What do Hounds do next?

The Greyhounds are seemingly not quite ready for prime time in the Knight time. In their second meeting with London this season, the Greyhounds were overpowered by the Knights, who out shot the home side by a ridiculous 43-13 margin en route to a 5-1 victory.

Only the goaltending of Greyhound overage Charlie Schenkel prevented a further escalation of a score in a game in which the Knights were dominant in all zones of the ice surface. The November 6 game was a complete reversal from five days prior when the Soo played London stride for stride and virtually shot for shot in a November 1 road match only to have the Knights eke out a 4-3 decision.

But of course, this isn’t about one or two games or a quarter of a regular season or so. It is, in a big way, about what Kyle Raftis, the rather shrewd general manager of the Greyhounds, does ahead of the annual OHL trade deadline, which is a mere couple of months from now. Time may not be of the essence quite yet but soon it will be.

Okay, on to what looms after what came before.

Upon deciding to go for it in ’23-24, the Greyhounds made it to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs only to lose in Game 7 to the eventual Memorial Cup Saginaw Spirit. Saginaw was fortunate to be able to play without the same level of urgency and pressure that the Greyhounds faced in that the Spirit had a free ticket into the Memorial Cup tournament as host entry.

This time around, the ’24-25 Greyhounds do not have quite the same skill level of veteran forwards and defensemen that the ’23-24 unit did.

Still, this is a pretty good edition of the Greyhounds, a ’24-25 squad that has high end forwards aplenty, especially in the 2004, 2005 and 2007 age categories — and led by the likes of Owen Allard, Marco Mignosa, Justin Cloutier, Noel Nordh, Travis Hayes and Brady Martin. The Hounds also just may have the best 1-2 goalie tandem in the OHL in aforementioned overage (2004 birth date) Charlie Schenkel and 2006 birth year puck stopper (and Detroit Red Wings, National Hockey League draft pick) Landon Miller.

On the blue line though is where the Hounds do not quite measure up to the forward and goalie positions. The Hounds do have a dandy overage defender in Caeden Carlisle and a signed NHL draft pick in Andrew Gibson, who has a 2005 birth date. They also have a pair of decent ’06 birth year defenders in Spencer Evans and Brodie McConnell-Barker and a 2005 birth year retread in former Peterborough Petes’ free agent walk on Brayden Velliares. There are also three rookies in Keegan Gillen, David Holub and Hunter Solomon, who all have 2007 birth dates. Not sure if you agree but having to depend on three rookie defensemen might be just a bit too much to ask. Or, maybe not?

At any rate, let us go back to being ahead of the January 10 trade deadline and whether Raftis, as the GM, decides to buy, sell, or simply stay the course. To be sure, the Greyhounds have numerous players who can fetch quite a bit in return if Raftis puts up the ‘For Sale’ sign. For example, the bounty that Raftis could get in return for Schenkel and Gibson, as examples, is something that I am rather sure that the Greyhound GM is thinking about in a rather serious way. And let it be stated for the record that Raftis is a rather serious person.

However, the Hounds at present are a pretty fair team and in a balanced Western Conference where they could very well finish fourth or fifth among the 10 teams — and then win a round of the playoffs and maybe steal another. Saying that, Raftis just might choose to either stand pat or perhaps add a serviceable defensemen who could play on the third pairing.

Names that come to mind include Tanner Winegard of the Windsor Spitfires, who is a a hulking, 6 foot 6 defender with a right hand shot. Winegard, who has a 2005 birth date, is in a situation in Windsor where the Spitfires are eight deep on a well above average blue line — and he is one of six veterans who range from pretty good to good to pretty damn good.

At any rate, the weeks ahead will likely decide which course Raftis will take. He is not one to tip his hand on what his plans may or not be. He is also a pretty sharp guy and doesn’t appear to be one who panics or will be swayed into making a move or moves if he is not convinced that it is right for the Red & White.

Buy? Sell? Maintain?

If you are a Greyhound fan with the best interests of the team at heart — as opposed to being fair weather or so far up in the rafters that you can’t see straight — then leave it up to the man who is paid to be the GM.

Trust in Raftis. Or not.

Me? For what it is worth — nickels, dimes, dollars or barter — I happen to think that Raftis is one of the better general mangers in the OHL. Of the 20 in the OHL who carry the title of GM, most who I know and trust have him among the top five.

But in the unforgiving world of high level hockey — in this case the Greyhounds and the OHL — there is always a shoulder that one needs to look over and a back that one hopes to protect.

Meantime, the restless hands of time in Hound Town go tick, tick, tick.