This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Cole Caufield
Montreal Canadiens Right Wing
37 goals on 240 shots from 5-8, and a line outscored 38-56.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | MTL | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | -1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 13.3 | 13:58 |
| 2021-22 | MTL | 67 | 23 | 20 | 43 | -24 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 188 | 12.2 | 16:41 |
| 2022-23 | MTL | 46 | 26 | 10 | 36 | -10 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 158 | 16.5 | 18:03 |
| 2023-24 | MTL | 82 | 28 | 37 | 65 | -4 | 16 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 314 | 8.9 | 19:25 |
| 2024-25 | MTL | 82 | 37 | 33 | 70 | +9 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 240 | 15.4 | 18:05 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 287 | 118 | 101 | 219 | -30 | 44 | 31 | 0 | 23 | 930 | 12.7 | 17:59 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
37 goals and 33 assists in 82 games for 70 points, plus-9, on 18:05 a night with 10 on the power play, 8 game-winners and 240 shots — the most on the club.
48.2 per cent at five-on-five, the 33rd percentile, with on-ice goals of 38-56 against an expected 49.5-53.3. 15.4 per cent conversion is close to his career rate.
The Finesse Game
One of the purest shooters in the league. The release is exceptionally quick and it comes off the pass without settling, which is what beats a goaltender who has read the play correctly — 240 attempts in 18 minutes a night is a very high volume and the shot justifies it.
38 per cent of his attempts come from inside 20 feet, so he is not a perimeter shooter despite the size. 33 assists is functional and he does not drive a line; he is the finisher on somebody else’s.
The Physical Game
5-8 and 175, and among the smallest forwards in the league. He does not win pucks, does not forecheck with force, and is removed from possession by any defenceman who gets a body on him.
14 penalty minutes over 82 games. The durability has been excellent — three consecutive full seasons, which for a man this size playing on the interior is a genuine achievement.
The Intangibles
A first-round pick, a Hobey Baker, and a career that survived a serious shoulder injury and two coaching changes before becoming what it was always supposed to be.
At 24 the projection is 35 goals a year for a decade. The reservation is the chance share: a 33rd-percentile forward scoring 37 goals is a scorer being carried, and the club has not yet built a line that carries him well.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,088 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.2%
- 34th pct
- Shot attempts
- 50%
- 53rd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 38 for, 56 against. Expected: 49.5 and 53.3.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 30 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 75 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1088 minutes at five-on-five
- Nick Suzuki85%
- Alex Newhook16%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- MTL took 48.6% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.2% — 0.4 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 1,088 minutes at five-on-five — 74th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Suzuki | 49.2% | 41.1% | 46.7% |
| Juraj Slafkovský | 48.4% | 47.8% | 47.4% |
| Mike Matheson | 46.8% | 49.5% | 47.5% |
49.2% together, 41.1% for him apart and 46.7% for Suzuki apart. He was worse away from Suzuki, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Suzuki did.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
350 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 39 of them goals. His median goal came from 16 feet. 38% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 14% from beyond forty.