Cole Caufield's Goal Scoring Touch
Even more importantly than joining the playoff race, is getting the old version of Cole Caufield back. We just have not seen the best of the Canadiens yougnster this season and they are going to need him to start putting pucks in the net once again.
The 22 year old has had a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde start to his NHL career. Shortly after joining the team from college he was on the first line in a run to the Stanley Cup Final. He looked great right away and was a big reason the Canadiens had as much success as they did that spring.
The next season did not start as well. He would a long period of time having scored just one goal and was demoted to the AHL for a short stint. Once Martin St. Louis was hired in February of 2022, Caufiled started scoring again and fired pucks in the net at about a 40 goal pace over the next year.
This season? He now has eight goals in 33 games. He is barely on pace for 20 goals this season, when 30 seemed low as a prediction at the start of the season. That's just not good enough for a player in the first year of a contract with a cap hit of $7.85 million.
The most important thing for the Canadiens is that Caufield wakes up on Christmas morning and unwraps his own goal scoring ability. It would be like getting an old toy you already owned but sort of forgot about which sounds really lame, but it would be extremely exciting for the Montreal Canadiens and their entire fanbase.