{"id":540752,"date":"2026-04-04T18:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540752\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:54:14","slug":"hughes-super-happy-to-see-caufield-on-cusp-of-50th-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540752\/","title":{"rendered":"Hughes ‘super happy’ to see Caufield on cusp of 50th goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A record eight players from the NTDP were selected in the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft. Hughes, Minnesota wild forward Matt Boldy<\/a>,\u00a0Caufield and Philadelphia Flyers forward Trevor Zegras<\/a>\u00a0rank among the top five in points in the NHL from that draft class.<\/p>\n

Hughes tops the list in assists (254) and points (419) and Caufield ranks first in goals (167), two ahead of his former linemate.<\/p>\n

Hughes said he remembers how determined Caufield was at perfecting his shot.<\/p>\n

“Growing up, he always had a knack for scoring,” Hughes said. “I feel like there’s guys that just know how to score and he’s a guy that could always score five-hole. I remember at the program, he never did it as work. He loved hockey and still loves hockey so much, but he was always working on the shot, always shooting.”<\/p>\n

Hughes skated alongside Caufield and Boldy over the first half of his NTDP Under-17 season, before Zegras replaced Boldy in his U-18 season.<\/p>\n

“I remember the big thing back then was Auston Matthews coming from the program and doing the pull-and-drag shot,” Hughes said. “Everyone would stay on the ice after practice and work on the Matthews toe-drag release. I’m not surprised by his scoring because he hides it well. It comes off his stick so nice, and it looks so good.”<\/p>\n

Caufield holds the NTDP record for goals in a season, with 72 in 2018-19, and at the time set the record for career goals (126) in 123 games over two seasons. He tied Alex Ovechkin<\/a>\u00a0(2002) for most goals (14) at the IIHF 2019 Under-18 World Championship to help the United States win a bronze medal while playing right wing on a line with Hughes.<\/p>\n

Cole Eiserman<\/a>, chosen No. 20 by the New York Islanders in the 2024 NHL Draft, passed Caufield in career goals at the NTDP, scoring 127 in 119 games from 2022-24.<\/p>\n

Hughes is hopeful one day he and Caufield will again join forces on an international level or the World Cup of Hockey. Hughes became a national sports hero when he scored at 1:41 of overtime to give Team USA a 2-1 win against Team Canada in the gold medal game of the men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics on Feb. 22. A whirlwind media tour followed.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old has 68 points (24 goals, 44 assists) in 54 games with the Devils this season, including 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) in 18 games since returning from Milan.<\/p>\n

“Cole is one of the premier USA Hockey players around,” Hughes said. “Obviously, we won gold, so we had the perfect lineup. But Cole’s had such a tremendous year. If there’s more spots, he deserves to be on that team, like Jason Robertson<\/a>.\u00a0It just so happens there’s only so many guys you can take, but Cole’s a guy who, down the line, will be on plenty of U.S. National teams.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A record eight players from the NTDP were selected in the first round of the 2019 NHL Draft.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,5,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-540752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-jersey","11":"tag-new-jersey-devils","12":"tag-newjersey","13":"tag-newjerseydevils","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116347958988911989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}