The Islanders had two prospects win gold and another win silver at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships.

Four New York Islanders prospects represented their countries at the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championship in Ottawa.

Team USA won gold for the second straight year by defeating Finland, the silver medalists, 4-3 in overtime. 

Czechia took home the bronze.

It was the first time in history that Team USA won back-to-back golds at the World Juniors.

The four Islanders representatives at the tournament were F Danny Nelson (USA), F Cole Eiserman (USA), F Jesse Nurmi (Finland), and G Marcus Gidlof (Sweden). 

How did the Islanders' prospects fare at the tournament?

Danny Nelson: Notre Dame, No. 49 in 2023

Entering the tournament, Nelson was not a big name for the United States team. 

By the end of the tournament, everyone knew who he was.

After having success at Notre Dame (eight goals, five assists) this year, Nelson returned to the World Juniors after winning last year's gold medal. In seven games in the 2024 tournament, he had one goal and one assist for two points.

This year, Nelson emerged with four goals and two assists in seven games. Last year, he played limited minutes, only on the fourth-line and penalty kill. Head coach David Carle placed trust in Nelson and had him wearing an "A" as an alternate captain, along with a top-6 role, playing on the power play and penalty kill.

His best moments came in the preliminary round wins over Latvia and Canada. Against Latvia, Nelson scored two goals. Against Canada, he scored the eventual game-winner with a power play snipe:

Nelson was a machine in the faceoff dot and won many key draws, especially in the gold medal game's overtime.

He is one of the few Americans to be a back-to-back gold medalist at the World Juniors.

Cole Eiserman: Boston University, No. 20 in 2024

It was an up-and-down tournament for Eiserman, who was involved in many aspects of the game. In seven games, he scored three goals and had four assists for a total of seven points.

Starting out on line two with Nelson and Golden Knights prospect Trevor Connelly, he found success. After a lot of physicality and commotion with other teams, he was switched to the 13th forward role and mostly saw ice time on the power play from the Canada game on.

With that, Eiserman still continued to skate hard and scored two power-play goals. All three times he found the back of the net were off wicked shots.

Eiserman's power-play goal against Canada, which was a top-corner snipe, caused a ruckus on social media when he chirped Leafs prospect Easton Cowan:

He scored the eventual game-winning goal against Czechia in the semifinal:

Eiserman showed promise offensively and solid all-around play at this year's tournament. Going back to Boston University and coach Jay Pandolfo (former Islander), he will continue to round out his game. 

He should return for next year's tournament with more experience and development under his belt.

Jesse Nurmi: London Knights, No. 147, 2024

Nurmi had a respectable tournament with two goals and two assists for four points in six games.

The highlight of Nurmi's tournament was a two-goal game in a 5-3 quarterfinal win over Slovakia:

Nurmi will return to the London Knights of the OHL for the rest of the 2024-25 season.

Marcus Gidlof: SHL, No. 147, 2024

Gidlof was Team Sweden's backup goaltender for the tournament. He was the Islanders' fifth-round pick in 2024.

He started two games, winning a preliminary round game against Kazakhstan 8-1 while making 15 saves on 16 shots.

Gidlof's other start was the bronze medal game, where he made 30 saves on 32 shots. Sweden fell to Czechia in the shootout, losing by a score of 3-2.

Final Thoughts

Islanders prospects fared well at this year's tournament, with three medalists and one fourth-place finish. Fans have a lot to be excited about with the Islander's prospect's performances.

Next year's World Junior Championship will take place in Minnesota, starting on December 26.