LAS VEGAS – It seems like a pretty natural fit in Cole Eiserman’s eyes: joining the San Jose Sharks and reuniting with former Shattuck-St. Mary’s teammate Macklin Celebrini in the NHL one day.
“Yeah, I would,” Eiserman told this news organization Wednesday when asked if he’d like to be teammates with Celebrini again. “I definitely want to cross paths with him at some point in my career, and obviously we work pretty well together. It would be pretty fun.”
After Thursday’s trade with Buffalo, in which they sent the 14th and 42nd overall picks to the Sabres for the 11th overall selection, the Sharks have nine picks in the NHL Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas. Barring something completely unforeseen, they will take Celebrini with the No. 1 overall pick in Friday’s first round.
What they do, though, with the No. 11 pick in an utterly unpredictable draft is unknown. Will they pick up a top-end defenseman? Add a forward to their burgeoning pipeline of centers and wingers?
Sharks general manager Mike Grier said earlier this week that he was open to moving the No. 14 pick. Now at No. 11, they’ll likely continue their thought process of taking what they feel is the best player available.
Maybe that will be the 6-foot, 195-pound Eiserman, who, in his two years with the U.S. National Development Team, set the program record with 127 goals. The previous record was held by Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield, who had 126 in his two-year span.
Eiserman has arguably the best shot of any player in the draft, one he used to score 58 goals in 57 games this past season for the U.S. National Under-18 team. Sportsnet’s Sam Cosentino has Eiserman going to the Sharks at No. 11 in his latest mock draft.
When he was teammates with Celebrini on Shattuck’s 14U AAA team, Eiserman had a staggering 97 goals and 57 assists in 50 games. One would imagine that Celebrini had a hand in several of Eiserman’s goals as he collected 90 assists that year.
There’s no doubt that Eiserman works on his craft as a shooter. He said he’s studied how the best players, such as Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, can get their shots off in certain situations.
“He can be in the same position and go to four or five different spots,” Eiserman said of Matthews, “and I think that’s the biggest thing, is being able to kind of move your hands in different ways and use the flex of your stick is pretty important. You can roll over your wrists and do different stuff like that.”
The knock on Eiserman, who is still just 17 and will be a freshman at Boston University this fall, is his lack of a two-way game or defensive awareness, making him one of the more polarizing players in the draft.
In his annual pre-draft rankings, longtime insider and analyst Bob McKenzie of TSN noted how Eiserman’s stock has dropped precipitously in the last …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
