The Montreal Canadiens’ magical run is about to end. On the bright side, there’s Cole Caufield

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This article was published 04/07/2021 (1896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It appears there will be no 25th Stanley Cup banner for the Montreal Canadiens, not this year. The Tampa Bay Lightning have emphatically proven themselves worthy of being repeat champions.

For the Habs, it is obviously a major disappointment to find themselves in an 0-3 hole with little chance of coming back. It happened so quickly, over just five days. A week ago there were all kinds of possibilities in the air. Now Montreal’s just trying to avoid the embarrassment of becoming the first team in 23 years to get swept in the Cup final.

Until the Bolts arrived to spoil the party, Marc Bergevin’s bet on a bigger, sturdier lineup had surely paid off in these playoffs. Still, at the end he is likely to have no championship to show for it, his goaltender Carey Price will be 34 years old when the next NHL season begins and his captain Shea Weber will be 36. This was probably the best chance for both players to win a ring.

Price was brilliant in the first three rounds. In the final, however, he has been outplayed decisively by Andrei Vasilevskiy. Weber, meanwhile, has averaged more than 25 minutes a game in these playoffs. But he’s no longer a star. Weber didn’t attract a single vote — not even a fifth-place ballot — for the Norris Trophy, although the NHL awards voting was so badly bungled this year that’s not necessarily surprising.

The Habs have proved, however, that they definitely have some quality youth to bet on, notably Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Caufield burst out of college to join the Habs late in the season a la Ken Dryden and, based on what we have seen, has a chance at least to become the sniper Montreal has lacked since trading Max Pacioretty away.

Pacioretty scored 30 or more goals five different times for the Canadiens, topping out at 39 in the 2013-14 season. Can Caufield be that kind of player? It’s not quite as guaranteed as some might have you believe.

He was the 15th pick of the 2019 NHL draft, one that we’re still in the early stages of evaluating because only two players have played 100 games. Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko went one-two, and both are still establishing themselves as front-line NHLers. Big German defenceman Moritz Seider is expected to be in the Detroit lineup next season, and the Red Wings have high hopes for him. When you imagine what Caufield’s upside could be, you have to believe 14 other teams underestimated his talent if you think he will become a 40-goal scorer in the NHL.

Regardless, Caufield is sure to be at the top of the list of the most interesting players to watch next season. He has shown enough and scored enough under the hot, white lights of these playoffs to suggest he could be the real deal. Standing up to the grind of a full NHL season, of course, will be a very different challenge for the 20-year-old native of Wisconsin.

For starters, it’s expected the NHL will return to its former divisions next season, which means Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa will once again be part of the Atlantic with Tampa, Florida, Boston, Detroit and Buffalo. That’s going to be a tough grouping, tougher than the North was.

The stats on Caufield so far are impressive. In 10 regular season games, he scored four goals on 30 shots, and two of those goals were overtime winners. In the playoffs, he has another four goals in 18 games. All of those came in the NHL semifinals against Vegas, probably the most impressive series the Canadiens played.

He’s had to play his off-wing some of the time, which accounts for him looking absolutely lost at times, particularly against Tampa. He’s been a minus player in the Cup final, and has managed only five shots. Against a fast and experienced Tampa team, Caufield hasn’t looked nearly as dangerous. But few Montreal forwards have.

Caufield is definitely fast, and he’s got both a big-time shot and a sniper’s mentality. He’s small at five-foot-seven, and that’s not going to change. That type of frame hasn’t stopped Alex DeBrincat from scoring 119 goals in four seasons. Still, playing along the boards inside his own zone will be a major challenge, as it has been for Mitch Marner of the Leafs.

Caufield has stood out on the Habs in these playoffs largely because he is so different from the rest of the roster. So, with a full off-season to train and get stronger, will he be the favourite to win the Calder Trophy next season and become the next big-time Montreal scorer?

It’s a fascinating question, and part of the answer lies in whether the Canadiens will continue to be a big, grinding team under Dominique Ducharme, or try to become a faster and more creative offensive squad.

Other youngsters will compete with Caufield for the limelight next season. Alexis Lafrenière. Trevor Zegras. Perhaps Vasili Podkolzin out in Vancouver.

Caufield has shown in a small sample size that he can bring people out of their seats. Out of the disappointment of this Cup final, Montreal has reason to hope he’ll be able to do it for the long haul.

Damien Cox is a former Star sports reporter who is a current freelance contributing columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @DamoSpin