USA Hockey National Team Development Program head coach Nick Fohr picked up a call from an NHL scout, sighing in frustration as he heard a familiar first question about his star forward, Cole Eiserman.
“Well, we know he’s selfish,” the scout began. “But…”
Fohr butted in. “What do you mean? You know he’s selfish? Where did that come from?”
“That’s what everybody says.”
“Well, who’s everybody?” Fohr replied. “Because I coached the kid for two years. He’s liked by his teammates. Yeah, he scores a lot of goals, and then people look at that as a selfish thing, but that’s his way to help his teammates.”
Fohr fielded several calls like that last season as NHL teams evaluated the incoming Boston University freshman, an uber-talented goal-scorer who was also one of the most polarizing prospects in the 2024 Draft.
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Almost everyone in the hockey world — scouts, analysts, fans — seemed to have an opinion on Eiserman ahead of the draft. Some have called him “selfish” and “one-dimensional.” Others believe he is a future NHL superstar.
As the left-winger settles into his freshman year with the Terriers, that noise has quieted from where it was a few months ago. The draft is complete — Eiserman was picked 20th overall by the New York Islanders — and though pressure and expectations remain, Eiserman can “play a little bit more,” as he put it.
“Obviously, you have your team that picked you, and now I can play for BU and try to win hockey games,” Eiserman said. “Don’t got to worry about 30 teams in the stands kind of criticizing you every single play.”
Eiserman’s scoring talent is remarkable. He set a new all-time record for most goals with the U.S. National Team Development Program (USNTDP), scoring 127 goals in 119 career games to break Cole Caufield’s previous record of 126.
Tom Ward, Eiserman’s coach at powerhouse prep school Shattuck-St. Mary’s, called Eiserman “as good a goal-scorer as we’ve had here.” That puts him in impressive company, since Ward has coached Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Toews at Shattuck, among other NHL stars.
BU sophomore captain Shane Lachance said his new teammate has “one of the best shots I’ve ever seen.” He has been widely regarded as the best scorer in the 2024 draft class — yes, including Macklin Celebrini.
Nonetheless, the incoming Terrier slipped in the draft, dropping eight spots below his pre-draft projection by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau — much lower than where he was projected last fall, when some outlets had him as the second-best prospect behind Celebrini.
Eiserman’s critics believe he lacks a 200-foot game, questioning his ability to have an impact besides scoring.
His response: “I’m being told to shoot the puck and I want to help the team win games. If I think scoring goals is how we win games, I’m gonna try my best to do that.”
“My teammates don’t think it’s selfish, it’s just me being the player I am.”
Eiserman’s staunchest defenders, including Fohr and BU head coach Jay Pandolfo, agree with that self-assessment.
“I don’t see that at all,” Pandolfo said of the ‘selfish’ characterization. “I think he really wants to score goals, which I think is great because we want guys to score goals.”
Fohr, in fact, has encouraged Eiserman to shoot more, because the skater had been reading the negative reports and passing too often.
Fohr conceded that Eiserman has room to grow as a truly complete player but said he was “very comfortable” with his star player in defensive zone situations late in his U18 season, highlighting his awareness and willingness to block shots. He added that Eiserman is an underrated passer and playmaker.
At one point last season, Fohr approached Eiserman and asked if he would rather get more offensive touches or spend more time developing a more well-rounded game for the future. Eiserman opted for the latter.
Pandolfo hopes to further develop Eiserman’s all-around game at BU, although he doesn’t want to take away from the attribute that makes his player special.
“Of course, you want to round out his game, but you also want to take advantage of what he’s really good at,” Pandolfo said. “So yeah, I think for us, we want to put him in spots where he can take advantage of it.”
For a team that’s losing Lane Hutson (49 points in 2023-24) and Macklin Celebrini (64 points), the Terriers will need Eiserman to provide offense. He’s poised to do so.
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Ask Eiserman’s old coaches about what makes him so good at scoring, and you’ll hear about how he “works at it every day” and is “obsessed with scoring goals.”
There’s no doubting either answer. Eiserman has a dogged commitment to the craft of scoring goals, and there are stories of how he “lived in the shooting room” at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich., and how he ripped pucks at the drywall in his basement growing up.
But when it comes to the specific attributes that separate Eiserman as a scorer, his coaches have highlighted different areas. Ward pointed to Eiserman’s anticipation, comparing him to a great rebounder in basketball.
