The Canadiens may be improving here and there, but this a team that will more than likely once again miss making the Stanley Cup Playoffs this upcoming season.
The Canadiens are still very young, do not have a very good defensive corps, and their offense is still trying to grow together. When you put it that way, things do not sound great for this season, right?
Wrong. There are a few players that the team has that will be worth watching, but for this article, I want to focus on one of them – Cole Caufield.
I think Caufield, 22, is going to have a big season this year for several reasons. For starters, he has a ton of offensive talent.
In Caufield, the Canadiens have a player who plays with a ton of speed, offensive awareness, and a great stick, as well as someone who has great vision. What is scary is that these things are only going to develop further as he gets older.
Secondly, Caufield can put up points. In just 46 games last season due to injury, he had 36 points on 26 goals and 10 assists. Had he not gotten hurt, he would have been able to put up a bunch more points.
Caufield also had a somewhat solid rookie season in 2021-22. He put up 43 points in 67 games, and those numbers could have been even better had he not struggled under former Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme,
Another reason why Caufield is going to have a lot of success this upcoming season is because Martin St. Louis is the team’s head coach. As soon as St. Louis took over for Ducharme during the 2021-22 season, things changed in a big way for Caufield.
St. Louis gives Caufiled confidence by allowing him to be creative with the puck and play his game while also teaching him how to be more detail-oriented on the other side of the puck. With St. Louis going into his second full season behind the bench, there will probably be even more that he can help Caufield with to become an even better player than he is now.
Lastly, there once again is not too much pressure on this Canadiens’ hockey club heading into this season. When you are a team that plays in the same division as the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, Boston Bruins, and the improving Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres, you already know that a playoff spot is going to be tough to come by. really is not too much pressure on Caufield going into this season.
As such, Caufield can go out on the ice and play freely. He can be creative with the puck, continue to learn from St. Louis, and show the rest of the league why he can be a star.
While the rest of the team might not be exciting to watch, Caufield certainly will be someone who is worth keeping an eye on this season.
