CHL Games to Watch

The lockout doesn't mean you have to stop watching hockey

 With the NHL locked out for the foreseeable future, most fans are probably already sifting through YouTube highlight reels of their favorite players in an attempt to hold them over until the League and the Players' Association stop bickering and get back to playing puck. Though just about everyone can be endlessly entertained by Pavel Datsyuk shooutout highlights or Jonathan Toews making playoff heroics look easy, any hockey fan knows that the void left by an absence of live action ice hockey is not easily filled. Well, it turns out that just because the NHL has temporarily stopped its operations, doesn't mean hockey has stopped being played all over the world! The KHL regular season is already underway, and the top three major junior leagues in the world that make up the CHL will begin their seasons soon. Here's a list of match-ups in the OHL, QMJHL, and WHL that hockey fans will want to check out over the next month if they need to get their fix.

2012 Cumulative Draft Rankings (June)

 Here is the June edition, and final edition , of The Hart of Hockey's cumulative draft rankings for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. To review, what these rankings show are every player's most recent individual ranking from the most reliable draft ranking services, then takes the average score based on those rankings, and then orders every player based on that average. For these cumulative rankings, The Hart of Hockey uses rankings from International Scouting Services, TSN's Bob McKenzie and Craig Button, and now in the June edition, The Hockey News has been added, too. Since NHL Central Scouting separates North American Skaters from European Skaters, its rankings are used for a tiebreaker between two or more prospects if the average score of their other four rankings are equal. This is not a mock draft, nor does it take any experts' mock drafts into account for these cumulative rankings, either. Look over these top 45 players and keep these rankings in mind when following the draft on the 22nd and 23rd!

	PLAYER	Pos.	Team	McKenzie	Button	ISS	THN	AvgScore	CS*
1	Nail Yakupov	RW	Sarnia Sting	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	Filip Forsberg	C	Leksand	3	3	4	2	3	1
3	Mathew Dumba	D	Red Deer Rebels	6	2	8	5	5.25	11
4	Morgan Rielly	D	Moose Jaw Warriors	8	3	7	6	6	5
5	Griffin Reinhart	D	Edmonton Oil Kings	4	6	6	8	6	10
6	Ryan Murray	D	Everett Silvertips	2	13	3	4	6.25	2
7	Alex Galchenyuk	C	Sarnia Sting	5	4	14	7	7.5	4
8	Teuvo Teräväinen	RW	Jokerit	7	5	9	12	8.25	2
9	Jacob Trouba	D	USNTDP	9	12	5	9	8.75	9
10	Mikhail Grigorenko	C	Québec Remparts	12	20	4	3	9.75	3
11	Cody Ceci	D	Ottawa 67's	14	11	10	10	11.25	6
12	Radek Faksa	C	Kitchener Rangers	11	17	16	11	13.75	7
13	Hampus Lindholm	D	Rögle	15	10	19	15	14.75	4
14	Matt Finn	D	Guelph Storm	21	9	18	18	16.5	16
15	Zemgus Girgensons	C	Dubuque Fighting Saints	13	16	24	16	17.25	18
16	Olli Määttä	D	London Knights	10	28	12	20	17.5	8
17	Derrick Pouliot	D	Portland Winterhawks	17	18	22	13	17.5	12
18	Andrei Vasilevski	G	Ufa Tolpar	24	15	n/a	21	20	1
19	Malcolm Subban	G	Belleville Bulls	25	8	n/a	48	20.25	1
20	Sebastian Collberg	RW	Frölunda	27	27	18	18	20.25	3
21	Thomas Wilson	RW	Plymouth Whalers	18	21	17	25	20.25	15
22	Brendan Gaunce	C	Belleville Bulls	20	38	11	17	21.5	13
23	Slater Koekkoek	D	Peterborough Petes	15	34	21	23	23.25	23
24	Tomas Hertl	C	Slavia Praha	19	22	32	24	24.25	5
25	Brady Skjei	D	USNTDP	22	26	26	26	25	19
26	Ludvig Byström	D	MODO	34	19	29	19	25.25	8
27	Oscar Dansk	G	Brynäs	35	31	n/a	44	27.5	2
28	Michael Matheson	D	Dubuque Fighting Saints	26	23	34	27	27.5	30
29	Pontus Åberg	LW	Djurgårdens	37	33	20	22	28	6
30	Scott Laughton	C	Oshawa Generals	28	24	23	42	29.25	28
31	Phillip DiGiuseppe	LW	University of Michigan	30	30	35	31	31.5	22
32	Stefan Matteau	LW	USNTDP	23	48	31	30	33	17
33	Nicolas Kerdiles	LW	USNTDP	40	51	15	33	34.75	29
34	Henrik Samuelsson	RW	Edmonton Oil Kings	36	27	29	50	35.5	75
35	Mark Jankowski	C	Stanstead Prep	41	14	55	49	36.75	43
36	Dalton Thrower	D	Saskatoon Blades	39	52	28	29	37	26
37	Adam Pelech	D	Erie Otters	49	35	30	41	38.75	120
38	Ville Pokka	D	Kärpät	31	>60	41	28	40.25	7
39	Mike Winther	C	Prince Albert Raiders	44	49	38	35	41.5	21
40	Jarrod Maidens	LW	Owen Sound Attack	48	36	30	58	43	35
41	Colton Sissons	RW	Kelowna Rockets	33	>60	40	40	43.5	14
42	Martin Frk	RW	Halifax Mooseheads	32	59	42	45	44.5	20
43	Jordan Schmaltz	D	Green Bay Gamblers	38	>60	45	34	44.5	34
44	Patrick Sieloff	D	USNTDP	42	42	44	53	45.25	31
45	Gemel Smith	LW	Owen Sound Attack	>60	25	>50	46	45.75	37

