Brantford Bulldogs back on top
A rebuild has instead become a reload. With only one returning full time player — forward Jeremy Freeman — from a team that finished first overall in the Ontario Hockey League in ’25-26 with a record of 48-10-10, the Brantford Bulldogs are off to a resounding 5-0-0 start to the ’26-27 season.
In a word: Wow. In two words: Holy f–k.
Following a frantic and frenzied summer in which Bulldogs general manager Spencer Hyman and his staff of trusted advisors and assistants totally revamped the Brantford roster through trades, free agent signings and the priority selections and import drafts, here we go again.
Five wins in five games — while outscoring the opposition by an eye-popping 29 to 10 margin. And did we we mention that besides a roster that is basically 95 per cent new, Brantford also has a novice OHL head coach in Michael Babcock, who has taken over from the esteemed Jay McKee, who is now in the pro ranks.
Brantford’s co-leading scorer to date is small size forward Jason Musa, a 2007 birth date skater who was a free agent signee during the off season. Musa has four goals, four assists, eight points. Also with eight points — three of them goals — is 2010 birth year forward Aiden Kelly, who Brantford was able to steal with the 20th pick in the first round of this year’s OHL priority selections draft.
What about in net? Hyman as the GM dealt both of his would-be returning goalies from last season for a boat load full of draft picks.
So, sharing the net to date have been a pair of rookies — 2026 import draft pick Vilmer Salen Forsberg and off season trade acquisition Chase Petrova. The 6 foot 6 Salen Forsberg has a record of 3-0-0 with a .937 save percentage and 2.00 goals against average. Meanwhile, Petrova has a record of 2-0-0 with a .943 save percentage and 2.00 goals against average.
What does Hyman as the Branford GM have to say about the spectacular start to this season?
“We’ll see where this goes,” came the happy reply.
For now, it is going better than good.
