2012 Entry Draft Blog LIVE from Pittsburgh

 This blog will be updated live from the 2012 NHL Entry Draft in Pittsburgh, Pensylvania. Every selection, trade, or any other big news coming out of the CONSOL Energy Center will be updated instantly as it is announced and posted to this page (draft-day transactions will be written in italics.) Every draft pick will also be accompanied by a breif description of each prospect, so you can have a better understanding of what your favorite team just added to its system.

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.

First Annual HARTY Awards

 The Stanley Cup has been awarded to the Los Angeles Kings, but the NHL isn't done handing out hardware just yet. The 2012 NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas is upon us, where the league's best hope to receive an individual awards to demonstrate their great seasons. Every player in attendance would exchange their scoring title or MVP to be in the Kings' position with Lord Stanley hoisted over his head in a heartbeat, but it still remains a fun event for all. Even though we didn't get a fancy opera hall, pretty girls to present trophies, or Nickelback to perform the whole time (you can thank us for that last one,) The Hart of Hockey is proud to present its first annual HARTY Awards.
 What is a HARTY you ask? It's a cheesy, generic name for what we're handing out to some of the NHL's best, awards that are probably more prized than some NHL award. HARTYs are based on the NHL's most prestigious awards, but then we've thrown in a few extra categories as well. The HARTYs are not supposed to reflect any kind of prediction for who will win in Vegas; in fact, you'll even notice some of our nominees are different than those of the NHL. These are just for fun, but rest assured, we will be adding these heralded accomplishments to the winners' Wikipedia pages. Well, even as the host I'm getting the "wrap it up" signal, so let's go on with the HARTY Awards!

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 NHL Playoff Preview

 Because it's the Cup...
 Simple, but a perfect tag line for the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs.  There needs to be little explanation for why the athletes we admire do the things they do.  Whether it's training camp in September, the trade deadline in February, the start of the the postseason, or all points in between, anything and everything can be explained by one answer: Because it's the Cup.  All of the sweat poured onto the ice and absorbed through Reebok armor during games, practice, or even back in the training room, is all for this.  All of the blood spilled from taking haymakers to the face or blocking shots on the penalty kill is the sacrifice made for one thing.  It's the Stanley Cup.
 How the postseason plays out, on the other hand, cannot be answered quite as easily.  That's why The Hart of Hockey is here with it's 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs preview.