When Cole Eiserman first met Jay McKee, the Islanders’ new coach for AHL Hamilton, he quickly brought up the areas in which his game needs improving. 

That’s a good first impression for any player. For Eiserman in particular, though, it marks an evolution of sorts.

This is someone who, after being drafted, spoke the same night about how he sees hockey “differently than a lot of people,” seeming entirely self-confident in the idea that others would need to adapt to him, rather than the opposite way around. 

Talented as Eiserman is, and as much as his booming shot will still be the biggest factor in making him an NHL player, so, too, is walking the delicate line of shaking that notion from him — without shaking his confidence.