Being named Cole and being an elite goal-scoring winger in the US National Team Development Program go together like peanut butter and jelly … or Toronto and first-round exits if you’re the hating type like I am. Cole Eiserman didn’t just match what Cole Caufield did in his USNTDP time, he surpassed it with relative ease this year and might just be the best goal-scoring talent in the NHL Draft this year. In fact, no one in the 2024 NHL Draft class scored more goals this year than Eiserman, who scored at just over a goal-per-game pace, finishing the year with 58 total.
Birthplace: Newburyport, Massachusetts
Date of Birth: August 29, 2006
Shoots: Left
Position: Left Wing
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 196 lbs.
Team: USNTDP
All Eiserman does is put pucks past opposing goalies from all over the offensive zone, including a frightening ability to score from range. It isn’t even just the fact that he gets a ridiculous amount of velocity behind his shots, but the fact he puts them wherever he wants.
He doesn’t just set up shop and stand around waiting for pucks to get to him inside the dots either. He has a knack for finding the soft ice to get himself into the best possible scoring areas in front of goal. In one on one situations, he has the hockey sense and talent to make moves that will leave his opponents second-guessing as he skates beyond them. All of this in the name of just getting inside a range where he feels comfortable to uncork his best weapon as soon as the opening presents itself.
Now, you might read that and believe that Eiserman is just a perimeter player, not willing to use his size to battle on the ice. That is far from reality, as he loves to apply the physicality around the net as he battles to chip in rebounds, or to retrieve loose pucks inside his orbit. The kid just wants to score goals, no matter the situation.
So you might ask yourself, how would a physical, elite goal-scoring winger fall outside the top five in an NHL Draft? Well, because when it comes to Eiserman, you come for the goal-scoring, and hope that it is able to help bridge the gap in the other parts of his game.
There may be no one better than him at scoring goals in this draft class, but there are mountains of players who are better off the puck than he is currently. He isn’t incapable of being a useful playmaker, but the flashes of that were far from consistent across the season. Without the deception of him being a true passing option, teams will begin to cheat to him in shooting situations and clamp down on his scoring chances.
Along with that is the fact that, while not a clunky or poor skater, Eiserman lacks a true explosiveness in his skating stride to create separation and be the puck-carrier on a line. At the Junior level he can get by thanks to his aptitude with the puck on his stick, but as he progresses to the NCAA and to the professional ranks, he will need to drastically improve that area of his game.
Many reports from scouts and prospect experts have drawn a pair of comparisons that might give some folks pause: Oliver Wahlstrom and Kieffer Bellows. Both were first-round picks with elite goal-scoring pedigree, but failed to advance the rest of their games in order to make a real impact at the top levels of hockey. That’s not to say that Eiserman will fall into that same problem, but there must be attention given to him in order to push his game in the right direction.
Preliminary Rankings
Elite Prospects: #13
FCHockey: #11
Hockey Prospect: #19
Dobber Prospect: #6
McKeen’s: #15
NHL Central Scouting: #12 (North American skaters)
Corey Pronman: #16
Scott Wheeler: #7
Eiserman scores goals. A preposterous amount of goals. An unheard of amount, really. That alone makes him well worth his first-round slot. The question for teams then becomes about whether or not they can improve the other parts of his game to supplement his incredible goal-scoring prowess.
For the Montreal Canadiens, he will absolutely be available at fifth overall, but it’s beyond a reach to grab him there. However, he is absolutely the sort of player I could see Kent Hughes trading up for by leveraging their other first-round pick he holds this year.
The Habs’ lack a pure goal-scoring talent in their prospect pool at this moment, and adding the greatest one in USNTDP history, would be a very quick remedy to that. They have faith in their development staff, but will they take the leap to add another Cole to the pool despite his flaws?
