Cole Caufield leads Canadien Mtl among three Lady Byng nominees
Canadien mtl forward Cole Caufield was named one of three Lady Byng Trophy nominees for the 2025-2026 season on Thursday. The NHL’s sportsmanship award puts his name into a small field at a moment when the Canadiens are already drawing attention for the way their playoff push has spilled beyond the rink.
Three nominees is the whole race at this stage, and Caufield is in it with the season still ahead. For a Canadiens player, that matters because the nomination keeps Montreal in the league’s awards conversation while the team’s broader profile keeps rising after its Game 5 win in Tampa.
Thursday’s Lady Byng field
Caufield’s nomination came alongside the NHL’s announcement of the Lady Byng Trophy finalists on Thursday. The award is handed out by the league, and the 2025-2026 season label makes this a forward-looking recognition rather than a year-end footnote.
The limited field sharpens the value of the nomination. With only three players listed, each spot carries real weight, and Caufield’s inclusion gives the Canadiens a direct stake in one of the league’s cleaner-image awards before the next season even begins.
Rantanen’s $5000 fine
Mikko Rantanen was fined 5000 dollars on Friday for a violent stick swing at Kirill Kaprizov during the sixth game of the first-round Western Conference series. The discipline came after a night that also included Anaheim’s 5-2 win over Edmonton in Game 6 and Minnesota’s 5-2 win over Dallas in Game 6.
That sequence matters because it shows how quickly the focus shifts from playoff production to league discipline. Leo Carlsson, Troy Terry and Chris Kreider each scored one goal and added two assists in Anaheim’s win, while Quinn Hughes had two goals and one assist in Minnesota’s victory, but Rantanen’s fine is the sharpest off-ice consequence in the set of Thursday and Friday developments.
Slafkovský and Donskov
Juraj Slafkovský appeared at his locker Friday morning with a fairly full beard at 22 ans, while Misha Donskov was named Canada’s head coach for the next two World Championships and the 2027 World Junior Championship. The day also included Jon Cooper, Dan Muse and Lindy Ruff as the finalists for the Jack Adams Trophy, plus Jessica Campbell leaving the Seattle Kraken.
For Canadiens readers, the useful line is simple: Caufield’s nomination is the cleanest league-wide win in the group, and it arrives while Montreal remains part of the postseason conversation through the players around him. That keeps the club visible in both award voting and the playoff noise, which is exactly where teams want to be when the league starts sorting out its honors list.
