Bowler takes a big swing
Spitfires general manager Billy Bowler pulled the pin on his first major trade of the ’25-26 Ontario Hockey League season today in a mighty exchange with the lowly Sudbury Wolves.
Bowler sent blossoming 2008 birth forward J.C. Lemieux along with what has become a standard OHL cost of doing business, in this case multiple future draft picks in 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029, for 2005 birth year (overage) forward Alex Pharand and hard nosed 2006 birth year forward Nathan Villeneuve.
Villeneuve (in photo at left) is a jewel in the trade as a high performance, second round — and signed — National Hockey League draft pick of the Seattle Kraken. As the captain in Sudbury, he was second on the Wolves in scoring this season with 16 goals, 28 assists, 44 points in just 28 games.
Pharand has been basic for Sudbury this season as evidenced by him being third on the Wolves scoring chart with 10 goals, 16 assists, 26 points in 37 games.
As for as Lemieux, he has been a productive player for Windsor since the Spitfires took him in the second round, 22nd overall, of the 2024 OHL priority selections draft. In total, Lemieux lit the lamp 19 times in 79 games for the Spitfires.