“He knows how to use traffic to get open, he knows how to find soft areas and quiet spots on the rink,” said Ward, the Shattuck coach. “That’s a gift.”
Fohr, on the other hand, noted the power and speed of Eiserman’s shot, saying it “just surprises goalies.”
“It just comes off faster and harder than they’re used to seeing,” he added.
Fohr likened it to a lefty version of Alex Ovechkin’s powerful shot, considering its “zip” and the way Eiserman can snipe goals from the circle on the power play. He’ll be a surefire member of the Terriers’ PP1 unit, especially with the loss of Celebrini.
Fohr pointed to one game against Division III Adrian College last November. The USNTDP was up 4-0 in the second period when Eiserman blasted a goal off the goalie’s stick and through his five-hole on an odd-man rush. The goalie was subsequently pulled, and Fohr remembers him skating past the USA bench, trying to process the goal Eiserman had just scored.
He finally realized what had happened when he looked down at his stick, which had a black mark from a puck.
“He looks at the stick and he looks at that mark, shakes his head and just keeps skating,” Fohr laughed.
Eiserman is strong and physically mature, USNTDP strength and conditioning coach Brian Galivan said, but his 6-foot-0, 200-pound frame is average amongst his peers. He shoots the puck harder than them nonetheless.
Why is that?
Part of it has to do with Eiserman’s natural rotational core strength and spinal mobility, according to Galivan, which help him snap through his shooting motion and generate more power.
Still, Galivan said, “that’s not even a question for the coaching staff, but for God.”
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For BU, Eiserman’s arrival only makes Celebrini’s departure more painful. The pair became good friends playing together at Shattuck, and Eiserman said they still talk almost every day. Celebrini told Eiserman which classes to take for the fall semester, and the newcomer heeded the advice.
Ward, who coached Eiserman and Celebrini on the same Shattuck team in 2021-22, said Celebrini “knew how to control” Eiserman when they played together on a line at Shattuck. He thinks Celebrini’s presence would have accelerated Eiserman’s adjustment period to the college game.
“He knew Cole, and Cole knew him, and they could talk frankly to each other and get each other reined in and figure out ways to be better next shift.”
He chuckled when imagining the duo teaming up on the Terriers. “That would’ve been something else. That would’ve been electric, to say the least.”
But none of that would’ve been in play if Eiserman hadn’t switched his commitment from Minnesota to BU last fall. A native of Newburyport, Mass., Eiserman said he decommitted from the Golden Gophers to be closer to home.
“I was far away from home for a while,” Eiserman said. “And decided to be home for my family.”
The decision also had to do with his being closer to his father, Bill, who was diagnosed with cancer, had surgery and is now in remission, according to The Athletic.
“My family are my number one supporters, and being able to see my dad at every game is going to make me play harder,” Eiserman said. “And it’s really cool, kind of being able to play in front of him.”
He noted that his father “idolized” the BU sweater and program legends like Mike Eruzione, even though Bill played at UMass Lowell from 1986-87.
Cole said he has already been to each Hockey East rink, since he has two brothers who played in the conference: Shane (New Hampshire, 2014-18) and William (UMass Lowell, 2011-13).
He said he picked the Terriers over other Boston-area schools because of the program’s history and coaching staff.
“I felt very welcome here, and when I toured it, I loved it,” he said. Plus, “I’m more of a city guy.”
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Ward believes Eiserman “should have to earn everything he gets” with the Terriers. And his BU teammates, Ward said, could have preconceived opinions from seeing the negative rumors that have swirled around his name.
“That’s on him to change their opinion, if that’s the case,” Ward said. “And I’m confident he will. He did here, and I’m sure he will there, too.”
An emphasis on developing Eiserman’s all-around game will surely be a focal point of Pandolfo and his staff, but Fohr believes the biggest area for growth is in dealing with the noise that surrounds him and “not letting things get him too high or too low.”
At times, Fohr said, the criticism and negative feedback motivated Eiserman to be better. In other instances, it pulled Eiserman backwards. But if he can channel those things in a positive direction? Fohr said he’ll be “really, really hard to stop.”
Eiserman believes he’s ready for the challenge.
“It’s a good thing to have pressure, it means you’re doing something right,” he said. “You always want to overcome all the pressure by exceeding it. And that’s something I try to do every day.”
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