Wisconsin Professional Athletes

Cole Caufield Arrives — For Real This Time

Wisconsin has produced plenty of NHL talent, but Cole Caufield is doing something different. The Montreal Canadiens winger wrapped up the 2025-26 season with 51 goals — a career-first 50+ campaign that reframes how the league should talk about the former Badger.

This wasn't a hot streak inflated by a soft schedule. Sportsnet's full-season breakdown of all 51 goals shows the breadth of Caufield's arsenal: quick-release one-timers, backdoor tap-ins, and the kind of contested-space finishes that separate elite snipers from volume shooters. He also set personal bests in assists and points, making a compelling case that 2025-26 wasn't a peak — it was an arrival.

The Canadiens faithful have taken to calling him Mr. Saturday Night, a nickname that carries serious weight in Montreal's hockey culture. For a franchise that has spent the better part of a decade rebuilding, Caufield's breakout gives the rebuild a face and a destination. At 25, he's not just one of Wisconsin's best NHL exports — he's one of the most dangerous goal-scorers in the game right now.

Frederic's Oilers Role Under Scrutiny

Not every Wisconsin alum is riding high. Center Trent Frederic, who joined the Edmonton Oilers with a defined role in mind, finds himself at a crossroads heading into the offseason. According to Yahoo Sports, questions are mounting about whether coach Mike Babcock can rehabilitate Frederic's standing and get him back to the level Edmonton envisioned when they brought him in.

Frederic's calling card has always been his physical, net-front presence — the kind of complementary game that championship rosters are built around. But translating that profile into consistent production on a contending team is harder than it looks, and the piece suggests Edmonton may need to see a recalibrated version of Frederic to justify his continued roster spot.

It's a stark contrast to Caufield's trajectory: same school, same sport, very different moments in their respective careers.

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The 2025-26 season put Wisconsin alumni on both ends of the NHL spectrum — one rewriting his legacy in neon, another trying to hold onto his. For Badger fans watching across the league's 32 markets, Caufield's historic run is the story worth framing. Fifty-one goals doesn't happen by accident, and it doesn't happen without the foundation laid in Madison.

Cole Caufield is getting his flowers — and the national hockey media is finally handing them over.

The former Wisconsin Badger and Montreal Canadiens right winger landed ninth on NHL Network's Top 20 Wingers Right Now rankings, a recognition that cements his status as one of the premier scoring threats at his position in the league. For Badgers fans who watched Caufield light up the Big Ten before he even set foot in an NHL arena, the validation is long overdue.

The ranking didn't come out of nowhere. Caufield's recent body of work made a compelling case before NHL Network ever assembled its list. His offensive production has been a consistent bright spot for a Canadiens franchise working its way back toward contention, and his combination of elite shooting instincts and dynamic speed has drawn favorable comparisons to some of the game's top finishers. The question wasn't really if Caufield belonged on a list like this — it was where.

Ninth is a strong answer. Cracking the top 10 among all NHL wingers puts him in rarefied company, and it signals that the wider hockey world has caught up to what Montreal has seen every night: Caufield is a bona fide top-line weapon, not just a promising former first-round pick still finding his footing.

For Wisconsin's sprawling NHL alumni network — which stretches from Jake McCabe's blue line minutes in Toronto to K'Andre Miller's shutdown work in Carolina to Ryan McDonagh anchoring Tampa Bay's defense — Caufield stands out as the program's most prominent offensive name in the current era. The Badgers have long been a defensive factory, producing blueliners who populate NHL rosters across the league. Caufield is a reminder that Madison can manufacture goal-scorers, too.

The broader Wisconsin contingent in the NHL remains impressively wide. Ty Emberson and Trent Frederic are both part of an Edmonton Oilers roster hunting another deep playoff run. Dylan Holloway, who came up through the Oilers organization before landing in St. Louis, continues to develop as a top-six forward with the Blues. Joe Pavelski, ageless and relentless in Dallas, keeps adding to a Hall of Fame résumé alongside Cameron Hughes on the Stars. Justin Schultz is in Seattle, Ryan Suter is logging veteran minutes in St. Louis, and Corson Ceulemans and Brendan Smith are both suiting up for Columbus.

The depth is real. But right now, it's Caufield carrying the banner.

A top-10 winger ranking from NHL Network isn't just a feel-good offseason list item — it's a data point in the ongoing argument about Montreal's rebuild timeline and Caufield's place at the center of it. Badger Nation has reason to watch closely when the puck drops this fall. Their guy is being counted among the best in the business.

Cole Caufield is getting his flowers — and they're coming from a national stage.

The former Wisconsin Badger and Montreal Canadiens right winger landed ninth on NHL Network's Top 20 Wingers Right Now rankings, a recognition that cements his standing as one of the premier offensive players at his position in the league. For a player who arrived in the NHL as a hyped scoring prospect, the ranking reflects that the hype has become reality.

Caufield's inclusion on the list wasn't a surprise to those who've tracked his trajectory closely. His body of work over the most recent season made a compelling case on its own — the kind of production that's difficult for national analysts to ignore when assembling a list of the best at his position. He checks in at No. 9, ahead of a long line of established NHL wingers who didn't make the cut.

The ranking also carries some weight in context: NHL Network's Top 20 lists are among the more scrutinized offseason exercises in hockey media, drawing debate precisely because the competition for spots is real. Landing inside the top 10 places Caufield in elite company and signals that his development arc with the Canadiens has put him squarely in conversations about the league's best.

For Wisconsin fans, Caufield has long been the most prominent NHL alumni ambassador — a first-round pick who has grown into a legitimate star. His name appearing on national rankings lists during the offseason keeps the Badgers' hockey brand in the spotlight even when the puck isn't dropping.

The rest of the Badgers' NHL alumni contingent is spread across the league, with names like K'Andre Miller (Hurricanes), Jake McCabe (Maple Leafs), Dylan Holloway (Blues), and Trent Frederic (Oilers) among the active players on rosters heading into the 2026-27 season. But it's Caufield who continues to set the standard for Wisconsin's NHL presence — and a top-10 national winger ranking in August is as good a reminder as any.