Eric Engels gives his thoughts on Caufield's 2024-25 season goals number
Cole Caufield can put the puck right where he wants it nearly every time he shoots it. With that said, we haven't seen him score the way we hoped, but what could we expect?
The Montreal Canadiens hopeful top goalscorer Cole Caufield is still searching for a 40-goal season and with his potential, it could come sooner rather than later.
Sportnet's Canadiens beat reporter Eric Engels joined The Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro and the pair discussed Caufield. But more specifically what his goal total could look like by the time the 2024-25 season runs its course. Aside from possibly Juraj Slafkovsky, who has no guarantee, Caufield is the most likely candidate to lead the Canadiens in the goals department.
Fun chat with @TonyMarinaro https://t.co/1xXrEz1mhI
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) August 7, 2024
Engels and Marinaro know that, and anyone who follows the team knows that Caufield was drafted to score goals. He has done it at every level and has been the best on every team that he's played for. So it's unsurprising that Engels predicted Caufield to score 35 and 35 assists.
An increase in touches will do wonders for Caufield
Nick Suzuki and Slafkovsky built chemistry, which took away some of the plays that were consistently being built between Caufield and Suzuki. The decrease in touches despite Caufield being healthy the entire season limited the amount of goals that Caufield scored. I suspect that if the top line remains intact, which I expect it will, the chemistry between the trio will only improve.
Caufield's best season, was not exactly where anybody, especially Caufield wanted his numbers to be. It was a very good season, and he was coming off of shoulder surgery. Caufield took a huge step forward all-around and that is a good reason to be optimistic.
Engels and Marinaro touched on the fact that you want Caufield to continue contributing at both ends of the ice. Even if it means that his goal totals don't continue growing, they don't believe that his goalscoring will just drop. He likely has the potential to score 50 goals and the team is only going to continue getting better, with Ivan Demidov joining the club next season and Kirby Dach contributing to the success of the Habs top six.
As Engels touched on, if you look at the guys who scored 35 goals and 35 assists, they are very talented players. 70 points doesn't sound like a whole lot, but when you consider that Caufield still has so much growth potential, that may be just another step. 70 points may be the next step, but it doesn't mean that it is the final step.
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