Tier I Scouting Lists

The Scouting News got a hold of the QMJHL's Central Scouting List for this year's draft. I really don't know any of those kids except for Steve Anthony who is supposed to be super-awesome.(Anthony had tried to come to Shattuck-St. Mary's, like Sidney Crosby and Angelo Esposito did, but Hockey Canada rules prevented him from doing so.)

They've also got a copy of who the OHL's Central Scouting list as AA prospects for this year's draft.

Names of note for college hockey fans include include:
Andrew Agozzino, Matt Duchene(MSU), Cam Fowler(Notre Dame), Jeremy Morin, Cody Murphy, Paul Phillips, John Ramage, Kenny Ryan, Beau Schmitz(Ferris State), Zach Tatrn, Steve West(OSU), Matt White, David Wohlberg(Michigan), and Andrew Yogan.

And then there is the first-year USHL Central Scouting Lists. They've got long lists up for the US and Ontario for '91 and '92 birthdates. The USHL has taken a lot of criticism from around the hockey community for it so far. I'm trying to reserve judgement since the USHLCSB is in it's first year. I certainly wouldn't want to be judged by my first year here. But so far, it does seem just like kind of a big list of names thrown together to try and get kids to spend the $325 on the USHL Prospect Camp. The lists should get more detailed in the future, but they seem way behind some of the other leagues in terms of that stuff. I kind of doubt any team is really using that list to help scout.

The other thing that kind of bugs me is why are they wasting so much time putting together the Ontario lists? How many Ontario kids come to the USHL? It can't be more than a handful, and it can't be that much more than any other province in Canada. It seems to be more about Bob Turow's feud with David Branch and the OHL than about scouting for the USHL. I understand that that is the area they know the best, but I'd rather see them focus on Minnesota and the US Midget programs where the large majority of USHL players come from. That would be a much better use of their scouting money, and maybe they wouldn't need to charge players so much to play at their showcase camp.

In any case, the USHLCSB is something that I really want to see succeed because if done right, it could make the league even better. I think they've got a great product to sell to kids in terms of the quality of their league. A lot was made recently of NHL.com's Shawn Roarke saying the USHL is becoming close to the OHL in terms of talent. The opinion of the USHL really seems to be growing with NHL teams, as well. With a few changes, there's no reason the USHL's Central Scouting couldn't be just as good as the Canadian major junior leagues.