A Winning Habit
Fansided

Possible NHL Award Nominees for the Montreal Canadiens in the Future

By Omar L

MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 01: Jesperi Kotkaniemi #15 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates a victory with goaltender Carey Price #31 against the Washington Capitals during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 1, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Washington Capitals 6-4. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 01: Jesperi Kotkaniemi #15 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates a victory with goaltender Carey Price #31 against the Washington Capitals during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 1, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Washington Capitals 6-4. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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Montreal Canadiens
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – JUNE 21: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Kevin Light/Getty Images) /

Calder

There’s a reason why fans are dying for Cole Caufield to join the Montreal Canadiens. He had a top-performing year at the University of Wisconsin, but management decided he needed one more season of NCAA hockey before making the jump.

Awarding the Calder to a forward is much easier than a defenceman. That’s what made this year’s battle between Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar so interesting. Defencemen are not primarily point-producers, so points can’t be the only thing put into consideration. Nevertheless, both Hughes and Makar were able to excel on either end of the ice.

For a forward like Caufield, it’ll come down to the numbers and overall points. Elias Petterson won last season with 28 goals and 38 assists while Mathew Barzal’s 85-point campaign in 2018 earned him the trophy. It continues down to Auston Matthews and Artemi Panarin, who had 40 and 30 goal years, respectively, and you see the trend.

Those kinds of numbers a massive ask for a young player, but Alex Debrincat, who many have compared to Caufield, was able to hit 28 in his first year in Chicago. Can Caufield have a similar impact? It’ll depend on who he is playing with and the kind of assignments he gets. At the same time, the Montreal Canadiens could look very different by the time he gets there.

Cole ‘Calder’ Caufield?

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Selke

The comparisons to Patrice Bergeon have been growing for Phillip Danault. The improvements on defence have been there since the Montreal Canadiens first acquired him, what he hasn’t been able to duplicate is the offensive production. Some of that comes from his own ability while it also comes down to the cast he’s surrounded by. The Habs, as much as they’d like to, do not have a Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak.

Nevertheless, Danault is on his way. Whether he actually gets himself into that conversation or not comes down to several factors.

On the other hand, Jesperi Kotkaniemi is another option. It was Kotkaniemi’s commitment to defence that earned him that spot on the team last year. He was positionally sound going back for pinching defenceman or being in the right areas to disrupt lanes. At the same time, he was still able to make plays and generate and could’ve had more points on his stat line if his linemates finished on more of those passes (similar to Jonathan Drouin’s first year at centre in Montreal).

Kotkaniemi is going to get the time he needs to develop and should have a longer tenure in Montreal than Danault. There’s greater potential for the former to excel defensively while still being able to put up those crips numbers that garner the attention of the league.

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