Greyhounds in the middle
Aside from the reigning champion London Knights — of course — there is no clear cut favourite for first place in the Western Conference ahead of the ’24-25 Ontario Hockey League regular season. Two lower seed teams from ’23-24, the last place Windsor Spitfires and eighth place Flint Firebirds, should both be top five in the Western Conference in ’24-25. Then there are the Soo Greyhounds, the no. 3 seed from ’23-24 who were upended by the eventual Memorial Cup champion Saginaw Spirit in the second round of the playoffs.
What to expect from the Greyhounds in ’24-25? Well, as of this writing, with the start of training camp in sight, I am thinking that the Hounds should be middle of the pack among the 10 teams of the Western Conference in ’24-25. I know that is not really going out on a limb but there are a lot of moving parts among the Hounds and many other teams that may not be addressed until — or after — the start of ’24-25 regular season in late September.
Meanwhile, if Charlie Schenkel — as is being speculated — returns as an overage to team with the younger Landon Miller then the Soo will have a 1-2 duo of big goalies that could be the best in the entire OHL. The Greyhounds do have other potential goalie options in their system though and if one of them is deemed being capable of backing up Miller — who was a fourth round pick by the Detroit Red Wings at this year’s NHL Draft — then the Greyhounds could move the overage Schenkel for a nice return. Or, just keep him.
Elsewhere in the lineup, despite faced with losing a lot of offensive firepower and defense dependability to graduation the Greyhounds have the capabilities to be a middle of the pack crew in the OHL’s Western world in ’24-25. Returning skaters of high note include NHL draft pick defenseman Andrew Gibson and forwards Justin Cloutier, Marco Mignosa, Travis Hayes and Brady Martin. Hayes and Martin could well be on the verge of stardom as younger players with 2007 birth dates.
And as I mentioned in an earlier column, worth keeping on eye on is forward Christopher Brown, who the Soo took in the first round, 16th overall, of the 2022 OHL priority selections draft. Through two full seasons to date, Brown has only 12 goals, 26 assists, 38 points in 135 games, including playoffs. He was subsequently bypassed entirely at this year’s NHL Draft. Do the Hounds move on from Brown? Or does he become another highly touted first round pick who matured a little later than others?
As for the three overage positions, there will be five of them in attendance at the looming training camp — aforementioned goalie Charlie Schenkel, defenseman Caeden Carlisle and forwards Owen Allard, Julian Fantino and Justin Dezoete. In a perfect world, I am thinking that the Greyhounds go with Schenkel, Carlisle and Allard as the three overagers and perhaps get a few draft picks in return for Fantino and Dezoete.
Whatever happens on the roster front, keep in mind that Hounds’ general manager Kyle Raftis has shown over the years that he is one of the better horse traders in the OHL when it comes to moving players out and bringing ones in. I would say that as a trader, Raftis is right up there as far as Western Conference GMs go with Billy Bowler of Windsor, Dave Drinkill of Saginaw, Mark Hunter of London and George Burnett of the Guelph Storm.