A second member of the Montreal Canadiens’ first line has received an NHL award. The league introduced that Cole Caufield has been voted the winner of the Girl Byng Memorial Trophy, which is introduced yearly to the participant who reveals a excessive commonplace of sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct and enjoying capability.
In April, Caufield was named a finalist for the award alongside Los Angeles Kings heart Anže Kopitar and Ottawa Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson. He collected 45 first-place votes from the Skilled Hockey Writers Affiliation and 776 factors. Kopitar, who completed second, collected 38 first-place votes and 602 factors. Kopitar, who’s now retired, is a three-time winner of the Trophy, whereas Sanderson has not received it however has acquired votes twice earlier than in his profession.
Caufield is the primary Canadien to win the Girl Byng since Swedish ahead Mats Naslund took residence the award in 1988. The one different Canadien to win the Trophy is Hockey Corridor of Fame inductee Toe Blake.
The 2019 first-round choose does have another connections to previous winners of the award, each of whom have been immensely expert and productive scoring wingers regardless of missing prototypical NHL dimension.
Caufield’s coach Martin St. Louis received the Girl Byng in 2014, and has overseen Caufield’s improvement into one of many league’s premier objective scorers.
Caufield was additionally a former worldwide teammate and shut buddy of the late Johnny Gaudreau, who received the award in 2017. Caufield referred to as Gaudreau his “hero” and altered his jersey quantity from 22 to 13 in September 2024 to honor Gaudreau’s reminiscence. Now, he joins Gaudreau as a winner of the Girl Byng.
