Hear, hear, Oliver Peer!
Flint Firebirds are in control of their playoff destiny in the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League. And a veteran player who Flint paid big to get at the OHL trade deadline with hopes of advancing to this spring’s playoffs is overage forward Oliver Peer.
Peer was a major acquisition by Flint from its Western Conference arch-rival Windsor Spitfires at the trade deadline. And the Firebirds thought enough of Peer to send five future draft picks to the Spitfires.
A player who was never drafted into the OHL, Peer has nonetheless turned into an impact player. And to be sure, in his first game in a Firebirds uniform after being acquired by the conference rival Spitfires, Peer turned in a first star performance with two goals in a 5-3 Flint win over the Owen Sound Attack.
The Firebirds currently hold down the eighth and final playoff spot in the OHL’s Western Conference with a good portion of the 2023-2024 regular season still to be played. And not only is Flint ahead of both Windsor and the Sarnia Sting but the Firebirds are within range of the two teams just ahead of them — Owen Sound and the Erie Otters.
As for Peer, he now has 24 goals on the season and looms as a major component for a Flint team that is not only rebuilding but has sights set on making the playoffs.