Ottawa Selects Shane Eiserman with the 100th Pick
With the team's third pick in the 2014 Draft, Ottawa selected Shane Eiserman 100th overall.
The Senators took another Massachusetts native with the team's fourth round pick in the draft. Eiserman is known for his physical maturity and physical style of play. According to SB Nation College Hockey, he tested better than any other play on the strength components at the NHL Combine.
The 18-year-old represented Team USA at the 2013 U19 World Junior A Championship. In 2012-2013, Eiserman played for Team USA in the USHL, but didn't blossom offensively until the following season. In 53 games in 2013-2014 with Dubuque, he had 16 goals and 40 points to go with 71 penalty minutes. Like Ottawa's third round pick Miles Gendron, Eiserman will also go the college route in 2014-2015 (he's committed to the University of New Hampshire).
In some ways, he fits the mold of GM Bryan Murray's white whale: a power forward. Eiserman's Dubuque coach Matt Shaw had this to say about the young forward:
"He's got assets you can't teach. He's got size, he's physical. He plays a pure power game. He is a big man with a powerful stride. Coaches love that because that's stuff you can't teach," said Shaw.
Despite his physical attributes, Eiserman is likely a third line player in the NHL:
Eiserman projects as a second or third liner at the professional level, a player that will bring grit and energy each shift and chip in offensively from time to time. He has a good shot and crashes the net well, but he doesn't have the high-end skill of some of the other players in the top half of the draft.
While he might not have top-end talent, he projects to be a useful player for a mid-round selection.
Here what Eiserman has to say about his game:
"Confidence with the puck, I feel I can work on that," says Eiserman, who has three goals and seven points through 13 games for Dubuque, the reigning USHL champion. "It takes experience. As games go along, just feeling more comfortable with the decisions I'm making so I can be ready next year when I go to college.
"I definitely feel I can play better, but it's early," the West Newbury, Mass., native adds. "Right now I need to get out of slump and play my game. Get back to the basics, what it took to get here, just the simple plays on the ice."
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