Cole Eiserman

November 2023 – It’s no secret that Cole Eiserman has the best shot in the 2024 draft class. It’s powerful, accurate and given time and space, is nearly guaranteed to be a given goal. Eiserman has found particular success on the power-play, where he can take full advantage of the extra ice to punish any PK unit that doesn’t give him his due respect. This alone is likely to see him land quite high on draft day as his release is NHL-ready. Seeing Eiserman playing trigger-man on an NHL team’s first PP unit is not far. However, when you zoom away from his core strength, Eiserman carries with him a few key flaws. Particularly, he’s got a lot of work to do in his skating. While effective off the rush and in odd-man opportunities, he lacks the edgework and explosiveness to create separation from defenders who focus on him. His weak stride also doesn’t make him much for a forechecking threat and far too often, leaves him behind play which leads to penalties taken. His playmaking is currently underutilized as pucks tend to end up behind the net or frozen shortly after receiving the puck. Going forward, Eiserman will need to develop some extra layers to his game in some way. Whether by improving his passing game, skating, or defensive ability; Eiserman needs to evolve his game to match his current reputation as an “elite-level prospect”. Fortunately, he has plenty of time to do so. David Saad (November Rankings: 5th overall)