Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown: #1 Cole Caufield

Montreal Canadiens general manager has compiled a long list of prospects. We are counting down the top 30.

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin has focused on the draft for the past three years to build up his prospect pool. He loaded up on picks for the past three years and has another boatload of selections to make next year.

This has led to the Canadiens having a great group of prospects. With the offseason well underway and next season still more of a question mark than anything else, we are digging deep into the future of the franchise.

So, we have been counting down the Canadiens Top 30 prospects.

This list so far looks like this: 30th Jack Gorniak, 29th Jacob LeGuerrier, 28th Otto Leskinen, 27th Rafael Harvey-Pinard, 26th Jack Smith, 25th Jacob Olofsson, 24th Lukas Vejdemo, 23rd Alexander Gordin, 22nd Blake Biondi, 21st Rhett Pitlick, 20th Joni Ikonen, 19th Brett Stapley, 18th Joel Teasdale, 17th Gianni Fairbrother, 16th Cam Hillis, 15th Luke Tuch, 14th Josh Brook, 13th Jan Mysak, 12th Sean Farrell, 11th Cale Fleury, 10th Noah Juulsen, 9th Jayden Struble, 8th Jesse Ylonen, 7th Jordan Harris, 6th Ryan Poehling, 5th Kaiden Guhle, 4th Mattias Norlinder, 3rd Cayden Primeau and 2nd Alexander Romanov.

That brings us to the top of the list and Cole Caufield was a unanimous pick as the Canadiens best prospect.  Why wouldn’t he?

Caufield was the first round pick of the Habs in 2019, after falling to 15th in the draft. He proved to be one of the best goal scoring prospects to come along in years, but teams were scared off because he isn’t tall and heavy.

At 5’7 and 165 pounds, Caufield is on the slight side, but that hasn’t stopped him from being among the best goal scorers at every level he has played thus far in his young career.

Caufield was playing for the United States National Development Team during his draft season. In 64 games he scored an incredible 72 goals and 100 points, playing the role of trigger man on a line with Jack Hughes.

Caufield also set goal scoring records at the World Under-18 Tournament, scoring a ridiculous 14 goals and 18 points in just seven games. He played on a stacked American team with Hughes, Trevor Zegras, Alex Turcotte, Matt Boldy, Cam York, Bobby Brink and Spencer Knight who were all first round NHL Draft picks. But none of them came close to scoring goals like Caufield who was named MVP of that Under-18 Tournament.

In his rookie season at Wisconsin last year, Caufield proved he wasn’t just benefiting from playing with an elite centre like Jack Hughes. As a freshman, Caufield scored 19 goals and 36 points in 36 games for the Wisconsin Badgers and was named Big Ten Rookie of the Year after leading the entire Conference in points.

This year, Caufield is once again scoring at a point per game pace, with eight points in his first eight games. The Badgers have been up and down this season, winning a pair of games against a tough team like Notre Dame, but then losing back to back games against Arizona State who should have been a considerably easier opponent. Caufield’s team has been dealing with a bout of injuries and a slew of forwards being sidelined due to Covid-19. They had to play with just nine forwards against Arizona State and were running on fumes by the end of the weekend.

Caufield is still showing his unbelievable stick handling skills and creativity in the offensive zone. He can score from just about anywhere with his wrist shot and has been difficult for the opposition to handle. He had underrated passing skills and vision with the puck as the conversation about him usually turns immediately to his excellent shot.

Caufield will have the option of turning pro after this college season and could be playing NHL games in the spring. With the NHL and AHL schedule still up in the air, he could get a long look at the pro level after his NCAA season ends. Wisconsin aren’t looking like national contenders so his season could be over in early March and the NHL will only be two months into their season.

It remains to be seen what the NHL season will look like, but don’t be surprised to see Caufield in the Canadiens lineup playing a depth role at some point in the 2020-21 season. From there, it won’t take him long to take on a huge role on the power play and then work his way up the lineup at even strength.

Cole Caufield is the best goal scoring prospect the Canadiens have seen in decades. We won’t have to wait much longer before we see him in a Habs uniform and it won’t be much longer after that before he is among the most dangerous offensive players on the team.