NHL Central Scouting Midterm Rankings for 2015

NHL Central Scouting released their midterm rankings today. Here's a look at how they ranked OHL players. And here's my midterm top 50 as a comparison.

Skaters

1. Connor McDavid (1)
2. Lawson Crouse (4)
3. Dylan Strome (5)
4. Mitchell Marner (7)
5. Pavel Zacha (8)
6. Travis Konecny (26)
7. Mitchell Vande Sompel (33)
8. Nikita Korostelev (41)
9. Blake Speers (41)
10. Travis Dermott (47)
11. Matt Spencer (51)
12. Vince Dunn (53)
13. Graham Knott (54)
14. Zachary Senyshyn (56)
15. Kyle Capobianco (67)
16. Gustaf Bouramman (68)
17. Rasmus Andersson (84)
18. Anthony Cirelli (88)
19. Chris Martenet (92)
20. Matt Luff (95)
21. Ethan Szypula (96)
22. Thomas Schemitsch (98)
23. Roy Radke (111)
24. Mitchell Stephens (113)
25. Pius Suter (116)
26. Hayden McCool (117)
27. Justin Lemcke (119)
28. Brett McKenzie (124)
29. Jeremiah Addison (127)
30. Nick Betz (129)
31. Tyler MacAthur (135)
32. Trent Fox (143)
33. Dante Salituro (145)
34. Andrew Mangiapane (147)
35. Gustaf Franzen (151)
36. Brandon Lindberg (153)
37. Colton White (154)
38. David Miller (158)
39. Artem Artemov (159)
40. Cameron Lizotte (171)
41. Brandon Crawley (173)
42. Petrus Palmu (180)
43. Stephen Desrocher (181)
44. Adam Laishram (186)
45. Garrett McFadden (193)
46. Marcus Crawford (195)
Limited Viewing - Connor Schlichting
Limited Viewing - Jarett Meyer

Goaltenders

1. Mackenzie Blackwood (1)
2. Michael McNiven (6)
3. Connor Hicks (10)
4. Liam Herbst (14)
5. Jeremy Helvig (17)
6. Jack Flinn (26)
7. Zack Bowman (27)

To see the full list, GO HERE.

My thoughts…

1. Lots of banter about Lawson Crouse being ranked so high. It's not a surprise. As I've said, he's one of those guys that scouts are going to rank higher than the general opinion (because of his size and how well rounded his game is). That said, I still take Mitchell Marner ahead of him (where as Strome is debatable). Marner's ranking isn't a huge surprise, as Central Scouting has long been the type to value size more than anything.

2. Biggest discrepancies between my list and NHLCS:
Higher:
Anthony Cirelli (+23)
Chris Martenet (+29)
Ethan Szypula (+18)
Brandon Lindberg (+15)
Lower:
Sam Harding: (-24)
Jesse Barwell (-17)
Justin Lemcke (-12)
Brett McKenzie (-10)
Colton White (-12)
Marcus Crawford (-17)

3. Of those discrepancies, I'm really surprised about a few of them. Sam Harding not being listed is a bit of a shocker, especially when they've ranked Adam Laishram (another guy I really like), who's a pretty similar player but smaller. I don't get why Justin Lemcke is so low too. He's a really solid prospect IMO and there's no question that I would take him over some of the other guys listed ahead of him. Ditto for Colton White. He deserves to be much higher. Anyone who follows the OHL closely is extremely high on him because of his high potential. In terms of the higher ranked guys, Chris Martenet is an intriguing  project because of his size, but he doesn't deserve to be ranked that high right now.

4. Central Scouting really isn't a fan of what the OHL has to offer this year it seems. Only 16 OHL skaters in the top 80. Compare that to last year where the OHL had 28 players ranked inside the top 80 (at midterm). The drop from Zacha to Konecny is also quite large according to their scouts.

5. Some quality "re-entry" guys on the list this year. And that's deserving. The OHL has some quality second and third year eligible prospects with a shot at getting drafted. A bit shocked to not see Damir Sharipzyanov, Matt Schmalz, and Ken Appleby listed though, as I'd consider them just as strong of candidates as the others listed.