This year’s NHL Draft is all about Jack Hughes, but at the IIHF U18 World Championship over in Sweden, his teammate Cole Caufield has taken the spotlight.
As you could expect, Hughes has had a stellar tournament in his own right — eight goals, nine assists in six games — but Caufield is demonstrating some goal-scoring prowess that we haven’t seen since Alex Ovechkin in 2002.
With a pair of goals against Russia in the semifinal, Caufield ties Ovechkin’s single-tournament scoring record of 14 goals.
Like Hughes, Caufield is regarded as a top pick in this year’s draft — his ability to put the puck in the net is unquestionable, and it may only be his small stature (5’7, 163 lbs) holding his draft stock back. At any rate, he may wind up as a top-10 pick come June, and you can certainly see why.
As for Hughes, he finishes with 17 points and just four shy of Nikita Kucherov’s tournament record (21). He’s had his share of goal-scoring explosions as well, including a four-goal, seven-point performance against Slovakia and a hat-trick against reigning champion Finland during the quarter-finals.
Unfortunately for the Americans, however, they weren’t able to pull out a win in the shootout, and so Russia advances to the final at the U18 Worlds. They’ll play the winner of the second semifinal game, Canada versus Sweden, which will happen later on Saturday.
