By Tony Abbott -
Minnesota Wild fans got a first-hand look at what could have been when Boston College played in the NCAA Championship Game at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wild had the No. 21 pick, and Gabriel Perreault was on the board. Perreault was one of the then-future engines of the BC Eagles, the team general manager Bill Guerin played for once upon a time.
The Wild didn't draft Perreault, opting to take Charlie Stramel, a big, speedy center. In an alternate timeline, the Frozen Four would have been a homecoming for Perreault. Instead, Wild fans were pressing their noses to the window of the New York Rangers' future.
Everyone knew Perreault had talent, but he fell down the draft board. Scouts said his skating wasn't up to snuff. He wasn't big enough to compensate for his footspeed, they said. However, Perreault's stat sheet told a different story.
He scored 53 goals and 132 points in 63 games for Team USA's U-18 squad.
Guess which mattered more? For now, anyway, it's the jaw-dropping numbers, which continued as an Eagle. In his freshman season, he racked up 19 goals and 60 points in 36 NCAA games.
But don't worry, Wild fans. There'll always be another player who inexplicably falls in the draft. This time, Cole Eiserman could be that player.
As recently as September, Eiserman was widely considered the consolation prize to Macklin Celebrini at the 2024 Draft Lottery. Bob McKenzie's preseason rankings, which he takes from a consensus of NHL scouts, had Eiserman ranked No. 2 in a "Big Three," including Ivan Demidov. Eiserman fell to No. 4 at midseason. Still, he was likely a top-5 pick. Not someone who could fall to the Wild's likely draft range, anyway.
But now? McKenzie's list has Eiserman ranked 13th in the 2024 Draft class. As luck would have it, the Wild have the 13th pick. Suddenly, the thought of Eiserman in a Wild jersey is entirely possible. McKenzie and his scouting contacts aren't wildly off-track from the public scouts, either. Elite Prospects' consolidated rankings have Eiserman at 14th.
What's the deal? How bad of a year does a prospect have to have to fall from No. 2 to 13 in the rankings?
The funny thing is, at least statistically, Eiserman had the kind of year you'd want a top prospect to have leading up to the draft. As one of the youngest players in his class, his August 29 birthday was less than three weeks away from being ineligible until the 2025 draft, he scored 58 goals and 89 points in 57 games for the US National U18 team.
That overall point total might not have the pop that Perreault had. But let's not freak out, either. Eiserman's 1.56 points per game matched Cole Caufield in his draft year. It was also sandwiched between superstars like Patrick Kane (1.58) and Phil Kessel's (1.53) production in their Draft-Minus-1 years. (Kane and Kessel were barely on the other side of the age cut-off, so about two-to-three months younger than Eiserman).
And let's not forget -- hot damn, those goals. You can put up Eiserman versus almost anyone in the program's history.
Most Goals Per Game For Draft Year Players, US National U-18 Team
1. Cole Caufield, 2018-19: 1.12
2. Cole Eiserman, 2023-24: 1.02
3. Ryan Leonard, 2022-23: 0.89
4. Will Smith, 2022-23: 0.85
5. Gabriel Perreault, 2022-23: 0.84
6. Kieffer Bellows, 2015-16: 0.81
7. Oliver Wahlstrom, 2017-18: 0.77
8. Sasha Pastujov, 2020-21: 0.73
9. Alex Turcotte, 2018-19: 0.73
10. Jack Hughes, 2018-19: 0.68
We can even compare Eiserman's goal production alongside older Draft-Minus-1 players in the program. Auston Matthews scored 55 goals in 60 games (0.92 per game), Kessel was precisely a goal-per-game with 41 in 41, and Jack Eichel hit twine 38 times in 53 games (0.72 per game) before jumping to the NCAA for his draft year.
Is that good? That feels good.
But here Eiserman is, with his "stock plummetting," per McKenzie and the rest of the Draft World. If that means the Wild can get him, though, they'll have a player with tremendous upside. The scouts McKenzie speaks to concede he still might be "the best pure scorer in the draft." In ranking Eiserman at No. 14 overall, The Athletic's Corey Pronman still says, "he has the potential to be a top-line winger."
If Judd Brackett has a "type" when it comes to his drafting in Minnesota, it's "Top Talents That Fall." Not picking Perreault was an outlier. In 2020, the Wild got a top-five talent in Marco Rossi, who tumbled to ninth. In 2021, Jesper Wallstedt went from a possible top-10 pick to the Pick 20 when the Wild traded up two slots to nab him. Just six picks later, Minnesota scooped up Carson Lambos, a possible top-10 pick in the preseason with injury concerns. In 2022, the Wild took Danila Yurov all the way at Pick 24.
Brackett would seem poised to take a bet on Eiserman at No. 13, and it would be wise to do so. His strategy has allowed Minnesota to punch well above their weight for their mediocre draft positions, at least in terms of prospect rankings and hype. Who cares if you're picking 13th if someone who "shouldn't" be there falls to you?
His scoring and lack of playmaking can come off as "selfish" or having a "me, me, me" attitude, according to scouts The Athletic's Scott Wheeler in a March 2024 profile. A writer at Hockey Wilderness isn't able to prove or disprove that. For the sake of argument, assume it's true. How many Wild fans and observers have begged this team to get a player who is selfish enough to fire the puck without hesitation?
It would be a disappointment if he came to St. Paul and wasn't a bit selfish.
(Editor's Note: The fact that he does the Rickey Henderson thing where he speaks in third-person is a plus, not a minus.)
It should also be noted that Eiserman's coach advocates for Eiserman's makeup and attitude in Wheeler's piece. "He's emotional and he's competitive," USA Hockey National Development Program head coach Nick Fohr told Wheeler. "And I love him. His teammates love him."
Eiserman is committed to playing at Boston University, and BU coach Jay Pandolfo also relayed the endorsement he got from his star player, none other than Macklin Celebrini: "He can't say enough about Cole not only as a player, but as a person."
Sometimes, a player's star rises early, leading to scrutiny that affects their draft stock. That happened to Phil Kessel in 2006. "There might be some selfish play there sometimes," said a Columbus Blue Jacket scout during a behind-the-scenes look at the Columbus Blue Jackets' 2006 Draft war room by ESPN the Magazine's Gare Joyce. Columbus never got to make the ultimate call on him. Kessel went a pick before them and selfishly scored 413 goals and lifted two Stanley Cups in his career.
The draft is seven weeks away, though, and teams will presumably get to talk to Eiserman at the upcoming combine. There's still plenty of time for his stock to reverse back to the top-10 or for one team in the first 12 picks to fall in love with him. It might already be happening; Eiserman shone in the Under-18 World Junior Championship. Eiserman's nine goals (11 points) tied for second in the tournament, with his USA team taking the Silver Medal. The U-18s are the last high-profile event before the Draft, so Eiserman at least left a nice final impression.
But if not, the Wild are waiting in the wings at Pick 13 and should be waiting to scoop up the star sniper. Perhaps Brackett can re-run his playbook for Wallstedt and find a way to trade up a few slots to get him. If so, any fans still mourning Perreault's missed opportunity can find solace in knowing the Wild didn't let the next falling star slip through their grasp.
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