Matthew Tkachuk, No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's midterm rankings of North American skaters eligible for the 2016 NHL Draft, is in his first season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound left wing has 15 goals and 65 points in 34 games. He had 38 goals and 96 points in 65 games with USA Hockey's Under-18 National Team Development Program last season. The St. Louis native has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com leading up to the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo, N.Y.

Happy New Year everyone!

The rankings for NHL Central Scouting is something that's kind of new to me and it's pretty special to be ranked No. 1 among North American skaters but hard work pays off. Like I've been saying this whole year, anything can happen, a ranking is just a number and I've always had the mindset that it doesn't really matter where you're ranked but what you've been doing during the year to get better and become more prepared to be ready at the NHL level. I think I've seen a big difference and I feel like I'm more prepared for the next step.

For me, you have to realize mentally that if you don't give 100 percent every shift at the next level you will be out of the league as quickly as you got there. My mindset is, every NHL player gives 110 percent and every really good NHL player gives it their all every shift. One of the things I've been working on this year is making sure that I'm first on every puck and winning every battle. Those little things that will hopefully separate me at the next level.

Matthew Tkachuk, an A-rated skater on NHL Central's November players to watch list for the 2016 NHL Draft, is in his first season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound left wing has 14 goals and 59 points in 29 games. He had 38 goals and 96 points in 65 games with USA Hockey's Under-18 National Team Development Program last season. The St. Louis, Miss., native has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com leading up to the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo, N.Y. His fourth entry comes from U.S. national junior select camp in Boston, Mass.

Hello from Agganis Arena in Boston!

It's been a really good week so far at U.S. junior select camp and I'm so grateful to be given an opportunity to earn a roster spot for my country at the World Junior Championship. My only expectation coming in was to play as well as I can, fight for a spot on the team and play my game. Hopefully the coaches and management see what I bring and then I'm fortunate enough to gain a spot on the team, and get that chance to dominate over in Finland at the 2016 WJC. We've had a couple of tough finishes [in the WJC] recently and our team in the locker room really wants to change that this year.

We're not satisfied at all with coming out of this tournament without a gold medal and we have the team this year to definitely make a huge run for it. The finishes over the past few years are in the back of our minds, and we want to change it.

Matthew Tkachuk, an "A" rated skater on NHL Central's September players to watch list for the 2016 NHL Draft, is in his first season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound left wing has eight goals and 34 points in 18 games. He had 38 goals and 96 points in 65 games with USA Hockey's Under-18 National Team Development Program last season. The St. Louis native has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com leading up to the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo, N.Y. His third entry comes after the Knights have won six of the past seven games.

Hi everyone,

I think we're really coming together at this point in the season; it took us 10 games or so to get used to each other but we're all finding chemistry right now. We have all four lines rolling and it seems we're getting production out of everybody. We've played all 60 minutes for most games this year and our record (13-3-2) is pretty solid; we could do better but things are just going well right now.

I feel I'm clicking well with my linemates Mitchell Marner (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Christian Dvorak (Arizona Coyotes). They're NHL-ready players and know the game really well. They've been in this league for a little bit, so it's been easier for me to adjust. They've given me the puck and we're really playing well together right now, and it just needs to continue.

Matthew Tkachuk, an A-rated skater on NHL Central Scouting's September players to watch list for the 2016 NHL Draft, is in his first season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound left wing has four goals and 17 points in nine games. He had 38 goals and 96 points in 65 games with USA Hockey's National Team Development Program Under-18 team last season. The St. Louis native has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com leading up to the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo. His second entry comes following a season-high four points in a 7-2 win against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Oct. 17.

Hi everyone.

It's been a great opening few weeks in London playing for Dale Hunter. He's been a great coach. He gets the best out of all of us. He takes a no-nonsense approach in the locker room and on the ice and I like the fact he doesn't dwell too much on things but just gets right to the point on what he wants and how he wants us to do it. He doesn't spend a lot of time talking about one thing. I think he's confident in that he can tell us what he wants done once and that we can go out there and execute the game plan.

I'm learning a lot having him as my coach.

Matthew Tkachuk, an 'A' rated skater on NHL Central's preliminary players to watch list for the 2016 NHL Draft, will enter his first season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League this season. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound left wing had 38 goals and 96 points in 65 games with USA Hockey's Under-18 National Team Development Program last season. The St. Louis native has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com leading up to the 2016 NHL Draft in Buffalo, N.Y. His first entry comes after the CCM/USA All-American Prospects Game in Buffalo on Sept. 24. Tkachuk had one goal and two assists in a 6-4 loss.

Hello everyone.

The All-American Prospects Game was a very exciting event. It was the best of the American-born players this draft year and I was able to see a lot of familiar faces from the National Team Development Program and those youth hockey leagues from across the United States who I played against my whole life.

My father (U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame member Keith Tkachuk) didn't have to say much to me prior to the game. He just told me to compete and be a good teammate. He told me to just show everybody how competitive I am and that I'm willing to win by making sure I play both ends of the ice.