Montreal Canadiens right winger Cole Caufield entered the 2021-22 season as one of the favourites to win the Calder Trophy. Things, uhhh, did not go good at all to begin the season and he didn’t look like he belonged in the league, let alone the best rookie in the NHL.
Caufield burst onto the NHL scene near the end of the 2020-21 season and was terrific for the Habs in the postseason. He helped the team reach the Stanley Cup Final with 12 points in 20 games, playing alongside Nick Suzuki and Tyler Toffoli on the team’s top line.
The 21 year old winger had just one goal and eight points in his first 30 games of the season. He was sent to the minors for a stint where he put up five points in six AHL games for the Laval Rocket.
The Canadiens hired Martin St. Louis to be the team’s head coach in early February and Caufield found himself back on the NHL roster around the same time. He would go on to finish the season by scoring 22 goals and 35 points in his last 37 games.
So, he basically showed up for half the season, but he was just a hair under a point per game pace in that time. He ended up just one goal back of Tanner Jeannot for the most goals in the league by a rookie and he was 6th in NHL scoring among first year players. Imagine if he had of shown up in the first half.
It was enough to catch the attention of some award voters. While he had no chance of winning the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year, Caufield did get a third place vote, six fourth place votes and eight fifth place votes. There are a total of 195 votes cast for the award and Caufield ended up on15 of them.
Calder Trophy voting breakdown: pic.twitter.com/21MfxPAJNy
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 21, 2022
Considering where he was on February 1st, it is quite an accomplishment that Caufield need up where he did. It certainly bodes well for next season that he was voted as the 9th best rookie in the league even though he only really produced for half the season.
Moritz Seider, a defenceman for the Detroit Red Wings won the award with Trevor Zegras finishing as the runner-up.
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