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Montreal Canadiens

Update On Cole Caufield’s Injury, Canadiens Extension Talks

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Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield is, unfortunately, out for the season, but his agent, Pat Brisson, clarified his injury status, rehab process and gave some insight into contract negotiations.

In an interview with Jean-Charles Lajoie of BPM Sports, Brisson explained that. although Caufield did have an injured shoulder for some time, they went to a plethora of specialists before finally taking the decision to shut the young sniper down for the season.

In his estimation, Caufield could have played over a dozen more games in his current state, but one awkward fall could have made the recovery process an absolute disaster, a fear that ultimately led to Cole’s season coming to an end.

“Caufield could have been able to play two, ten, maybe even 15 games,” said Brisson regarding Caufield’s health. “But, if he fell awkwardly, the injury could have gotten much worse and we would have had to deal with something much worse.”

Whenever a player undergoes shoulder surgery, there’s always a fear that the shoulder in question will be a bothersome part of the body for many years. However, Brisson explains that, by shutting down Caufield at this time, the type of surgery needed to repair his right shoulder will allow Caufield to come back to play unscathed.

“The type of operation that Cole is going to get has a 100% rate of return,” said Brisson regarding the potential for long-term ramifications in undergoing surgery. “So we know Cole Caufield is going to come back even better than before; there’s no risk.”

Brisson’s words echoed that of Canadiens teammate Josh Anderson earlier last week. The Canadiens power forward explained that he went through the same process in 2020, when he underwent season-ending shoulder surgery, and now his repaired, left shoulder is even stronger than his right shoulder.

“He’s going to recover from this and be better for it as well,” said Anderson last week regarding the recovery process. “I told him that when I got operated on, my left shoulder feels stronger than my right. He liked hearing that part. I’m confident that he’s still going to score more goals than he has today. It’s just going to make him stronger, for sure.”

Contract Negotiations

The other elephant in the room at the moment is the ongoing contract extension talks between the Canadiens and Cole Caufield’s camp; a process that began some time ago.

“We’ve been talking for a while now, and the Montreal Canadiens want to come to an agreement with Cole; he’s part of their long-term plans,” said Brisson regarding the Canadiens’ negotiations with his client. “Cole also loves Montreal, so we’ve had some good talks to that effect.”

Many have questioned whether the surgery would play into the contract negotiations, if at all; while others, like Lajoie, suggested that, Caufield and they must be close to an agreement.

“From a contract talk perspective, we know the surgery will be very positive, so it shouldn’t slow down negotiations,” said Brisson regarding the surgery’s role in the Canadiens’ negotiations.”It’s more a question of fit and cap space.”

Brisson gave the example of past clients to explain the constraints the flat cap has caused, and why some of his clients have opted for a bridge-contract, rather than a long-term.

“Usually, cap space is the issue when trying to sign young players long-term,” said Brisson regarding facets that usually impede youngsters from signing 8-year deals. “I got Jason Robertson four years in Dallas, but he wanted to go for eight years. Unfortunately, Dallas didn’t have the cap space necessary to make it to eight years. Now, I’m pretty sure the Stars wish they could have moved some salary to get that longer AAV. The same thing happened with Elias Pettersson in Vancouver, the Canucks didn’t have enough cap space.”

With the Montreal Canadiens set to shed nearly $21M in cap space this summer, when the contracts of Jonathan Drouin ($5.5M), Evgenii Dadonov ($5M), Sean Monahan ($6.375M) and Paul Byron ($3.4M), they should be in the perfect situation to come to a long-term agreement.