Montreal Canadiens: Cole Caufield’s Linemates For USA World Junior’s Are … Interesting

Montreal Canadiens prospect Cole Caufield has interesting line mates.

Montreal Canadiens prospect Cole Caufield played at last year’s World Juniors for the United States. He looked terrific in their exhibition game scoring four times against what proved to be a difficult German opponent.

The Habs first round pick in 2019 found himself moving down the depth chart shortly after the games began for real. Blaming him for lack of production could be a reason to give him less ice time, but when his linemates are shutdown centres in Jack Drury and John Beecher, it didn’t give the sniper a chance to do what he does best.

Caufield has proven time and time again he has a lethal shot and can score goals from anywhere on the ice. He likes to set up on his off wing on the man advantage and, much like Alex Ovechkin, rip one-timers from the left side of the ice and put pucks in the net.

He showed this when he was playing for the United States Development Program. He set records by scoring 72 goals in 64 games. He proved it again when he had an unbelievable 14 goals in seven games at the World Under-18 Championships two years ago. He quickly adjusted to a higher level of hockey when he scored a point per game as a freshman for Wisconsin last season.

I thought this would all be enough to give him a starring role for the Americans at this year’s World Juniors. However, he will have to work his way up the lineup if he expects to have an elite playmaking centre like Trevor Zegras or Alex Turcotte in this event.

The United States will take on Finland in their first and only exhibition game tonight. Their lines were just revealed and Caufield’s linemates are, interesting choices.

First of all, ignore the fact that Caufield is listed on the fourth line. The order of these lines is not set in stone (except for that first line, yowza!) and they will all probably get equal ice time tonight.

As you can see, Caufield will skate with Brendan Brisson and Matt Boldy. Both are great players, but the most interesting thing is none of them have played much centre at a high level. All three players are playing college hockey this season with Caufield at Wisconsin and the other two being teammates for the Michigan Wolverines.

Brisson has played every game of the season at left wing, which is where he will be tonight. He has scored seven points in eight games this season as a freshman at Michigan. He is a terrific playmaker and was one of the leaders in assists in the USHL last season. (Not quite at Habs prospect Sean Farrell’s rate of assists, but still really good.)

Brisson as Caufield’s linemate makes a lot of sense. Brisson has great vision and can find a teammate in open ice with a perfect pass. What will be intriguing to keep an eye on tonight is Matt Boldy at centre.

Boldy has played mostly left wing coming up through the ranks with the U.S. Development Team. He played some centre as a freshman with Boston College last season, but didn’t excel at the position and was moved back to the wing this season. The 6’2″ and nearly 200 pound forward has eight points in four college games this season, but he has played right wing every night.

There is no denying this line has a ton of talent. Caufield was the 15th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Boldy went a few picks before him, being taken by the Minnesota Wild with the 12th overall selection that year. Brisson was taken 29th overall by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2020 NHL Draft.

Boldy’s size and skill mixed with Brisson’s vision and Caufield’s goal scoring gives this trio a lot of potential. It will just be interesting to see if Boldy can adapt back to playing centre after playing much better on the wing for Boston College.

As a huge Caufield fan, I was hoping to see him play with elite playmaker Trevor Zegras as his centre. I thought it would make sense to reunite him with Alex Turcotte who he played with at Wisconsin last season. I heard that Matthew Beniers was playing the middle on Caufield’s line in training camp.

All three of those players would be a little more logical than moving Boldy back to centre. Still, a Brisson, Boldy, Caufield line has a ton of skill and they each bring something a little different and unique to the ice.

It wasn’t what I expected, but it will be interesting to see how this line clicks against a good opponent in Finland tonight.

I will also be keeping an eye on USA’s power play units. Will Caufield get on the top unit with some excellent talent like Zegras, Turcotte and Arthur Kaliyev? Putting the right-shooting Caufield on his off-wing on the first power play makes a lot of sense to me. Will USA Head Coach Nate Leaman agree?