How do you know? He can stay in college as long as he wants

I've watched him play quite a bit being a Badger fan. His game isn't ready for the NHL. It's not even a size thing, it's the lack of a 2-way game. His d-zone play is below average for the college level.

He'll need AHL time to round out his game.

No idea if he comes or goes, just guessing. He did say from the get go (after the draft, and again at camp) that he wants to get to the NHL as fast as possible. And Bergevin also stated more times than I can count that he thinks Caufield only does one year in the NCAA. but how knows, people can change their minds. Look at Primeau, he intended to stay for a 3rd year in college. he did two. Poehling said he wanted to do his max 4 years, he did 3. Caufield said he wanted to do zero lol and basically had no choice but to do (at least) 1. Odds of Wisconsin's season ending in March are high, my guess after their done, Caufiled signs with the Habs, plays a few games, and perhaps tries to go to Laval with their playoff run if he can be eligible.

no disagreement there, I'm not sure how AHL playoff eligibility works. but I see no issue with Caufield signing, playing a few Habs games to test the waters, then go to Laval for the playoffs

His defensive game needs work, no doubt. He won't be a perfect player.

But the goal scoring hype is real imo.

https://www.foxsports.com/wisconsin/story/wisconsin-badgers-cole-caufield-hat-trick-notre-dame-college-hockey-012520

Why on earth rush him? Habs rushed JK and look how that turned out so far. Caufield is far away from being an NHLER

You entailing somehow the Kotkaniemi is a bust already? lol

Kotkaniemi's "sophomore slump" is real, but extremely overrated. The two injuries he's had didn't help. but if you actually take a deep look, it's not as bad as many (none Hab fans) claim it to be.
1. Kotkaniemi is still on pace to score more goals than he did in his rookie season, even if he will have played less games. Not to mention his shot output is ridiculously low (even for the amount of games he's played). Joel Armia has been getting praised all season for the amount of goals he's scoring... yet Kotkaniemi still has a better shooting% than he does... If KK would just shoot at the same pace as Armia, he'd have 14g in 35 games...
2. The majority of his assists last season came to feeds he was giving to Byron and Armia, by a large margin. This season Byron has sucked (than got injured) and Armia got promoted to the 2nd line with Domi. KK's main linemates this year have been Weal (Garbage) and Poehling (offensively struggling). Almost every Hab fan here could tell you the amount open nets KK has set up, but with no one to finish.
3. Kotkaniemi's defensive game is underrated, and Julien simply refuses to use him in defensive situations (which doesn't help his development either). Not to mention Julien's general use of KK is just getting frustrating to watch, and time and time again, the only excuse that comes out of Julien as to why he doesn't use him is "he's just a kid", literally no other explanation, every. single. time.

Kotkaniemi still needs to develop, no doubt about it (his transition game for me is his biggest weakness), but he still has off the charts skills, I just think when dealing with players of such high skills, the coach needs to make adjustments on how to best utilize them, Julien has been the complete opposite for the last year or so, where for the first half of last season, he wasn't (where ironically enough, that's when KK thrived, so did Drouin...)


TL: DR No Hab fan is worried with KK. He needs to continue to fill out his frame, work on his skating and he'll be just fine.

I didn't say he was a bust. I simply said Habs shouldn't have rushed him to the NHL so quick. he clearly doesn't look like an NHL pro this year and playing 4th line minutes isn't helping his development

Sounds all good . But you can add his number of assistance (2) in decline ! The fact that at least one injury seem to be faked while his play was abyssal .He's got the worst minus (-12) of all team and have been given the Finns line a good amount of time + regular first gig PP where he play like a sniper in the middle but his (too long) stick isn't even in position .
Talking about that playing a 12 foot pole might be ok on olympics dimension rings but in tight window i don't see him outplay a lot of guys in Nhl .
KK gonna develop into some Martin Hanzal , Mikko Koivu kinda players , but this is down the stretch he's very raw . He's been awful in faceoffs also .
Im not discouraged but i can't help myself and think about Quinn Hugues-Shea Weber or a Domi-Tkachuck duo .
Let's hope it's learning curve for the teenager but a terrible year let's face it . 8 pts in 35 ! But he does look lost on the ice sometimes .
I would have send him to world junior for his own mental sake .

All interesting takes here. May I just answer your question about who Caufield should play with when he comes ? For some reason, I'd like to see a line Drouin - Suzuki - Caufield. Drouin is a great passer, he'll feed Caufield every time. The defensive game might be the weakness of this line, reason why I would like to have Suzuki in the middle. Any thoughts ?

Having seen a couple games myself (not all and probably not as many as you) I think he and Turcotte need another go around. That team with the talent they have shouldn't be in last place in the Big Ten. The team with the most 1st round picks in the WJC wasn't an NHL team. It was the Badgers...that doesn't include Dylan Holloway either. All prospects develop at different paces/rates. Nothing against any individual's talent at all. He'll be a scoring machine. Just needs a little more time to develop.

***EDIT*** I guess MSU dropped a bit below them...2nd to last now.

We need to stop rushing guys in but even more important stop burning all their ELCs! We need to develop our youth outside of the league so when their game's good enough for the NHL they aren't already past their ELC, that's how the new league works. If

nailed it

If Kovalchuk is traded it means:

Tatar - Danault - Gallagher
Drouin - Domi - Suzuki
Lehkonen - Kotkaniemi - Armia
Byron - Thompson - Caufield

Having Caufield on the 4th line with those bruisers...He'll get injured. MTL fans shouldn't want these lines.

Then what
Lehk on 4th line

I'm speaking more from the point of view that Caufield is a pure top 6 winger skill. He's going to be a great player, but he needs to play with other talent. I mentioned earlier that he needs to develop more before he comes to the NHL. I stick with that. Keep Developing him and keeping his ELC/RFA years in MTL control until MB knows 110% sure he's ready. Why rush him? That's all. Just my opinion that if he goes to the 4th line he's not really getting the right type of development against very physical lines.

***EDIT*** another way of looking at it. He's a goal scorer. Right now a pure goal scorer. How many Ozone starts is the 4th line going to get? That's all.

They've done odd things in UW this year. This team just isn't meshing together. Tons of talent, but they aren't playing well together at all. Part of that is probably the talent on the team is all young (Fresh and Soph). It as expected to be somewhat of a down year, but not this bad, because of the players ages.