Why Cole Caufield Will Win The Rocket Richard

While MacKinnon currently has two more goals and remains the favourite to win the award, Caufield has been the much better scorer since January 1st. This is why even though there are only 13 games for both players to continue adding goals to their totals before the regular season ends, Caufield may in fact have more of an advantage than many think.

Looking at the pace that both players have scored with since the new calendar year started, it isn’t even close. Caufield has scored at a ridiculous pace of 24 goals in 29 games, which gives him a 0.827 goals per game , whereas MacKinnon has scored 11 goals in 29 games during that time, which is only 0.379 goals per game. If we base those goal averages for the rest of the season, Caufield will find the back of the net 10 or 11 more times. Meanwhile, MacKinnon would add only about 5 goals. Therefore, Caufield would end up finishing with 53 or 54 goals, which would easily pass MacKinnon’s 50 goals. The bigger competition down the stretch for Caufield may actually be Nikita Kucherov, who has scored 22 goals in 29 games since January 1st, sitting at 40 goals right now. With his current pace, he is expected to score another 10 or 11 goals in his team’s final 14 games, which would bring him to 50 or 51 goals and allow him to pass MacKinnon as well.

With that being said, based on all those stats, Caufield really should be looked at as the current favourite to win the Rocket Richard. The accomplishment of leading the league in goals would go way beyond just the first 50-goal scorer since Stephane Richer during the 1989-90 regular season in Canadiens history. If Caufield does finish as the league’s leading scorer, he would be the first Habs player to lead the league in goals since the late-great Guy Lafleur led the NHL back in the 1977-78 season. As a result, Caufield is on pace to have the best goal scoring with the Habs in nearly 50 years.

The most impressive part of this season for Caufield is that none of his goals have been empty netters, meaning that he has worked for everyone of his goals thus far. By removing empty netters, he leads the league in goals, as it drops MacKinnon down to 40 goals on the year.

No matter the result of how the season ends for the Caufield, it will be a historical season to remember for the Habs star sniper who has at the very least scored the most goals in 36 years. With only 13 games to go, there is no guarantee that he will hit 50 goals, let alone outscore MacKinnon and Kucherov to win the Rocket Richard, but it will be a fun race to watch down the stretch. 

Do you think Caufield will be able to be the first Habs player to ever win the Rocket Richard Trophy?