OHL teams of intrigue

The countdown is on. Opening face-off to the ’24-25 Ontario Hockey League regular season is set for September 25 when the reigning Memorial Cup champion Saginaw Spirit plays host to the Windsor Spitfires.

Ahead of that is a Hockey News North glance at four Western Conference teams of particular intrigue.

Windsor Spitfires. Fasten your seatbelts. General manager and chief pilot Billy Bowler has the Spitfires fuelled up and ready for a takeoff that could very well take them on a high flight to the top of the Western Conference.

Led by Bowler and his handpicked new head coach Greg Walters, the Spitfires are a very good team in the making. Walters has been an OHL head coach for four seasons — two with the Oshawa Generals and two more with the Owen Sound Attack — and has never had a losing record with teams that mostly overachieved.

It says here that Windsor is poised to go from missing the playoffs in ’23-24 to being among the upper echelon of the Western Conference in ’24-25. And Walters as the incoming head coach, has a team of good players from the various age categories that is ready to rise.

Windsor already has its three overage (2004 birth year) players in place ahead of the ’24-25 season. With two of the overage spots already taken by holdover forwards Ryan Abraham and Noah Morneau, Bowler during this off season addressed a need to add more experience to the Windsor blue line. And the Spitfires’ GM not only did that by obtaining defenseman Tnias Mathurin from the North Bay Battalion for future draft picks but he solidified the third overage position in fine fashion.

Notably, Abraham was second on the Spitfire scoring slate in ’23-24 with 31 goals, 35 assists, 66 points in 64 games. The former first round pick has played in 182 career games — regular season and playoffs included — for Windsor and has totalled 162 points while becoming an all around dependable player.

The Spitfires have six defensemen with OHL experience, albeit some with more than others. Besides Mathurin and his 2004 birth date, there are Tanner Winegard and Josef Eichler who were both born in 2005, and a troika with 2006 birth dates — Anthony Cristoforo, Conor Walton and Carson Woodall.

Meanwhile, five players from the Spitfires’ priority selections draft class of 2022 have already established themselves as bona fide OHL performers with more expected this season. Windsor’s first four picks from the ’22 draft have all developed into higher end players with 2006 birth dates. They are first rounder Anthony Cristoforo, second rounder Liam Greentree, third rounder A.J. Spellacy and fourth rounder Cole Davis — along with 10th round heist Carson Woodall.

Cristoforo and Woodall are defensemen while Greentree, Spellacy and Davis are all forwards. Greentree (first round, Los Angeles Kings) and Spellacy (third round, Chicago Blackhawks) were both selected at this year’s 2024 National Hockey League draft as was the Spitfires incoming import draft pick Ilya Protas, who went in the third round to the Washington Capitals.

Greentree led the Spitfires in scoring during the ’23-24 season while Davis was third and Spellacy was fourth. And Greentree (36 goals, 54 assists, 90 points), Davis (20-21-41) and Spellacy (21-17-38) can rightfully be expected to elevate their respective games even further in ’24-25.

The Spitfires won’t likely need goalies Joey Costanzo and rookie Carter Froggett to steal games. Rather, the duo just needs to be reliable, consistent and make the routine saves.

Then there is the Windsor class of players with 2008 birth dates who were chosen at the 2004 OHL priority selections draft. The signed plums are first rounder Ethan Belchetz, second rounders J.C. Lemieux and Carter Hicks, third rounder Max Brocklehurst, seventh rounder Jake Windbiel and ninth rounder Ethan Garden. Belchetz, Lemieux, Brocklehurst and Garden are all forwards, Hicks is a defenseman and Windbiel is a goalie.

Belchetz, the first overall pick at the ’24 OHL draft, is a sure bet to not only be a regular for the Spitfires this season but is a good possibility to be an impact player as a rookie.

All in all, look for Windsor to challenge the always contending London Knights for first place in the Western Conference.

Saginaw Spirit. The Spirit didn’t make it out of the Western Conference playoffs last spring, losing to London, which then went on to win the OHL championship. But the Spirit took advantage of its free pass into the Memorial Cup tournament as host entry and when it came down to a one game winner take all for the national championship, Saginaw scored a paper thin, one goal win over London.

