Analyzing which Canadiens winger is the best fit with Caufield and Suzuki

ST. LOUIS—It’s astounding when you realize Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki have proven to be one of the most dominant and productive duos in the NHL despite rarely playing with the same linemate for more than a handful of games at a time.

Not that it’s so hard to figure out what makes Caufield and Suzuki sympatico regardless of who they’re playing with. Caufield, 21, is a sure-handed sniper who can finish the premium plays the 23-year-old Suzuki manufactures on a nightly basis. That they’re both young, coming up together and in the process of building a strong relationship off the ice certainly contributes to their chemistry.

As Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin noted after Monday’s practice in St. Louis, “They spend a lot of time together, they watch hockey together, they’re always looking at plays together on the bench and in the room, and they benefit from that on the ice.”

“You see that around the league with elite players who play together,” he added.

But he also acknowledged it’s rare to see it work as well when so many different types of players are being used with them.

Finding the right fit with Caufield and Suzuki has proven elusive for Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. Over the 46 games they’ve played since St. Louis took over from Dominique Ducharme on Feb. 10, they have produced 45 points and 44 points, respectively, and they’ve done it while trying to adapt to playing with eight different players.

Through just nine games this season, the duo has already played games with Sean Monahan, Mike Hoffman, Josh Anderson and Kirby Dach, and there might be others auditioning there before St. Louis settles on who would qualify as a long-term solution.

Dach, who’s currently lined up with Suzuki and Caufield, might get an extended look.

St. Louis said on Monday that despite wanting to continue to develop Dach at his natural position of centre, he’d like to see what happens with the 6-foot-4, 212-pounder to the right of Caufield and Suzuki.

“He brings size, but he brings poise too,” the coach said. “I’m really comfortable when they leave off the rush together—there’s a lot of skill there.”

But there has to be more to it than just that.

Anderson, the 6-foot-3, 218-pound winger who’s spent the most time completing this line since St. Louis took over as coach, brings similar attributes. He may not have Dach’s poise, but he has the speed to best complement the rush-game Caufield and Suzuki like to play.

The trio helped the Canadiens generate 40 scoring chances off the rush in 255 minutes spent together at 5-on-5 last season, and Anderson has been among the team’s leaders in the category since this season began.

But his limited ability to help Caufield and Suzuki produce offence off the cycle is likely a factor in why he’s currently skating on another line.

Whether or not Dach can do better in this facet is something to monitor over the coming games.

If he can, St. Louis will be less concerned about the time he spends away from centre.

“We have five centres, so we have plenty of time to figure that out,” St. Louis said.

With time to develop, though, perhaps the most logical long-term fit with Caufield and Suzuki is Juraj Slafkovsky.

The 18-year-old, who was taken first overall in the 2022 Draft and has since bookended a three-game absence due to an upper-body injury with his first steps in the NHL and his most impressive ones (in a 7-4 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday), probably has the best chance of filling the role.

St. Louis didn’t negate the possibility we could see Slafkovsky with Caufield and Suzuki at some point in the near future when he was asked about it on Monday.

The coach was also asked what he thinks are the key attributes a player has to have in order to best complement his top offensive duo and said, “I think a third guy’s gotta be able to facilitate the duo a little bit.”

“As a player I played with Vinny (Vincent Lecavalier), I played with Stammer (Steven Stamkos), I played with Brad Richards, and the third guy always came in there and kind of played his game but always facilitated,” St. Louis continued. “Whether it was winning a battle to get us the puck, whether it was to go to the front to let us do our stuff, whatever it is—and it changed from player to player—you always try to bring a guy there that brings something to that line.

“But the guy who goes in has to understand what Suzy and Cole do best.”

St. Louis said that’s sharing the puck well, with Caufield being a shoot-first player and Suzuki being a pass-first player.

When he thought about the players who best complemented his duos with Lecavalier or Richards when he was a star with the Tampa Bay Lightning, St. Louis brought up a heady player like Vaclav Prospal, a gritty player like Steve Downie, and a couple of big, versatile players in Ryan Malone and Fredrik Modin who compare well to what Slafkovsky might become.

The big Slovak’s development is going well, as exemplified against the Blues—with a power-play goal as a nice bonus for taking care of the little details and demonstrating he’s starting to understand how to use his 6-foot-4, 238-pound body to his advantage at 5-on-5.

“He was physical, he was winning battles and he was separating himself from opponents with the puck,” said St. Louis. “To me, every shift, I felt like whether he did something offensively—he got a 2-on-1, he scored on the power play—when he lost the puck, he got it back almost every time by just being engaged, tenacious and physical. He wasn’t thinking as much, he was just playing, and it allowed him to get on base every shift.”

The possibility of Slafkovsky hitting some home runs next to Caufield and Suzuki will emanate from his skill, from his hockey sense, and from his ability to not only support them on the rush the way Anderson has and the way Dach should be able to, but also to do what Drouin believes should be his biggest strength.

“I see a power forward that’s going to be good around the net, good in the o-zone at holding pucks and making plays down low,” Drouin said. “Time will tell, but I think he’s got that body to be that kind of player that’s hard to get off the puck, that gets shots through on rushes and gets to the net.”

Anderson believes Slafkovsky is developing well in that process, but still needs to find the tricks of the trade to really excel in it at this level.

“I think the game has slowed down for him since the start,” he said. “You give it a week, or two weeks, it might seem really fast off the start, but he’s obviously a big player who protects the puck well. I think he’s starting to understand he has a bit more time than he thinks out there and is winning the puck on the boards or in the zone now. I could see him being a big power forward. He can be a bit more physical, with the size that he has, to create the space for himself. But he’s taken strides in the right direction.

“He’s got a good shot. He continues to work hard, but he can use his size to extend the play and win the puck a bit more. Maybe give the guy a bit of a bump before he receives the puck so he has that much more space. He has that reach.”

Slafkovsky also has the speed and the creativity to fit in on the rush with Caufield and Suzuki.

It’s just about building up the right habits and learning how to process the game at their speed before giving that experiment a proper run.

As St. Louis said after Saturday’s win, developing knowledge of the game comes through experience.

“He’s 18 years old. How much does he really know about the game? Because I know at 18, I just loved the game, I didn’t know a lot about the game,” St. Louis said of Slafkovsky. “So, we’re trying to tap his brain a little bit because it’s more than just put on his skates and put the puck in the net. There’s a lot that’s going on in the game—especially in the NHL—and he’s going through that right now.”

Meanwhile, Caufield and Suzuki continue to evolve together—and at breakneck pace—no matter which player they line up with.

Anderson says it’s their mutual love of the game, their daily excitement coming to the rink and their infinite thirst for knowledge on how they can pick apart their opponents.

St. Louis says it’s the work they’ve put into establishing chemistry.

“I think they really know each other as players, and I think that’s something you build. It doesn’t happen overnight,” St. Louis explained. “They’ve had plenty of games together now, counting last year, and they get on the power play as well, which would translate to 5-on-5. I think they like each other. I think you combine that.

“They’re not always going to be on top of their game, but sometimes it’ll be one pulling the other and vice versa. And you try to add a third player that could complement their game. We’ve had different guys there, and Suzy and Cole have stayed pretty consistent in terms of producing chances.”