Cole Eiserman : In-Depth Scouting Report

A prolific American goal-scorer who rewrote the rich record book of NTDP, Eiserman was the subject of numerous debates throughout the season.

You will suspect that with the position at which he appears in my ranking that I am not a big fan of the player. But let’s give Caesar his due. To score this many goals, a player must possess an elite trait, and with Eiserman, his shot is well deserved of this qualitative.

His shot is disarmingly heavy for goalkeepers. He doesn’t need a lot of space and time to take a great shot. Even when forced to release with a rather short momentum, the puck leaves with fascinating velocity. We are talking here about one of the best shots that we will have seen among the prospects of recent years.

His one-timer is just as formidable, if not more so. What I find most impressive is how quickly his thoracic rotation occurs. Even in full swing, the speed at which his stick comes down to hit the ice is incredible.

To close this aspect, Eiserman is also very dangerous to take a shot following a faceoff won by his center. This demonstrates how, with the snap of a finger, he has the ability to put the puck in the back of the net.

Continuing with the positives, Eiserman’s overall involvement has been called into question several times this season and it even seemed to be one of the predominant factors in justifying his downfall. A criticism that I found curious, to say the least, since for my part, Eiserman always presented himself during my viewing and on this aspect, it is difficult to reproach him. He is a player who exhibits a propensity for physical play. He loves to hit his opponents, and he hits to hurt!

The other argument that was used to justify the debacle of the American scorer was his faulty defensive game. This is actually not his strong suit. For me, it is mainly certain reads and decisions that explain this weakness, rather than a simple question of commitment or positioning.

First, Eiserman takes simply unnecessary risks in his zone as he backhands passes between his legs to avoid getting trapped along the boards. He has committed more than one turnover of this kind, and nothing can justify taking such a risk.

We have an example here where the puck landed directly on the stick of an opponent in the slot.

He forced several clearances in his zone as soon as the pressure came to him, one wonders if he is not afraid of being hit. Even during a power play sequence, he was quick to throw the puck back along the boards, yet the other team had only attacked with 2 players, and 4 NTDP players were in his zone. In the end, the opposing team will have taken the opportunity to regain possession of the disc and waste several seconds of the NTDP powerplay.

Several things about Eiserman are lacking on the defensive end and another one of his things is his timing. We have an example here when he kneels in front of a defender to block a shot way too quickly.

The defender then managed to easily access the faceoff circle to take a shot.

Another defensive aspect that Eiserman does not master is that he does not know how to defend against a defenseman footwork with the puck. He tries to play the body, which might be a good idea, but he mismanages his distance and timing, and his feet seem to sink into the concrete when he tries to engage the body. This results in him being sidestepped easily.

I’ll be honest, this year I tried as much as possible to distance myself from everything that is said on prospects in the public square. Despite this, I have still witnessed many popular trends. The incessant debates surrounding Cole Eiserman will not have escaped me. This is where I consider that people were completely off track. You see, it is true that his defensive game is far from being on point, but the fact that this is the main argument that has been put forward and that no concerns have been raised on more preponderant aspects of his game amazes me. It’s as if people didn’t want to miss the parade and to justify their position on the player, they relied on the first argument that was mentioned, which probably was his defensive play.

For me, the most alarming aspect in Eiserman’s case is that I don’t consider his on-ice intelligence to be very high. I don’t see a player able to create offense for himself, nor for his teammates.

Let’s talk about his playmaking. The American goal-scorer remains a young player with a lot of talent, so, of course, in a certain sample of games, we will be able to find some good passes. On the other hand, the biggest constant in this facet is, for me, that he attempts a lot of ‘Hope Plays’. Risky plays where he just sends the puck into a dangerous area and hopes for the best. In his case, a lot of behind the back passes.

He also makes a lot of mistakes when making drop passes. This is explained by three things; his inability to correctly read the trajectory of his teammates as well as the position of his opponents, a timing fault as well as a problem with execution.

Limitations in the playmaking department of a scorer can be excused if, on the other hand, the player can create golden opportunities for himself. Alas, this is not the case for Eiserman. I kept these arguments in reserve when I talked about the quality of his shooting. But for my part, I did not see Eiserman gain the dangerous zones by himself in possession of the puck. The majority of shots that follow a puck possession on his part correspond of shots coming from very far from the outside. No matter how good his shot is, he won’t be able to beat NHL goalies from these places.

