Why we like the Spitfires
Buckle up. 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 Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference this coming season.
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.
Windsor already has its three overage (2004 birth year) players in place ahead of the looming ’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. Of note, it was the unheralded Winegard who had the best plus minus of any Spitfire defender in ’23-24.
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 as can 2023 first rounder Jack Nesbitt, who potted nine goals as a rookie in ’23-24 and showed plenty of promise as a hulking forward.
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.