Note: The ISS ranks goalies separately from skaters.
* = CS rank used for tie-breaking when average score is tied between two or more prospects.

NHL Prospects Playing in the 2012 Memorial Cup

 The 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup begins this Friday, and four extremely competitive teams will battle for Canada's greatest prize again this year, as usual. Qualifying for a chance to compete for glory were the WHL Champions, the Edmonton Oil Kings, the OHL Champions, the London Knights, back-to-back QMJHL Champs and defending Memorial Cup Champions, the Saint John Sea Dogs, and the host team from the Q, Shawinigan Cataractes.
 Now, the Memorial Cup's televised games have always garnered a huge following north of the border, but many hockey fans that reside in cities outside of junior hockey territory often find themselves somewhat disinterested as a result of no rooting interests. Well, the Hart of Hockey has compiled a list of all the players on every Memorial Cup team's roster that shows every player who belongs to an NHL team, as well as every player who is draft eligible for the first time.
 Take a look and see if your team has any prospects invested in winning a Memorial Cup this year and see this summer's draftees try to further prove to scouts why they deserve to be wearing an NHL sweater competing for a different Cup some day...

2012 Cumulative Draft Rankings (March)

  Well, I wanted to get these up a while ago, but some technical difficulties in publishing posts forced temporary delay. I wanted to target the brief lull between the trade deadline and the dramatic push for the playoffs to release the Hart of Hockey's new "cumulative" draft rankings.
  At various times throughout the season, the International Scouting Services (ISS), Central Scouting (CS), as well as TSN's Bob McKenzie and Craig Button have been releasing where they believe the players eligible for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft stand. The experts' lists all differ in certain areas. So instead of creating our own rankings that would most likely look different from theirs, too, we decided to combine all of their rankings into one. We'll take the overall ranks for every player from McKenzie's, Button's, and the ISS's lists, and average those scores to form a cumulative rankings list (CS will be used as a tiebreaker, since its rankings are divided into skaters/goalies and North American/European.)

Let's see how this goes:

