Cole Caufield has yet to sign the bottom of his next contract with the Canadiens. To anchor him in Montreal for several seasons, Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton will have no choice but to submit an attractive proposal to him which will start at seven million as the basis for negotiations.
• Read also: A Stützle contract for Caufield?
• Read also: Here’s what a hostile bid for Cole Caufield would look like
We know one thing. He will break the bank. But the duration of the agreement will remain the sinews of war for Pat Brisson, his agent, and Hughes, the general manager of the CH.
We are comparing apples to apples. In the NHL, talent is compared to talent. In his second contract, the Caufield clan will look in the direction of several young attackers to find the perfect agreement.
At the Canadiens, captain Nick Suzuki is the highest earner at $7.875 million. Suzuki signed an eight-year, $63 million contract extension on October 12, 2021. This pact will end in 2029-2030. At that time, Marc Bergevin still occupied the seat of general manager.
Stützle, Cozens and Co.
Caufield will earn a salary that will approach that of his good friend and faithful center player. The Journal, thanks to the collaboration of the statisticians of Sportlogiq, used six comparables in order to offer an idea of the next contract of number 22.
Dylan Cozens (Buffalo), Matthew Boldy (Minnesota), Tim Stützle (Ottawa), Jason Robertson (Dallas), Jack Hughes (New Jersey) and Clayton Keller (Arizona) are the six elected. The six star forwards were granted long-term deals immediately after their entry-level contracts. There is just Robertson who opted for a slightly shorter four-year contract.
Methodology
We’ve compared Caufield’s stats with the other six strikers during their contract year.
In the case of Cozens and Boldy, they were granted contract extensions midway through this season. We will therefore use the statistics of the 2022-2023 season for them.
Hughes, the class leader in the 2019 draft, is a slightly different case. He signed his contract on November 30, 2021, but had only played two games in 2021-22 at the time of his contract due to injuries. So we used 2020-2021 numbers for Hughes.
Of the group, Caufield sits atop goals, expected goals (number of goals a player should score based on the amount of chances), shots attempted and shots on one reception. It stays true to its marker DNA. Always threatening, especially on the numerical superiority, the American largely dominates the column of shots on reception. Over an 82-game season, he would get 111, a dangerous weapon he uses a bit like Alexander Ovechkin.
But Caufield finds himself very far in the category of passes attempted towards the enclave. Number 22 does not have the reputation of a game maker.
All numbers are averages per game across all situations, and ranks are among the top 500 players for playing time. There is just the goals, assists and points column which is not an average . This is the production of the six players during their year when they negotiated their second contract in the NHL.
Still time to negotiate
Photo QMI Agency, Thierry Laforce
Kent Hughes and Geoff Molson have already said they are hopeful of finding an agreement with Cole Caufield, their prolific winger.
In a market like Montreal, Caufield’s next contract is a topic of conversation. Fans are eager to know the fate of little number 22.
As of June 1, Caufield does not yet have a contract for the next season. Should we press the panic button? No. There is nothing abnormal with this situation.
Hughes and Jeff Gorton, the vice-president of hockey operations, still have several weeks to establish their strategy and convince Caufield. CH’s 2019 first-round pick is a restricted free agent. There is no danger of losing it for absolutely nothing on July 1st. The only threat might come from a rare hostile proposal.
Last year, Jason Robertson shunned the Dallas Stars camp to finally land a four-year, $31 million ($7.75 million average) contract on October 6. Hughes won’t try to imitate his counterpart Jim Nill by waiting so long before getting along with his young star player. But Robertson’s example serves to indicate that there is still plenty of time.
Zegras and Lafrenière too
At the NHL level, Trevor Zegras (Anaheim), Evan Bouchard (Edmonton), Alexis Lafrenière (New York), K’Andre Miller (New York) and Shane Pinto (Ottawa) are in the same boat as Caufield.
They have all just finished their rookie contracts at the NHL level and they will have to sign a new pact by the start of the next season.
Zegras, a first-round pick (9th) in 2019 as well, broke the 60-point mark in his first two full seasons with the Ducks. He will also ogle a contract worth more than seven million.
Always confident
In his last scrum during the team’s report, Caufield hadn’t opened his game too much about his next contract.
“There is no urgency on both sides,” he said. We’ll get there. I’m not worried. I’m concentrating on my rehabilitation, I don’t want to think about it too much. »
Operated on the right shoulder in January, Caufield is hopeful of returning to 100% for the next camp. Doctors told him about a four to six month recovery period.
Without this shoulder injury, the left winger from Wisconsin would have knocked on the door of a first season of 40 goals. He hit the target 26 times in 46 games last year.