very much a down year for the Leafs’ captain, just like the year before. For the last two seasons, injuries have plagued Matthews, but in 2023-24, when he skated in 81 games, he scored 69 goals. Furthermore, Toronto was in turmoil last season, and Matthews was in a bit of a “Marner hangover”; he lost his running mate and struggled to thrive without him. Will he be healthy this season? Will he be over losing Marner? Will he become prime Matthews again? Nobody knows right now.
Can Will Caufield break the 50-goal mark in two consecutive seasons? It’s hard to tell. The last player to do it in consecutive years with the Habs was Guy Lafleur, but he did it for six consecutive seasons, so back-to-back seasons isn’t impossible. Of course, Caufield doesn’t play on the Canadiens of the 1970s, an absolute powerhouse, but Montreal has slowly but surely become one of the league's top offensive teams. They were the seventh-highest-scoring team, averaging 3.40 goals per game.
There are a lot of unknowns, but on paper at least, it’s far from outside the realm of possibility that Caufield wins the Rocket Richard this season, especially since he has diversified his toolbox over the years. He once was a shooter from a single spot on the ice. Still, under Martin St-Louis’ tutelage, he has become much more of a threat from various areas on the ice, especially in close, walking in on the goalie and roofing the puck when it looks like he’s out of space, but he never is. Whatever happens, though, the race to the Rocket Richard should be very entertaining to watch.
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