Fascinating 4: Keep tabs on these NHLers who've charged out of the gate

Tuesday is the two-week mark of the 2022-23 NHL season, which means we've seen enough hockey to have half-baked opinions on teams and players. Below is a look at four fascinating players, and why they've worth tracking.

(Stats through Monday's games via Hockey Reference/Evolving-Hockey.)

Cole Caufield, Montreal

My take: The top Canadiens storylines heading into the year were tanking for Connor Bedard, Carey Price's health, and Juraj Slafkovsky's transition to the NHL. Not far behind: Would Caufield continue to thrive under head coach Martin St. Louis?

Montreal's season is just six games old, but there's no denying Caufield's picked up where he left off in 2021-22. The 5-foot-7 winger leads the Habs with four goals and is now up to 26 goals and 14 assists for 40 points in 43 contests under St. Louis (0.93 points per game). By comparison, he had five tallies and eight helpers in the 40 games Dominique Ducharme was behind the bench (0.33 ppg).

Caufield, 21, is playing with a lot of joy, and it's clear he knows the coach won't chew him up if he makes a mistake. "Sneaky" is a word that comes to mind when watching him work his magic with and without the puck. He constantly gets lost in the offensive zone, and Nick Suzuki, the Habs' cerebral top-line center, is perfectly suited to feed him crafty passes.

It helps that Caufield is also quick with his mind. If he has possession of the puck and the goalie isn't in a save stance, he'll sling it toward the net without hesitation. Caufield himself might not be in a shooting position, or he may be stationed at a weird angle, and it won't matter. He'll shoot and often score.

Ex-coach's take: The above clip, which shows the Canadiens star pouncing on a turnover and bagging his fourth goal of the year, is "vintage Caufield," says John Wroblewski, a former coach of USA Hockey's National Team Development Program.

"Pretty innocent-looking shot. He just happens to squeak it through the goalie. Goal-scorers tend to get those bounces," Wroblewski told theScore.

During the 2018-19 season, Wroblewski and his NTDP staff taught a quick attacking style to its talent-rich forward group. A goalie's save percentage skyrockets when his feet are set, the coaches would tell Caufield and his teammates. "So," Wroblewski would explain, "we don't have to have the perfect shot on net. But what we do have to do is beat the goalie to the spot."

Caufield, who racked up 72 goals in 64 games that year, was the greatest beneficiary of the shoot-quick approach. It came naturally to him, anyway. As Wroblewski notes, Caufield owns such "pure hands" that the puck can be wobbling as it enters his wheelhouse and it will still explode off his blade.

Wroblewski, now the head coach for the U.S. women's national team, points out how Caufield is among the league leaders in five-on-five goals since St. Louis' arrival in Montreal. Auston Matthews is first with 21 five-on-five tallies in 40 games, Nathan MacKinnon is second with 18 in 40, and Caufield and Elias Lindholm are tied for third with 17 in 40 and 43 games, respectively.

"I would imagine they're on a pretty similar wavelength," Wroblewski said of Caufield and St. Louis, the 5-foot-8 Hockey Hall of Famer who had eight seasons with at least 29 goals. "Marty was obviously not just a goal-scorer. He was so gritty in the way that he played. He was courageous. I think that's part of Cole's game that was maybe understated during his draft year, just how gritty and courageous he was and can be."

Mason Marchment, Dallas

My take: Marchment is the unofficial third Tkachuk brother.

He isn't as skilled as Matthew in Florida or as difficult to contain in the net-front area as Brady in Ottawa. But Marchment checks off many of the same boxes on a scouting report.

At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Marchment is a commanding presence. He skates, handles the puck, makes plays, and finishes like a star. Yet he agitates like a grinder. Marchment, in true Tkachukian form, is known to initiate plenty of accidentally-on-purpose collisions, and he's not afraid to yap at opponents.

What's especially intriguing about him right now is he's showing no signs of falling back to earth after breaking through as an impact NHLer last season with 47 points in 54 games with Florida. The 27-year-old winger has been one of the Stars' top forwards through six contests, collecting three goals and three assists. He's skating for a career-high 16:15 alongside center Tyler Seguin and a revolving door of right-wingers.

The undrafted Marchment started his pro career in the Maple Leafs' organization. He competed in 35 ECHL, 130 AHL, and four NHL games from 2016-20. A trade to the Panthers in February 2020 led to 87 big-league contests across the past two seasons and, eventually, some security. A free agent in July, Marchment inked a four-year, $18-million deal with the Stars.

Stars' take: Marchment's father, former NHLer Bryan, died unexpectedly this summer while in Montreal for the draft. The Sharks scout was 53.

Dallas coach Pete DeBoer says Marchment has tackled the new season "exceptionally well," considering the circumstances.

"I don't think anybody's had a tougher three or four months than Mason," DeBoer said last week. "I can't tell you how impressed I am with how he's handled it - how he's come into camp, how he's integrated into our group, and how well he's playing."

The chemistry between Marchment and Seguin is palpable, which is a boon for the Stars. A one-line team last year, they need reliable secondary scoring.

"Huge addition to our group, not only for how big he is but because he's one of the most competitive guys around," forward Ty Dellandrea said. "So hungry to score. He's got that kind of scorer's knack, where he just wants it so bad."

