By Jared Shafran, College Hockey, Inc.

In the first three rounds of the NHL's Central Scouting Midterm Rankings, which were officially released yesterday, there are 27 domestic skaters who are currently playing in the United States.

Tyler Biggs, who plays with the US National Team Development Program, is the top ranked American skater, coming in at #5. Biggs is currently committed to play for Miami.

JT Miller and Rocco Grimaldi, who are both currently playing with the NTDP and are committed to play at North Dakota, were also projected first round picks, ranked #13 and #25 respectively. Grimaldi is currently leading the NTDP in scoring with 15 points and was invited to compete with the US Junior team.

Scott Mayfield, who currently plays for Youngstown and has been recruited to Denver was also listed as a high priority at #15.

Mario Lucia, currently playing for Wayzata in Minnesota rounded out the first round rankings at #30.

The top player currently playing college hockey is Northeastern's Jamie Oleksiak at #27. Oleksiak is in his freshman season and was named to the preliminary US National Junior roster last month. There are 11 total college players who made the list.

Other notable players in college include Denver's Nicholas Shore, Boston University's Matthew Nieto and Adam Clendening, Wisconsin's Michael Mersch, and Rensselaer's Patrick Koudys.

The top goaltender on the list of domestic goalies is John Gibson, also currently with the US 18 and under team, and committed to play at Michigan. He leads a list of goalies which include 15 US players.

Goalie Matt McNeely of the US 18 and under team and committed to Minnesota-Duluth came in at #5, while Harvard recruit Stephen Michalek was listed at #6.

Goaltender Jared Coreau of Northern Michigan is the lone college goalie on the list, coming in at #29.