Montreal Canadiens: Cole Caufield Wins Big at NCAA Conference Awards

The Montreal Canadiens knew they had drafted a skilled winger when they drafted Cole Caufield a year ago. He just won a few accolades at the NCAA conference awards.

The Montreal Canadiens were in one of the least desirable places when the 2018-19 season ended. They were the best team in the league to not make the playoffs. This means they get zero playoff games, but they also aren’t rewarded with a high draft pick. The bonus given to bad teams is a higher selection in the NHL Draft, but the Habs found themselves holding the 15th pick last year.

They were fortunate however, that super-skilled goal-scoring machine Cole Caufield fell to them at 15th. Looking back at the draft, it is still odd that someone who scored 72 goals and 100 points in 64 games for the United States Under-18 Team could fall to the middle of the first round. Especially since he dominated the World Under-18 Championships at the end of the season, scoring 14 goals in seven games.

Following that season, Caufield went to Wisconsin to play college hockey this season. He is a small winger, at just 5’7″ so there were plenty of doubters that thought Caufield would not be able to score at the NHL level just because he dominated for the American Under-18 program.

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The Stevens Point, Wisconsin native quieted the naysayers pretty quickly in his first season with the Badgers. He scored 19 goals and 36 points in 36 games as a freshman, finding open ice and creating offence and above all, sniping goals into the smallest of openings like he has done all his life.

The Badgers had a disappointing season and were eliminated in two straight games in the opening round of the NCAA Big Ten Conference playoffs. However, it was their defensive deficiencies that let them down, while their scoring, driven by Caufield was not a problem all season.

The NCAA Hockey calendar was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after the Badgers were eliminated but the Big Ten Conference just got around to handing out their postseason awards and naming their all-star teams today.

Not surprisingly, Cole Caufield’s name came up on several occasions. Within the Big Ten Conference, which somewhat misleadingly has only seven teams, the Badgers finished seventh in the standings. They were up against a couple of powerhouses who had a chance to win a national title like Penn State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio State.

Though Wisconsin was the worst team in the division, Caufield led the conference in scoring with 24 points in 24 conference games. He was named the Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Year this morning for his exploits on the ice.

It should come as no surprise, that he was also named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Also, thanks to his strong play, the rookie forward was named to the All Big Ten First All Star Team.

A lot of teams were more worried about Caufield’s height than his goal-scoring ability on draft day. He immediately became one of the best players in a deep NCAA conference as a freshman, once again flawlessly moving up a level in the hockey world. It is just one more step and he will be scoring goals for the Montreal Canadiens.