Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield did, in fact, receive an unexpected phone call. After the undersized sniper scored his 50th goal of the season, one very special person wanted to speak with him: Stéphane Richer, the last Canadiens player to reach that mark.
Richer scored 50 goals in 1989-90. Since then, nobody else in a Canadiens sweater had done it—until Caufield. When the young forward hit the milestone on April 9, Richer dialed him from Florida. The conversation quickly took an amusing turn.
“Once I introduced myself, right away he started calling me ‘sir.’ At 60 years old, I thought, ‘OK,’” Richer recalled.
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That simple, respectful response left the former Canadiens star both amused and impressed. Richer had deliberately stayed quiet throughout Caufield’s pursuit in the spring. He wanted the spotlight to remain solely on the player chasing history rather than on the man who last achieved it more than three decades earlier. A private phone call, he felt, carried more meaning than any public interview.
By reaching 50 goals, Caufield joined a rare and legendary group of Canadiens scorers: Maurice Richard, Bernard Geoffrion, Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Pierre Larouche, and Richer himself. Caufield ultimately finished the 2025-26 season with 51 goals and 88 points, cementing his place in franchise lore.
For Richer, scoring 50 goals while wearing the bleu-blanc-rouge is anything but ordinary. In his view, the accomplishment carries heavier weight in Montreal than it does with most other organizations. His admiration for Caufield is straightforward and emphatic.
“This guy was born to score goals,” Richer said. He added that “the kid eats, sleeps and breathes hockey” and that nobody reaches 50 goals by pure luck. Richer would know. Across 1,188 NHL games he scored 474 goals, including seasons of 51 in 1989-90 and 50 in 1987-88.
Beyond the praise, Richer offered a clear-eyed observation about the current Canadiens roster. Reflecting on the team’s playoff series against Carolina, he noted a missing element.
“We saw the difference in the playoffs against Carolina… They need some sandpaper. And they don’t just need it for two months.”
Despite that concern, Richer remains optimistic. He sees an “incredible” short-term future for the Canadiens—provided management surrounds its skilled core with the right amount of toughness and grit.
Caufield’s 51-goal campaign has already rewritten a long-standing chapter of Canadiens history. The unexpected call from the last man to score 50, and the young star’s instinctive “sir,” added a human and memorable footnote to the achievement. In Montreal, where goal-scoring milestones still resonate deeply, that exchange between generations feels fitting.