NY Islanders top prospect embraces specialized role on Team USA at World Juniors

If you only watch highlights of Team USA games at the IIHF 2025 World Juniors Tournament, you'd never know that New York Islanders top prospect Cole Eiserman is the team's 13th forward. The coaching staff has asked the 20th pick overall in the 2024 NHL Draft to accept a limited and specialized role with the team and, rather than sulk, has embraced the opportunity in front of him.

"You look at what we're asking him to do, and then he still finds a way to impact the game on the scoresheet, Team USA head coach David Carle said after a 4-1 win over Czechia. He has owned it and he has accepted that that's the best for the team and I think his teammates recognize it. It's not easy for him, either. I recognize it.

Eiserman scored a power-play goal midway through the second period to give Team USA a 2-1 lead, which proved to be the game-winning goal, setting up a match-up with Team Finland in the gold medal game. The Boston University freshman has three goals and four assists in six tournament games and is proving to be a scoring threat each time he hits the ice on special teams.

"My role right now is to be on the power-play, score goals with one-timers and be a good teammate, Esierman said during the second-intermission. "Try to get under the other guy's skin, and let our big dogs eat, try to get some pressure off on them and all on me."

Concerns over Eiserman's two-way game was a big part of the reason why the consensus best scorer in the draft slipped all the way down to 20. However, Jay Pandolfo, the head coach at Boston University has cited improvement in his overall play throughout the season, and more importantly, the 18-year-old is working hard to prove that he will be more than just a goal scorer.

"I think sometimes he gets a little misunderstood and he has through the past 18 months but he cares deeply about winning, he cares a lot about the guys, and you see that behind closed doors, Caryle added. "He's very passionate about the team success and it's exciting that he's handling it well and he's still impacting the game in the ways that he can."

Eiserman and Team USA play for gold tonight at 7:30 PM versus Finland on TSN and NHL Network.