Looking at NHL CSB’s Top Ten Rankings

Mike G. Morreale of NHL.com is doing a great job of covering the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau’s end of the year meetings. Here are the scouts top ten in alphabetical order from each region of North America.

Western Hockey League (10)
Brett Connolly
Emerson Etem
Curtis Hamilton
Quinton Howden
Ryan Johansen
Dylan McIlrath
Nino Niederreiter
Alexander Petrovic
Mark Pysyk
Jordan Weal

Brett Connolly, Emerson Etem, Nino Nierreiter, and Mark Pysyk look to be first rounders for sure. Ryan Johansen, Alexander Petrovic, and Jordan Weal I believe are just on the outside looking in.

USA West (10)
Mark Alt
Bill Arnold
Nick Bjugstad
Derek Forbort
Stephen Johns
Jon Merrill
Brock Nelson
Tyler Pitlick
Jaden Schwartz
Riley Sheahan

Nick Bjugstad, Derek Forbort, Jon Merrill, Tyler Pitlick, Jaden Schwartz, and Riley Sheahan will hear their name called in the opening round. Pitlick and Sheahan played college hockey this year, but despite not putting the statistics up, they look very solid. Pitlick is rumored to head to the WHL next season. Schwartz is leading the USHL in scoring this year.

Canadian Juniors/Midgets (1)
Jesse Beamish
Beau Bennett
Colin Campbell
Luke Curadi
Grayson Downing
Alexander Guptill
Isaac Macleod
Mark MacMillan
Julian Melchiori
Peter Stoykewych

The only potential first rounder in this group is Beau Bennett. The California native had a very good year in the BCHL. He will be heading to Denver University next season.

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (3)
Louis-Marc Aubry
Michael Bournival
Michael Chaput
Jakub Culek
Stanislav Galiev
Jerome Gauthier-Leduc
Brandon Gormley
Kirill Kabanov
Stephen Macaulay
Petr Straka

Brandon Gormley will be the first Q player to hear his named called. He has been solid and a leader on the Moncton Wildcats defense. The bigger story this past week in Moncton was Kirill Kabonov leaving the team to join the Russian Under-18 team for the upcoming IIHF World Under-18 Championships in Belarus. Stanislav Galiev has an outside shot of getting into the first round. I like Jakub Culek and Petr Straka as middle round selections.

USA East (2)
Kenneth Agostino
Danny Biega
Charlie Coyle
Garnet Hathaway
Kevin Hayes
Raman Hrabarenka
Patrick McNally
Mike Pereira
Casey Thrush
Matthew White

Charlie Coyle and Kevin Hayes have the best shot of being called in the first round. Coyle lit up the Eastern Junior Hockey League and Kevin Hayes played prep hockey.

Ontario Hockey League (10)
Alexander Burmistrov
Cam Fowler
Erik Gudbranson
Taylor Hall
Ryan Martindale
John McFarland
Tyler Seguin
Ivan Telegin
Tyler Toffoli
Austin Watson

All these players could be called in the first round. Half of these guys could be a top ten pick. Austin Watson has been climbing up the draft rankings while John McFarland has been falling. Tyler Seguin and Taylor Hall will meet in the second round of the OHL Playoffs.

The NHL CSB’s final rankings will come out April 7th.

About Chris Wassel

Simply I am a sports writer whose first loves will always be hockey and food. As we attempt to fix the site which has fallen into some disrepair (okay a lot), any and all help is always appreciated. For now, everything will channel through on a post by post basis. As always, let's have some fun!

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