IN DEPTH AMATEUR SCOUTING COVERAGE AND RANKINGS
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UMass Boston (NEHC) recently received a commitment from 3.25-star prospect Zack Bross from the Minot Minotauros of the NAHL. The 6’0”, 195-lb. ’96 born forward hails from Weldon Spring, Missouri and is a veteran grab for the Beacons and coach Peter Belisle. Bross is a mature, strong and smart player with a high compete level …
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Neutral Zone was able to catch up with recent Providence College commit Parker Ford for a quick Q&A about the early stages of his hockey career, his decision to commit to the home-state school he’s followed for so long, and his future goals and plans. The former Selects Academy U16 forward, currently ranked as a …
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Michigan native working toward future with Spartans Fresh off a solid performance at the recent Junior Chowder Cup and a commitment to Michigan State University, it might be easy for Tiernan Shoudy to rest on his laurels and enjoy some summer downtime. Not quite. Instead, the 2002-born Little Ceasars U16 forward is spending his summer …
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Neutral Zone sent two scouts to Plymouth, MI for the annual NAHL Top Prospects event February 27-28, 2017. We will publish three separate reports from this event. This will be followed by a report on every skater from the Top Prospects and then our top 50 NA3HL players in Plymouth. The Top Prospects Tournament showcased …
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Neutral Zone is pleased to announce our Top 600 list for 1997 born NCAA Eligible prospects throughout North America. Each player on this list has been evaluated by regional scouts in their area and also cross referenced by other scouts on staff as well as the Director of Scouting. The players are evaluated from August-December and given a star rating. The Top 600 players are selected from a pool of over 1,000 NCAA prospects in a grueling process and evaluated against one another to come up with a 1-600 list. The star ratings are more indicative of future success than the difference between #205 and #250, but the rankings are used in the calculus of the NCAA Recruiting Class Rankings.
As part of our mission statement to use analytics to educate coaches, scouts, players and parents we have broken down our Top 600 rankings and provided viewers with several interesting statistics.
| League | # of Players | % |
| NAHL | 139 | 23.2% |
| USHL | 129 | 21.5% |
| BCHL | 104 | 17.3% |
| AJHL | 63 | 10.5% |
| OJHL | 46 | 7.6% |
| CCHL | 29 | 4.8% |
| USPHL | 29 | 4.8% |
| SJHL | 21 | 3.5% |
| MJHL | 14 | 2.3% |
| GOJHL | 11 | 1.8% |
| Other | 6 | 1.0% |
| NE Prep | 5 | 0.8% |
| EHL | 4 | 0.6% |
The purpose of showing the league breakdown is not to rank the strengh of the leagues, rather to show where these 600 players are coming from. With that being said we see that the double digit percentages are in the four top junior leagues in North America. Keep in mind that some leagues above only have 12 teams in them while other leagues have over 20 so it is not fair to say for example that the OJHL is a better league than the CCHL because it has 17 more players on the list because it has nearly double the amount of teams.
| Position | # of Players | % |
| Forwards | 369 | 61.5% |
| Defense | 180 | 30.0% |
| Goalies | 51 | 8.5% |
Here we breakdown the 600 players on the list by position. Our list is consistent with the 60/30/10 percentage breakdown between forwards, defense and goaltenders on most NCAA teams.
| Status | # of Players | % |
| D1 Committed | 177 | 29.5% |
| Uncommitted | 423 | 70.5% |
In look at the 1997 list we see that nearly 1/3 of the players are already committed to D1 programs. Some of these players have signed their letter of intent and are expected to matriculate next fall, others will play another year of junior hockey.
| Rating | # of Players | % |
| 4.75 | 1 | 0.2% |
| 4.5 | 4 | 0.7% |
| 4.25 | 6 | 1.0% |
| 4 | 18 | 3.0% |
| 3.75 | 87 | 14.5% |
| 3.5 | 143 | 23.8% |
| 3.25 | 111 | 18.5% |
| 3 | 123 | 20.5% |
| 2.75 | 107 | 17.8% |
The Top 600 ranges in star ratings from 4.75-2.75. This chart looks at all 600 prospects and what star rating they have. The first thing that jumps out is how 4.0-4.75 star players only make up 5% of the total list. Then the list goes up to 14.5% for 3.75 star prospects and up again to 23.8% for 3.5 star prospects. The reason there are so few 4.0 stars is the mainly the age factor. Top prospects are typically playing college hockey at 18 or 19 so there are not a ton of 4 stars left in junior hockey at the older ages. Keep in mind Connor McDavid is a 1997 birth year…
| Rating | D1 % | D3 % | CIS/Other % |
| 5.0 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| 4.75 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| 4.5 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| 4.25 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| 4.0 | 98.8 | 0 | 1.2 |
| 3.75 | 97.7 | 0 | 2.3 |
| 3.5 | 95.5 | 0.4 | 4.1 |
| 3.25 | 13.3 | 74.4 | 12.3 |
| 3.0 | 4.5 | 85.6 | 9.9 |
| 2.75 | 0 | 96.7 | 3.3 |
| 2.5 | 0 | 97.4 | 2.6 |
| 2.25 | 0 | 91.2 | 8.8 |
| 2.0 | 0 | 67.8 | 22.2 |
This chart tracks the 2015-2016 Star Rating’s for 1998-1995’s. As you can see 3.5 star prospects and above have over 97% chance of playing D1 college hockey. This chart is made to give context to the star ratings in the Top 600. There are reasons for CIS/Other as some players we ranked last year had played CHL and were not NCAA eligible. We have now taken them out of the National Rankings to reduce that number. Also, with the US/CAN dollar exchange rate some of the Canadian prospects will not be able to afford D3 institutions. In the US, particularly in the midwest, some players simply stop playing or go the club route if they are not offered at a Division 1 school.
| Rank | Name | Team | Pos | Commit | Star |
| 1 | Nick Swaney | Waterloo (USHL) | F | Minnesota Duluth | 4.75 |
| 2 | Jordan Kawaguchi | Chilliwack (BCHL) | F | North Dakota | 4.5 |
| 3 | Christian Evers | Lincoln (USHL) | D | North Dakota | 4.5 |
| 4 | Blake Lizotte | Fargo (USHL) | F | St. Cloud | 4.5 |
| 5 | Philip Nyberg | Madison (USHL) | D | UConn | 4.5 |
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Starting today, November 9th, prospective student athletes are allowed to sign a national letter of intent between themselves and the school they are committed to. This is reffered to in college hockey as the “Early Signing Period.” We have attached an article from our friends at College Hockey Inc who explain the entire NLI process, what …
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Buffalo vs. Milton; October 16, 2016 It was a fairly even game, Buffalo scored on a bad turnover in front and then buried a couple PP goals which helped them control the second half of the game. Milton struggled to generate quality scoring chances which has been evident all season for them. Buffalo 4. Milton …
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Pulling into the driveway of his Canton, MI home, a 4-year-old Paul Cotter noticed something across the street; a boy, playing road hockey with a stick and ball. The rest, as the saying goes, was history. From that moment on, Paul Cotter knew that he wanted to play hockey. He told his parents, and …
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In one of the smaller Canadian provinces, Nova Scotia, hockey has established a tight community. Families bring their kids to the rink and it takes on the feel of a social gathering. The mutual support is what really sticks out to 99-born defenseman Jack Cameron. I started playing hockey when I was five …
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As the 2016-2017 season kicks off this evening, we wanted to share the final 2016 Recruiting Class Rankings with college hockey coaches, players and fans. The interactive rankings can be viewed by subscribers under the Team Rankings tab. There you can see who is committed to these schools, what their individual star ratings are …