Last season, an injury stopped Cole Caufield in the midst of a major resurgence. If he had stayed healthy until the end of the season, he would certainly have become the Canadian’s first 40-goal scorer since Vincent Damphousse in 1994. However, the famous rule of three states that the counter would have stopped at 46 goals.
Caufield has the looks and precision to terrorize any goaltender. It’s a fact. But does he have what it takes to reach the 50-goal mark?
In the last five seasons, eight players have had at least one 50-goal season. With the help of Sportlogiq, we examined their cases to find out if they had a common denominator. And of course whether this could also apply to Caufield.
Nothing to envy
However, it seems that the CH attacker is in no way inferior to most goal scorers when it comes to touching the ball at the net. The 22-year-old American performs well in this group in terms of goals per 60 minutes, a category in which he has performed better than Connor McDavid, Mikko Rantanen, Brayden-Point and Leon Draisaitl, four of the five scorers in 2022-2023.
Caufield better than McDavid! Yes indeed. However, it is important to note the following nuance. The Edmonton Oilers superstar averaged 17:11 on the court at even strength, compared to 14:47 for Caufield. Therefore, it is normal for his number of goals per 60 minutes to be slightly higher.
His ability to score above the expected average is also spectacular. Among the scorers we were interested in, he ranked just behind the Oilers captain.
It’s not nothing.
Do you need help
Rather, it is the lack of support from his teammates that could deprive the Canadian sharpshooter of a Stéphane Richer-style season, especially on the power play.
Each of the 50 goals scored over the last five seasons has had a faithful passer put the disc on the stick. In Caufield’s case, Nick Suzuki certainly fits into that category. The CH captain has been involved in 18 of the 48 wins (37.5%) that Caufield has recorded since the arrival of head coach Martin St-Louis.
However, no one has yet emerged as a true quarterback on offense. Mike Matheson may come close to that title, but at the moment his performances with the man advantage are far from those of the frontrunners.
This is one of the reasons why the Habs’ massive offense ranked 29th last winter. Among the 11 50-goal scorers in 2021-2022, Alex Ovechkin is the only one whose team’s massive offense didn’t have a success rate of at least 20%.
In short, Caufield has the DNA of a 50-goal scorer. He has the qualities to get there. But he will need help and he needs to stay healthy. Auston Matthews is the only one to exceed that plateau in fewer than 77 games.
Source: Sportlogiq