In my opinion, Cole Caufield should be appointed assistant captain from 2023-24.

On July 1, the Habs made a deal they had to make considering the surplus of left-handed defensemen in town: they sent Joel Edmundson to Washington for a third-round pick and a seventh-round pick.

Edmundson’s salary was retained at 50%, but considering that his contract expires this year and that the club has money to spend, this doesn’t change much for the CH.

That said, in addition to opening up a spot on defense, it opened up an assistant position for captain Nick Suzuki. TVA Sports wrote about it yesterday.

Although the names David Savard and Mike Matheson are the most popular, I personally wouldn’t choose any of them: in my eyes, for the sake of logic and consistency, the most obvious candidate is not a defenseman, but a forward.

And no, I’m not talking about Mike Hoffman, I’m talking about Cole Caufield.

Certainly, at the moment, the young maverick may not be as much of a leader as veterans like Savard and Matheson. We know that the former is a guy who doesn’t hesitate to take youngsters under his wing, and the latter fits into the same mould.

What leads me to believe that Caufield should be ahead of these guys is a simple reason (which was also raised when Nick Suzuki became captain): now that he has an eight-year contract in his pocket, it’s safe to say that the future of the CH will be in his hands.

So, like Suzuki, he’s here to stay, and putting an A on his jersey would be a nice way of clearly demonstrating that the keys to the club belong to the two young forwards.

That said, I must confess that I don’t expect Caufield to be the CH’s choice. Instead, I think we’ll opt for Savard, who provides proud service to the club and already assumes a Joel Edmundson-like role.

It would be the choice of continuity, basically.

However, in Caufield, the Tricolore would be betting on a guy who, in the long term, will be part of the team’s plans and who will play an important role. A guy who’s already been trusted enough to sign an eight-year contract, and a guy who’s already well-liked in the dressing room.

Once again, I think it will be Savard who inherits the A left by Edmundson, but I hope the CH will consider giving it to Caufield. Maybe it’ll take another season or two before it happens (because I’m convinced it will one day), but why not do it now?

In brief

– News from Leo Carlsson.

– Pierre-Luc Dubois chatted with the Los Angeles media.

Next stop on PLD’s LA Tour: Media

Full avail https://t.co/AR8ECQAvJQ pic.twitter.com/jK6R4A4J1p

– LA Kings (@LAKings) July 11, 2023

– Great news for local baseball.