A good starting point would be to talk about the Montreal Canadiens right winger, Cole Caufield. It’s no secret that Cole is a phenomenal talent and still only 20 years old. Everywhere he has played, he has scored goals. He beat the all-time goals record in the USA Hockey National Team Development Program beating a record previously held by Phil Kessel, he scored 126 goals in 123 games, kinda ridiculous right? With 30 goals he also led the NCAA in scoring and managed to bag 4 goals in 10 for the Canadiens during the regular season last season, also putting up big numbers by racking up 12 points in the run to the Stanley Cup final and last but not least he also won the Hobey Baker Award, all in the space of 6 months. Mental!

So heading into his first full season as a Canadiens player in the NHL, everything was looking great for Caufield. At the start of the season in fact Caufield was, understandably, favourite to win the Calder Trophy, ahead of the likes of Trevor Zegras of the Ducks and Spencer Knight of the Panthers. But why aren’t things looking as rosey for Caufield now? Well, given the way he performed in the regular season and the playoffs for the Canadiens last season, things haven’t exactly started out very well this season, in 10 games he has only managed to bag a single assist.

"There is nothing wrong with a young player like him," head coach Dominique Ducharme said. "We really think highly of him. You look back and you see players like Marchand, Pastrnak, and those guys who, early in their career, needed to go through those kinds of things, and came back and became really good players.

"That’s what we believe in Cole for the future, and down the line it’s going to help him out."

Following his rather uninspired performances this season, Caufield found himself sent down to the American Hockey League affiliate of the Canaidens, the Laval Rockets. By no means is this the end of Caufield, provided he keeps his head up and works hard to prove he’s worth the Canadiens time, he’ll no doubt be back this season. But if he spits his proverbial dummy out and acts like a child, he could find himself wasting away with the Rockets.

Michael Bunting is a surprise addition to the list of Calder Trophy candidates given he’s 26 years old. Source: DailyTimes

The Toronto Maple Leafs may not have started the season like a house on fire, but they’ve played some good hockey. One man who has been in amongst the good performances is Michael Bunting, the 26 year old left winger performed exceptionally in pre-season and that form has truly carried over into the regular season. Dubbed “a greasy rat” by teammates, which is a complement of course, Tavarez, Leafs Captain said Bunting is extremely determined, has great awareness on the ice, he’s brilliant at complimenting elite players around him, will ALWAYS find a way to make an impact on any game and has great hands with greater timing.

“He’s been kind of a late bloomer,” Tavares went on. “Someone who’s had to prove a lot of people wrong and just always had that attitude of finding a way.”

In my opinion, whether you’re a leafs fan or not, it’s a breath of fresh air seeing somebody like Bunting given a chance at the highest level and grabbing that chance with both hands, putting in solid performance after solid performance. Whether he actually wins the Calder Trophy or not isn’t really the question here but he’s painting himself in a great light to be in with a chance. Fair play to the guy!

That’s gonna do it for this one. Today we talked about two of the candidates for the Calder Trophy, one of the front runners and one guy who hasn’t been talked about a lot but can definitely be seen as a dark horse in the race. What do you guys think, who are your top 3 candidates for this years Calder Trophy? We’d love to hear from you! As always, take care!