Believe it or not, the Montreal Canaidens just got smaller.
On Friday night, the Habs pounced at 5'7 Cole Caufield with the 15th pick of the NHL Draft. TSN's Craig Button projected the Minnesota Wild to grab the 18-year-old with the 12th pick, but GM Paul Fenton instead went with his U.S. National Team Development Program teammate Matthew Boldy.
Caufield now joins a relatively small (but talented) forward core in Montreal. Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Tatar and Max Domi stand at 5’9, 5’10, and 5’10 respectively and each finished top five in team scoring in the 2018-19 season. Gallagher was on hand in Vancouver to welcome the team’s newest member and had a nice chat with him about both player’s lack of height.
Hey, at least Domi has a big head?!
Caufield makes up for his lack of size with serious, serious skill. Per TSN’s Bryan Mudryk, the forward scored more goals than anyone in the USA’s National Development Team’s history, a list that includes Auston Matthews, Phil Kessel and Clayton Keller. Mudryk also noted that Caufield tied Alex Ovechkin’s single tournament record at the U18 Worlds this past year.
Over the years we’ve seen more and more players dominate at the NHL level with not much height. Fellow American and Chicago Blackhawks forward Alex DeBrincat is just further proof that these small kids from the U.S. can play!
(H/T Montreal Canadiens)