From afar, Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood assumed Marchment was "probably a product of Florida's high-powered offense." Then, Wedgwood added, "he shows up the first day and he's making one-touch passes and quick plays with his stick. He's got that long reach. It's honestly a full package, what he's got: He's got the ability to score and check. He's gritty but skilled."

Unprompted, Wedgewood brought up Marchment's contract. "That deal," he said, "is going to be one of the more underrated signings of the summer."

Logan Thompson, Vegas

My take: Count me among the skeptics when the Golden Knights opted to boldly enter the season with a goaltending duo of Thompson and Adin Hill.

Seven games in, count me among the cautious believers - of Thompson specifically. The acrobatic and gangly rookie is one of the NHL's best stories, posting a .931 save percentage in games against the Kings, Blackhawks, Flames, Avalanche, and Maple Leafs. It's a small sample, but four of those five opponents have playoff or Stanley Cup aspirations.

Thompson is busy and explosive in the crease. He's a battler with a goalie fight on his resume and tales to tell from tenures in the WHL, Canadian university, ECHL, and AHL. On Vegas' roster since March, Thompson's .926 five-on-five save percentage ranks ninth out of the 55 goalies who've logged at least 1,000 minutes. He's been excellent in the shootout, too, stopping 14 of 17 attempts.

Bonus marks: There's something striking about right-hand-catching netminders. Visually, they throw a different look at the opposition and, anecdotally as a viewer, righties sure seem to be extra athletic in the crease.

Ex-coach's take: Marty Williamson, Thompson's bench boss at Brock University for the 2018-19 season, has coached collegiate- or junior-level players for the better part of three decades. He's seen it all, and yet the undrafted Thompson counts as the ultimate feel-good story of his career.

Thompson wasn't offered a pro contract out of the WHL, and he was, in Williamson's words, "reluctant" to play at a Canadian university at first.

"But the thing I noticed about him when he eventually came to Brock was his work ethic," the coach said. "He wanted to win and was just at a different level than his peers. A lot of credit to him for not moping around and taking on a 'woe is me' mentality. No, no, Logan put in the work and then got noticed."

The hockey in Canada's university loop - known as U Sports - is decent, and a small handful of players have made their way to the NHL over the years. But many players are there to study and continue to play for fun. "Logan wanted to be the best so he was always on his game," Williamson said. "He didn't let himself wander, he wasn't out partying the night before games or anything."

The dedication paid off with an ECHL deal, and Thompson's career has since moved in a positive direction. The goalie that Williamson sees nowadays is "quieter" than ever, as hard as it is to believe for such a busy netminder. The polished Thompson reads the game at an elite level and doesn't give up on pucks.

The crazy part is that Thompson's only 25. His journey through several levels has come over a short span.

"Right time, right place, and Logan was prepared," Williamson said of the opportunity, later adding, "He's put himself in a position to have a really strong career. You can't take anything for granted, and I just don't believe he will."

Elmer Soderblom, Detroit

My take: Honestly, what's not fascinating about Soderblom? The dude's an alien.

Soderblom is listed at 6-foot-8 and 246 pounds - 1 inch shorter and 4 pounds lighter than Zdeno Chara. But, on the ice, the Red Wings rookie looks far less freakish and awkward than Chara. He has finesse.

Soderblom combines an NBA player's cartoonish wingspan with solid skating, silky hands, and a bullet of a shot. Already, multiple opponents have bounced off his midsection while trying to stop him in transition and along the boards. He's fittingly earned the net-front role on Detroit's second power-play unit.

Through five games, Soderblom ranks fourth on the club in goals (two) and second in expected goals (2.17) despite getting third-line minutes. (Teamed with 6-foot-6 Michael Rasmussen and 6-foot-3 Oskar Sundqvist, Soderblom is part of the biggest line in NHL history, according to Bleacher Report.) The 21-year-old has also recorded 11 shots on goal, four blocked shots, three takeaways, and two hits.

North American hockey fans were introduced to Big Elmer when he pulled off not one but two between-the-legs goals during the 2021 World Junior Championship. As the below clip shows, he's a unique specimen.

NHL scout's take: Soderblom, picked in the sixth round, 159th overall, was a "truly interesting case" in the 2019 draft, according to one amateur scout.

"Even though he's huge, he's always been a skill-first guy, and I don't know if we'd ever seen that before. He was such a unicorn of a player in that sense," said the Europe-based scout. "But there was a question that scared teams off: Is the skating going to improve enough for him to make the NHL?"

The answer turned out to be yes. And the improved skating now allows Soderblom's reach to not just be a plus attribute but his calling card.

"He can intercept passes that most players can't. That's an X-factor," the scout said before adding, "But you can dream a little, like, 'Hey, once he's a little older he can become more physical and start using that size.' With some guys, it takes them a bit longer to realize what kind of assets they have and how they can best utilize them. Even though Elmer is already playing well, there's no saying how much he can add to his game over the following years."

Soderblom has provided teams with hope for these rare skill-first giants at forward. The scout mentioned 6-foot-6 Russian Kirill Dolzhenkov's relatively high selection this past July (fourth round, Blue Jackets) is at least in part a product of Soderblom's post-draft development and long-term ceiling.

It's a sequence of events similar to the tiny Caufield going 15th overall three years after Alex DeBrincat, a player of a similar build and skill set, went 39th.

"Those outliers are always difficult," the scout said. "You need to have those examples."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).