Additionally, Eiserman tries to force a lot of pucks through, when there simply is no opening.

For me, he is a goal scorer who is dependent on his teammates and who must be fed by them. On the one hand, it is normal for the player to play within his strengths and to simply park himself in an advantageous position to take advantage of his greatest quality, especially during powerplays. On the other hand, I will take the criticism a little further by saying that at equal strength, Eiserman does not present himself sufficiently in dangerous locations, remaining rather inside one of the face-off circles. I wonder what he will do when the game gets tighter in the playoffs. He is capable of jumping on loose pucks, he just doesn’t do it regularly.

He was one of the players with the highest turnover rate in my viewing this season. This can be explained by his inability to properly read the play in front of him as discussed previously.

However, the bigger problem lies in a lack of intelligence within Eiserman’s finesse game. This may sound odd, but to me, a proper display of puck handling is supposed to also demonstrates intelligence: the player eliminates a variable in order to open up a passing or a shooting lane, the player buys time to wait for teammate reinforcement, etc. More importantly, the player who wants to showcase his talent must be able to read his opponents; their body alignments, their angle of approach, their eyes, etc. In Eiserman’s case, every time he attempts a finesse play, his eyes are glued straight to the puck, not taking any information from his opponent in the process. In Eiserman’s case, there is no purpose and intention intentions behind stickhandling, other than trying to be flashy. As with his shots and passes, the American player does not seem to be able to properly detect openings (or lack thereof). It’s a bit the same thing when he tries to make his way to the net when we observe him leaning on his shoulder prematurely. Also, among junior players, I always like to watch the defender’s play when a dangle was executed. Sometimes a spectacular play is just the result of a defenseman who is not of caliber and the translatability of these plays is simply not possible for the NHL. In Eiserman’s case, every time he tries a dangle and it doesn’t work, I watch the defenders play and it’s astonishing to see how easy it looks for them. There is no manipulation beforehand so they just have to extend their stick to pokechek him.

One aspect that I find to have been overestimated in Eiserman, especially at the start of the season since the criticism against him had not yet started, is his play in the corners and along the boards. The player was presented to us as a scorer who could himself take possession of the disc and who could almost display a certain identity as a power forward. For my part, I have difficulty seeing such an outcome in his case since I do not see a player who wins the majority of his one-on-one battles in the USHL. It is therefore very difficult for me to extrapolate frequent success in the NHL. Also, although Eiserman is a relatively ‘young’ player for his draft, being only two weeks away from being in the 2025 draft, he is already listed at 196 lbs at 6’0. He won’t really be able to add more weight to his frame.

His skating is average for me. He is not a player who has the speed to beat defenders or create openings. One thing he would benefit from working on is his skating without the puck, where we see too much movement at the torso. He wastes energy unnecessarily.

As for his ranking, I gave him leniency at the start of the season, telling myself that in the end, I only need to rank one or two players ahead of him, who I suspect will be drafted later. This avoids having to rank a player too low, and if he ever starts to have success, you can tell yourself that you didn’t have him too low. On the other hand, the more the season progressed, the more his fall in the draft seemed inevitable. The possibility of keeping him at a ‘fair’ rank and having him be the highest player on my list for a given selection was becoming more and more likely, and it was something I was looking to avoid. I will also come back to the importance of authenticity given to my list. The reality is that I am not an admirer of Eiserman. It is possible that he will become a good scorer, but he can score his goals elsewhere. I am an idealistic person and the draft is the perfect opportunity for a scout to build a team in his image and Eiserman does not fit with what I am looking for in a player. We must also take into consideration that the majority of teams already have two, three, maybe four pieces in their offensive organization chart that risk being part of the future of the franchise. There are therefore very few chairs available for the Top-6, and I would prefer to offer them to a player who has more tools. So yes, as surprising as it may seem, I prefer players who might not make it past the 3rd line, but love other aspects of their game than drafting a Top-6 player who might frustrate his coaches as well as his fan base after the Honeymoon is over.

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