Preliminary Central Scouting Rankings for 2012

On Thursday, NHL Central Scouting released their preliminary league rankings for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

There were some rather large surprises related to the OHL list, which I'll talk about more below. But for now, here are the rankings in case you haven't already seen them.

Skaters:
1. Nail Yakupov
2. Alex Galchenyuk
3. Olli Maatta
4. Radek Faksa
5. Jarrod Maidens
6. Andreas Athanasiou
7. Brendan Gaunce
8. Scott Kosmachuk
9. Skater Koekkoek
10. Cody Ceci
11. Thomas Wilson
12. Gemel Smith
13. Trevor Carrick
14. Dane Fox
15. Matthew Finn
16. Matia Marcantuoni
17. Gianluca Curcuruto
18. Michael Clarke
19. Brady Vail
20. Chris Tierney
21. Dylan Blujus
22. Tanner Pearson
23. Kristoff Kontos
24. Joel Wigle
25. Artur Gavrus
LV - Adam Pelech
LV - Evan Mceneny
LV - Daniil Zharkov

Goaltenders:
1. Malcolm Subban
2. Jake Peterson
3. Matthew Murray
4. Clint Windsor
5. Daniel Altshuller
6. Andrew D'Agostini
7. Jake Patterson

Some comments:

- Obviously the biggest surprises are the omissions of Nick Ebert, Scott Laughton and to a lesser extent Jesse Graham. Ebert just doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah, he hasn't had a great start to the year and there are whispers of some attitude/work ethic concerns. But let's not forget what this guy did last year as a rookie and the skill set/potential he brings to the table. How can he be considered a first rounder by so many other scouting organizations (ISS, Craig Button's list, FC, etc) and then NOT be considered among the top 25 of what the OHL has to offer by Central Scouting? Something doesn't add up.

- Really surprised to see Cody Ceci listed so far down still, considering how tremendous of a start he's had.

- Obviously the biggest surprise among goaltenders is how low Daniel Altshuller is ranked. He hasn't been able to live up to the hype this year in Oshawa and is actually riding the pine to Kevin Baillie right now.

- I don't really get Trevor Carrick being so high. I've been impressed with his composure as a rookie this year, but he doesn't jump out at you as having the type of potential some of the other defenseman ranked below him do (Curcuruto, Finn, Blujus, Ebert).

- Awesome to see Tanner Pearson on the list. He's had a tremendous year and looks like a legit NHL prospect. He was fantastic during the two Super Series games.

- Also cool to see Evan Mceneny's name on the limited viewing list. As you know from my preliminary rankings, he's out for the year following knee surgery. But he's a legitimate prospect. If I was an NHL team, I'd totally use a 7th on him (after checking out his knee closer to the draft to make sure everything looks great).

What are your thoughts on them?

Here is the link to the official release, in addition to the rest of the rankings.