Cole Eiserman is chasing Caufield’s goal record – but will it be enough to help his NHL Draft stock?

Credit: Cole Eiserman (Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff)

ESPOO, Finland – When Cole Eiserman got off the plane in Helsinki earlier this month, he had one goal on his mind: winning gold for the second year in a row at the U-18 World Championship.

So far, so good – USA started off with a massive 9-0 win over Slovakia, who finished fourth a year ago. But it also started the stretch run for Eiserman, who, after scoring a hat-trick on Thursday, sits five goals behind Cole Caufield for the all-time USA Hockey National Team Development Program goal-scoring title.

Players only get a two-year run with the program, so it’s not a lot of time to set a record. Only three players in the team’s history – Caufield at 126, Eiserman at 121 and Phil Kessel at 104 – have surpassed the 100-goal mark. Auston Matthews, the NHL’s leading scorer this year with 69 goals in the regular season, only had 79 over his two years. What Caufield did with Jack Hughes over two years was special – so for Eiserman to be on the verge of passing him despite playing about 10 fewer games with a variety of linemates is special on its own.

“I’ve bumped into (Caufield) a few times in the gym, and he’s a great guy,” Eiserman said. “He always gives me jokes that I’m not going to beat him and stuff like that.”

The U-18s are an important event for all participants – but for the USNTDP, winning it is a two-year goal. Everything they do leads up to this – the U-17 World Challenge, the games against NCAA and USHL teams, the various trips overseas. When this group gets assembled every spring, the focus is on winning gold to close out the two-year run before everyone goes their separate ways. It’s a special bond that way, and Eiserman knows that. He got a chance to play a big role with fellow call-ups Cole Hutson and James Hagens last year, and now he gets a chance to repeat with his own age group this time.

“It’s different for us than any other country,” Eiserman said with a glowing smile. “We’ve talked about it since the first day of the NTDP last year, and it’s something we’ve been building up the last two years. We legit talk about it almost every day.”

At this point, it feels like a foregone conclusion that Eiserman, in fact, will break the record. USA will take on Norway Saturday, Latvia Sunday and Finland Tuesday, all matchups the Americans have the advantage in. If the Americans go to the medal round, they’ll add another three games to their slate, meaning he has six games to score six goals to break the record. Given he has six hat-tricks this year, it feels like a safe bet he hits it.

Eiserman isn’t too focused on that part just yet, but his teammates definitely are. Like Toronto was with Auston Matthews down the stretch run, you can see Eiserman’s teammates looking for every opportunity to pass to him they could. Record or not, Eiserman is the 2024 NHL Draft’s top shooter, and is expected to go in the top 10 this year.

At one point, Eiserman looked like one of the best picks in the draft. But concerns about his one-dimensional play have given teams pause. They know he can score better than anyone, and his potential to be a 40-50-goal scorer in the NHL can’t be ignored. But even in the first game against the Slovaks, you saw a young man, who, when he was shooting, looked like he was trying to prove to scouts that he could set up plays, too. It resulted in some giveaways, albeit non-dangerous ones, but it happened a bit too often.

Eiserman said he has spent much of the past year trying to improve his overall game, especially defensively.

“I don’t have the older guys to (play a 200-foot game) like I did last year,” Eiserman said, referring to some of the team’s top stars from a year ago like Will Smith, Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault. “I kind of have to be that mature player the team needs.”

The visual improvements are there. He’s more physical than he was a year ago and is much more engaged defensively. He’s a hard worker who can often make himself the best player on any given night. Consistency can be an issue occasionally – he can get caught watching too much – but the effort is there.

At points, especially with Hagens leading the charge down the mode, it was like Eiserman was playing on autopilot, not engaging as he should. Genuinely, he’s improved that, but some scouts worry that Eiserman thinks he has improved more than his actual results on the ice would suggest.

“Off-puck play is so much better than it used to be,” a scout said. “But is it a strength yet? No.”

Compared to other top forwards in the draft class, whether it be Macklin Celebrini, Cayden Lindstrom, Tij Iginla or Berkly Catton, Eiserman isn’t as much of an all-around player. But it’s been said before – if you’re going to be good at one thing, you might as well make it scoring goals.

But what if that fails? What if he can’t score at the same rate with the same opportunities in the NHL? Are scouts concerned? For sure. But passing on him could mean missing out on one of the best natural goal-scorers to come out of the draft in more than a decade. Maybe his play without the puck will change when he’s constantly facing quality competition in college with Boston University next year.

“If anyone can figure out how to get the most out of his 200-foot game, it’ll be (BU coach) Jay Pandolfo,” another scout said.

The U-18 World Championship is the last on-ice opportunity for a player to prove their worth. Then there’s the NHL Draft combine, where every team will have the chance to chat with Eiserman if they so please. That could be a make-or-break opportunity for Eiserman to prove to teams he’s got everything needed to be a star. And let’s be clear – many scouts truly think he’ll be a game-changing forward one day.

A good showing over the next two weeks can help sway scouts his way. And if Game 1 is any indication, not only will he be one of just a few Americans to win this tournament twice, but he might be headed back home as the best scorer one of the top hockey programs in the world has ever seen.

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Cole Eiserman is chasing Caufield’s goal record – but will it be enough to help his NHL Draft stock?

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