Caufield’s 50th Goal
Cole Caufield scored his 50th goal of the season for the Montreal Canadiens — the first 50‑goal season by a Canadien since Stéphane Richer in 1989–90, a rare milestone for the franchise. ( ). That level of scoring changes opponent game plans and gives Montreal a genuine top‑line finisher to rally around as the league heads toward playoff seeding. (x.com)
Cole Caufield hit 50 goals on Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Montreal had not seen one player reach that number since Stéphane Richer scored 51 in the 1989-90 season. The Canadiens won the game 2-1, with Juraj Slafkovsky scoring the tiebreaking goal late in the third period. (nhl.com) (apnews.com) That gap is 36 years for the franchise that has been in the National Hockey League since 1917. Montreal has had Hall of Fame centers, Stanley Cup banners, and scoring stars in that stretch, but no 50-goal season until now. (nhl.com) (records.nhl.com) Caufield is 25, listed at 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds, and he plays right wing like a shooter who needs half a second instead of a full lane. Montreal drafted him 15th overall in 2019 after his goal-scoring run at the University of Wisconsin made him one of the most watched finishers in his class. (hockey-reference.com) The jump this season is not a small bump from 37 goals to 40. Hockey-Reference shows he went from 37 goals in 82 games in 2024-25 to 50 goals in 78 games in 2025-26, with his shooting percentage rising from 15.5 to 20.3. (hockey-reference.com) He did not get there on power-play leftovers alone. His 2025-26 line shows 40 even-strength goals, 10 power-play goals, 12 game-winners, and 246 shots, which is the profile of a player driving offense in every game state. (hockey-reference.com) That changes how teams defend Montreal’s top line. A scorer sitting on 50 forces defensemen to close earlier, which opens passing space for captain Nick Suzuki and gives Slafkovsky more room around the net front. (hockey-reference.com) (apnews.com) It also lands at exactly the point in the calendar when every goal starts to bend the standings. Sporting News’ April 10 playoff table had Montreal at 104 points, second in the Atlantic Division, lined up for a first-round series with Tampa Bay. (sportingnews.com) So this is not just one neat round number on a stat sheet. Montreal now goes into the final week of the regular season with a scorer opponents have to build a game plan around, which is something the Canadiens have not been able to say since Richer was filling nets in 1990. (nhl.com) (sportingnews.com)
