Could Cole Caufield be the first Montreal Canadiens player to win the Rocket Richard?

A trophy named after one of the greatest Montreal Canadiens players of all time has never been won by a player on the Habs. The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, awarded to the NHL's leading goal scorer each season, is one of the newer NHL trophies and was first awarded after the 1998-99 season. Before that, there was no award given to the leading goalscorer every season.

The award has been given to 30 players since 1999 (Shared in 2003-04, 2009-10, and 2019-20), but no Canadiens player has won it since it became an official award. The closest a Canadiens player has come to winning the trophy was Max Pacioretty in 2014-15, when he finished in fourth with 39 goals. However, the team may finally have a player who could win the franchise's first "Rocket" Richard Trophy, Cole Caufield.

The pedigree

Caufield is a pure sniper. No matter where he’s played, the goals have followed. From the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (USNTDP) to the NCAA, he has been a threat to score whenever he touches the puck. Caufield has the most goals in a single season (72) and for a career (126) in USNTDP history. In his second season with the University of Wisconsin, he was virtually unstoppable, scoring 30 goals in 31 games. Taking home the Hobey Baker Award. With all that being said, Caufield just knows how to score goals; that is what he does.

Some believed that because of his size, he would not be able to score at the same level he did in minor hockey, which was part of the reason why he fell into the Canadiens' lap with the 15th pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Caufield proved those doubters wrong pretty quickly. Following the end of his final season with the University of Wisconsin, he immediately joined the Canadiens (After a brief stop in Laval) for the final stretch of their season. In 10 games that season, Caufield scored four goals and added four more goals in their playoff run, which saw them make a surprise appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals.

It was not all smooth sailing for Caufield. In his first full season with the Canadiens, he struggled early on, getting sent down to the Laval Rocket after having one assist in the team’s first 10 games. Even after he returned to the team, Caufield was still struggling to find the back of the net, sitting at just one goal at the 30-game mark. That all changed once the Canadiens fired head coach Dominique Ducharme and hired the former Hart Trophy winner Martin St. Louis as his replacement. The goals started to pour in after that, finishing the season with 23 goals in 67 games. Caufield has never looked back, recording 20-plus goals in each of his first four seasons, with a career high of 37 last year.

Chasing the "Rocket"

Caufield has increased his goal total every year, from 26 to 28 to 37 last season. He took a massive step forward in his progression last season with a nine-goal increase from the previous season, but was still two goals shy of Pacioretty’s career high and another 15 off the league leader. With Caufield, it is not about the ability; it is about the consistency. Like most goal scorers, they are streaky, with their goals coming in bunches, but then have stretches where they can not find the back of the net. The consistent players are the ones who challenge for the "Rocket" Richard Trophy.

So far this season, Caufield has 10 goals in 14 games, which puts him in a tie for second in the league. However, his goals still come in bunches, having more multi-goal games (4) than games with one goal (2). The one thing Caufield does have going for him that could propel him to win the "Rocket" Richard Trophy is having one of the hottest playmakers in the league centring his line in Nick Suzuki. Suzuki is second in the league in assists with 16, and having a top setup man passing you the puck should make the challenge of leading the league in goals a tad easier, something Pacioretty did not get to benefit from. Winning the Rocket Richard Trophy will not be easy, but with the way Caufield is shooting the puck, Suzuki’s passing, and the Canadiens’ momentum, this might finally be the year a Habs player brings the Rocket home.