RANK	Player	Pos.	Team	McKenzie	Button	ISS	AvgScore	CS*
1	Nail Yakupov	RW^	Sarnia Sting	1	1	1	1	1
2	Filip Forsberg	C	Leksand	4	3	4	3.6	1
3	Mikhail Grigorenko	C	Quebec Remparts	2	7	2	3.6	2
4	Mathew Dumba	D	Red Deer Rebels	5	2	6	4.3	7
5	Ryan Murray	D	Everett Silvertips	3	10	3	5.3	3
6	Morgan Rielly	D	Moose Jaw Warriors	8	4	8	6.6	5
7	Jacob Trouba	D	USNTDP	6	11	5	7.3	9
8	Griffin Reinhart	D	Edmonton Oil Kings	9	6	10	8.3	8
9	Alex Galchenyuk	C	Sarnia Sting	7	5	16	9.3	30
10	Cody Ceci	D	Ottawa 67's	12	9	9	10	16
11	Sebastian Collberg	RW	Frölunda	16	16	11	14.3	2
12	Radek Faksa	C	Kitchener Rangers	10	16	17	14.3	4
13	Brendan Gaunce	C	Belleville Bulls	13	25	7	15	11
14	Zemgus Girgensons	C	Dubuque Fighting Saints	11	14	20	15	12
15	Matt Finn	D	Guelph Storm	29	8	13	16.6	15
16	Derrick Pouliot	D	Portland Winterhawks	17	15	19	17	10
17	Pontus Åberg	LW	Djurgårdens	19	19	15	17.6	4
18	Andrei Vasilevski	G	Ufa Tolpar	18	20	n/a	19	1
19	Malcolm Subban	G	Belleville Bulls	22	17	n/a	19.5	1
20	Tomas Hertl	C	Slavia Praha	23	22	23	22.6	3
21	Teuvo Teräväinen	RW	Jokerit	28	13	29	23.3	7
22	Olli Määttä	D	London Knights	14	46	12	24	6
23	Slater Koekkoek	D	Peterborough Petes	15	40	18	24.3	17
24	Brady Skjei	D	USNTDP	21	38	14	24.3	18
25	Ludvig Byström	D	MODO	>40	19	22	27.3	8
26	Michael Matheson	D	Dubuque Fighting Saints	37	27	25	29.6	29
27	Thomas Wilson	RW	Plymouth Whalers	20	34	36	30	33
28	Oscar Dansk	G	Brynäs	33	28	n/a	30.5	2
29	Hampus Lindholm	D	Rögle	>40	12	41	31.3	6
30	Jarrod Maidens	LW	Owen Sound Attack	35	32	30	32.3	21
31	Phillip DiGiuseppe	LW	University of Michigan	27	26	45	32.6	28
32	Martin Frk	RW	Halifax Mooseheads	24	31	44	33	25
33	Stefan Matteau	LW	USNTDP	25	51	24	33.3	13
34	Tanner Pearson	LW	Barrie Colts	26	43	33	34	22
35	Andreas Athanasiou	C	London Knights	39	33	31	34.3	24
36	Mike Winther	C	Prince Albert Raiders	>45	30	32	36	26
37	Dalton Thrower	D	Saskatoon Blades	>40	50	21	37.3	30
38	Colton Sissons	RW	Kelowna Rockets	30	57	24	37	14
39	Ville Pokka	D	Kärpät	31	47	38	38.6	5
40	Nicolas Kerdiles	LW	USNTDP	38	52	27	39	27
41	Damon Severson	D	Kelowna Rockets	32	36	49	39	46
42	Gemel Smith	LW	Owen Sound Attack	>45	24	>50	40.3	20
43	Patrick Sieloff	D	USNTDP	36	35	>50	40.6	34
44	Tomas Hyka	RW	Gatineau Olumpiques	>45	42	34	40.6	65
45	Daniil Zharkov	RW	Belleville Bulls	40	57	42	46.3	19

Note: McKenzie's rankings go no lower than 40, and then an extra five "Honorable Mention".
The ISS rankings go no lower than 50
* = CS rank used for tie-breaking when average score is tied between two or more prospects
^ = Yakupov is a left-handed shot who has played both the strong and off wing. He is currently listed as RW.

What we learned:

• Craig Button hates Olli Maata, although he did jump in his most recent rankings
• The race between Grigorenko and Forsberg for the elite center in the draft may be bit closer than we may have originally percieved
• Though personally, I'd definitely take Grigorenko over Forsberg

What we already knew:

• The draft is very blue line-heavy
• Nail Yakupov will be drafted #1 overall
• The draft is not particularly deep at wing

 As these scouting services update their rankings, The Hart of Hockey will be sure to update the cumulative rankings accordingly in a new post. The Hart of Hockey would also like to take this time to announce the site will be LIVE BLOGGING from the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh on draft day, and closely covering the draft during that week.
 Until next time, enjoy the OHL, QMJHL, and WHL playoffs!

2012 OHL Playoff Preview

 The Ontario Hockey League's regular season has come to a conclusion, and the quest for the J. Ross Robertson Cup along with an automatic bid into the CHL's Memorial Cup playoffs will commence this Thursday.  Some teams are stacked with veterans who want nothing more than to play for the Memorial Cup before they leave their Junior careers behind them.  Other squads are loaded with young, draft-eligible players who would like to use the playoffs as a way to boost their stock before the NHL Entry Draft in June.  Whatever the case, every team wants to be the club standing at center ice as OHL champs at the end of the playoff grind.  Here's a brief look at all of the match-ups in the 2012 OHL Playoffs: