They don't call him 'Goal' Caufield for nothing.
Even though the Montreal Canadiens sniper finished two goals behind Nathan MacKinnon for the 'Rocket' Richard Trophy and 15 places behind Connor McDavid for the Art Ross Trophy, Cole Caufield put an emphatic stamp on the NHL's Situational Scoring race.
Situational Scoring is a stat unique to The Hockey News that measures offensive contributions at key moments in the game. And nobody did it better than Caufield this season.
In recording his first 50-goal season, Caufield won, and it wasn't particularly close. As he gets his third career post-season and second career series against the Tampa Bay Lightning underway Sunday evening, he will give Montreal a good chance of winning if he keeps this up.
Click here or below for the final NHL Situational Scoring standings for the 2025-26 season. If you're unfamiliar with Situational Scoring or need a refresher, keep reading.
NHL Situational Scoring: Top 25 Of 2025-26 Situational Scoring tracks the points that matter the most. Goals and assists are assigned a value depending on the situation and added up in the total (SS points). Scroll to the right for more numbers.
As always, there are a couple of things to note, the most important being that goals are weighted more heavily than assists, with goals worth one point and assists worth half a point.
In this system, goals can be worth more than one point and assists worth more than a half a point.
For example, the first goal of a game is automatically worth two points, one for being the first goal of the game and one for putting that player's team ahead in a game. An overtime goal is worth three: one for putting the team ahead, one for being the game-winner and one for the overtime goal. If that is the only goal in a 1-0 game, it's worth four.
It can all be a little confusing, so here's a glossary:
FIRST: When a player scores the first goal of the game.
AHEAD: Any goal that puts a team ahead at any point in the game, including overtime.
TIED: Any goal that pulls a team into a tie at any point in the game.
COMEBACK: A goal that is scored when a team is trailing by two goals or more and is part of a series of goals that eventually ties the game, regardless of the ultimate outcome of the game.
WINNER: A game-winning goal, but not by the NHL's definition. The game-winner in this category is the goal that puts a team ahead in a game to stay. So in other words, you could have a 7-6 game and maybe the first goal of the game was the game-winner.
SO: Only shootout game-winning goals are counted in this category.
NHL: Where the player stands in the actual NHL scoring race.
Take a look at the list, watch the video column above for more, and let us know your thoughts.
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