Cole Caufield and Canadiens have started to negotiate an extension
Montreal Canadiens are closer to locking down their prodigal goalscorer.
TSN’s “Insider Trading”, Tuesday’s edition, featured Darren Dreger announcing that the Canadiens are in negotiations to extend their contract with Cole Caufield, star forward.
Dreger explained that “my understanding is that the preliminary discussions of an extension between Cole Caufield’s agent, Pat Brisson (and the Montreal Canadiens) started approximately a month back.”
Caufield is currently in the final season of the three-year, entry level contract he signed in February 2021. He had previously played for the University of Wisconsin between 2019 and 2021. The 22-year-old has scored 26 goals and 36 assists in 44 games this season.
Since Martin St. Louis took over as the Canadiens’ head coach, Caufield has scored 48 goals across 81 games. This was after the Hall-of-Fame coach took over midway through the last season. Dominique Ducharme, the previous bench boss, had only allowed one goal to Caufield in his 30 games.
After the Minnesota Wild forward, talk about Caufield’s upcoming extension has picked up Matt Boldy signed a seven-year, $49-million ($7 million AAV) Extension on Monday The 21-year-old has scored 27 goals, 68 points and played in 89 NHL seasons. He was also selected in the 2019 NHL Draft with three picks.
Montreal signed captain Nick Suzuki — Caufield’s linemate — to an eight-year, $63-million ($7.875-million AAV) contract extension in October 2021, and some expect a proven scorer like Caufield to potentially earn more on a yearly basis if he’s able to reach an agreement with the Habs.
General manager Kent Hughes is set to have over $11-million in cap space to work with next offseason, with a number of significant contracts — including those of Jonathan Drouin and Evgeni Dadonov — coming off the books. Montreal will undoubtedly sell at the trade deadline. This would give Montreal even more financial flexibility.
Current record for the Atlantic Division is 18-23-3.
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