Building the ’23-24 team to play host to — and ultimately win — the Memorial Cup championship did come at quite the price for Saginaw, however. General manager Dave Drinkill mortgaged the future — and sometimes over paid — by trading off a whack of future draft picks to solidify the strength of the Spirit for what would become Memorial Cup glory.

Still, there is a lot to like about Saginaw, for ’24-25 led superstar defenseman Zayne Parekh, star in waiting forward Michael Misa and a pair of plum overages in forward Calem Mangone and goalie Andrew Oke.

A few words about Mangone, who is Sault Ste. Marie product and a rare major find from the OHL supplemental draft.

This is a smaller size kid who personifies character, perseverance and heart. He has also gained a reputation as a big game player. There is no more proof of that than going back to last spring’s Western Conference semi-finals when Mangone scored no less than three game winning goals against his hometown Soo Greyhounds.

In summation, this season could well tell if Saginaw head coach Chris Lazary is really among the best in the league or if is someone who only does well with a stacked team. Let us remember that Lazary had a stacked team in ’23-24 but the Spirit failed to make it out of the Western Conference finals. Only being the host team gave Lazary and the Spirit a shot — which they took advantage of — at winning the Memorial Cup.

Soo Greyhounds. This is the home to perhaps the toughest fan base in the entire OHL. Fans of all ages have been known to fiercely voice their displeasure with the long-time braintrust of general manager Kyle Raftis and head coach John Dean. In fact, more than one outspoken Greyhound supporter of many decades has called for both Raftis and Dean to be fired.

Raftis, according to many who follow the OHL closely and on a professional basis, is regarded as one of the top five GMs in the entire league. Like any other OHL GM, Raftis has misfired on more than one high pick over the years. But his track record shows an ability to get good players later in the draft or as free agents.

As for Dean, it would seem that he is a middle of the road head coach.

On the ice, the Greyhounds have an A1 goaltending duo with overage Charlie Schenkel and Landon Miller, who is a 2006 birth year prospect of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.

Meanwhile, it says here that despite having lost 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, fellow defender Caeden Carlisle and forwards Justin Cloutier, Marco Mignosa, Travis Hayes and Brady Martin. World class players in their age group, both Hayes and Martin could well be on the verge of stardom as younger players with 2007 birth dates.

Some of the hard core Greyhound fan base will not agree with this but it would not be a surprise if the Red and White placed among the top five in the Western Conference in ’24-25. But, it also says here, the onus is on Dean as a veteran OHL head coach of many years to get this crew to play to its capabilities — and then some.

Flint Firebirds. As somewhat of a sign of it being an up and coming team, No. 8 seed Flint gave no. 1 seed London a tough time in the first round of the ’24 playoffs, losing four close games before bowing out.  

Looking ahead to the upcoming season, Flint has returning skill and depth in place led by a number of NHL draft picks that include workhorse goalie Nathan Day and forwards Kaden Pitre, Nathan Aspinall and Connor Clattenburg.

And to add to what was already in place, Firebirds’ general manager Dave McParlan went on an off season shopping spree and dealt a slew of draft picks — many that were stockpiled from previous trades — to bring in seasoned, dependable skaters such as forward Chris Thibodeau from the Kingston Frontenacs and forward Evan Konyen and defensemen Matthew Mania and Nolan Collins from the Sudbury Wolves.

Then, in a blockbuster deal, Flint dealt 2005 birth year defenseman Tristan Bertucci, who is a prize NHL prospect of the Dallas Stars, to the Niagara Ice Dogs for 2005 birth year defender Urban Podrekar and 2007 birth year blue liner Artem Frolov. Flint also received the rights to 2006 birth year forward Hayden Reid and the two teams exchanged multiple future draft picks. (Niagara subsequently dealt Bertucci to the Barrie Colts to complete a three way transaction.)

Behind the Flint bench, Paul Flache is being billed as a young, high end coach who did an exceptional job as a first year head master in ’23-24. And it is Flache who is being tasked with meshing all of the players from all of the moves that his GM has made during the off season.

Is there an OHL GM who has acquired and traded more draft picks over the past 12 or so months than McParlan? Will the moves that McParlan has made translate into a climb up the Western Conference ladder for Flint?

The overall game plan of McParlan might be worthy of an in depth case study. Bipolar might be the best word to describe how others feel about Flint’s chances for success in ’24-25.

It says here that Flint has the makings of being top four on the Western side.