With Alex Ovechkin Retired: Cole Caufield Could Become the NHL’s Top Goal-Scorer

Marc-Olivier Cook
With Alex Ovechkin Retired: Cole Caufield Could Become the NHL’s Top Goal-Scorer
Credit: Vitor Munhoz/NHLI via Getty Images

When you think of the best snipers in the National Hockey League, a few names come to mind.

Alex Ovechkin (obviously), Tage Thompson, Kyle Connor, Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak, Mikko Rantanen…

But given Cole Caufield's brilliance over the past two years, he has to be included in that category. And maybe one day Cole could claim the title of the NHL's best sniper… 

A user on X named Thomas Robichaud (RobtomZ) commented on one of our posts this morning, and it got me thinking. He said this:

With Ovy heading toward retirement and Matthews' star fading. Hot take here, but is Caufield the best sniper in the NHL, if we're talking purely about goal-scoring ability? – Thomas Robichaud

You know what?

Thomas is right. It's a hot take, no doubt about it… but at the same time, Caufield has everything it takes to become the NHL's best sniper.

There are two reasons why I agree with Thomas.

1. Cole Caufield is 25 years old. He's averaging 0.45 goals per game since the start of his career (which is excellent), and at his age, he still has several prime years ahead of him.

He's on track to score 50 this season, after finishing last campaign with 37 goals. If he scores 50 in '25-'26 and repeats the feat next year or the year after, there might not even be a debate about it anymore…

2. The Canadiens' #13 plays alongside Nick Suzuki, who is a year older and one of the NHL's best all-around players. Suzuki is capable of scoring, but he's talked about more as a playmaker (who is now among the NHL's elite).

Caufield will have a quality center by his side for a very, very long time. Much like it was with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom in Washington…

All this to say that right now, Cole Caufield is already one of the best natural goal-scorers in the National Hockey League. And when Ovi retires—which should happen soon—maybe we'll look at the young Habs forward and say to ourselves: he's the most dominant goal-scorer in the NHL right now.


In a nutshell

– Nice.

– Well done.

– Great goals.

– He's always whining.

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