Snubs from the NHL Central Scouting Preliminary Players to Watch List

Gunnar Fontaine is one of several surprising snubs from the NHL Central Scouting Preliminary Players to Watch List. (Chicago Steel)

There was near unanimous bewilderment among scouts, college coaches, and agents with Monday morning’s release of the NHL Central Scouting Preliminary Players to Watch List.

There were players on the list that don’t deserve to be on any draft watch list of any sorts and there were other players left off who were far more deserving to be on the list.

Scouts can have differing of opinions. It’s healthy and it’s the reason NHL teams have numerous scouts to crossover and make sure there is somewhat of a consensus. 

However, some of the inclusions and omissions on this edition of the NHL Central Scouting Preliminary Watch List were truly baffling. Far too often, NHL Central Scouting overvalues statistics and doesn’t take into account level of competition.