Brantford eyeing Oshawa
It was the Oshawa Generals — arch rivals no less — who put a halt on the Ontario Hockey League playoff run of the Brantford Bulldogs last spring. And it is Oshawa that Brantford will be out to unseat as Eastern Conference playoff champions this season.
Even though Brantford finished atop the Eastern Conference standings of the OHL in ’24-25 with 93 points from a record of 44-19-5, fourth place Oshawa wasn’t far behind with 88 points from a record of 41-21-6.
Thus, it wasn’t really a major upset when Oshawa upended Brantford four games to two in the second round of last spring’s playoffs. In fact, the big upset to Brantford was that after the Bulldogs took a two games to none series lead on Oshawa, they had to play the rest of the best of seven set without 82 goal scorer Nick Lardis.
In what was a crushing blow to Brantford’s playoff aspirations, Lardis was injured in the third period of Game 2 of the series following a knee to knee hit by Oshawa’s Andrew Gibson that resulted in the Generals defenseman getting a two game suspension.
And Lardis — who scored 71 goals in 65 regular season games for Brantford and tallied 11 more times in just seven playoff outings before being injured — would not return for the rest of the series. Without Lardis, Brantford lost the next four games and Oshawa took the series 4-2. Of further fury to Brantford and its followers was that Lardis had three goals, three assists six points in just five periods of hockey against Oshawa before the season ending injury.
After knocking out Brantford in the second round, Oshawa then went on to sweep the Barrie Colts in the Eastern Conference finals before being ousted by the London Knights in five games in the OHL championship series.
Looking ahead to this season, Oshawa should again be competitive as it looks to defend the Eastern Conference crown. Brantford, meanwhile, has loaded up for another push at ruling the Eastern Conference.
As for the rivalry between the Generals and the Bulldogs — no one from Brantford is saying anything publicly. But don’t think for a minute that the Bulldogs won’t be extra hyped for games against Oshawa once the ’25-26 season gets going.
BULLDOGS HAVE BITE
To be sure, Brantford has star power on the frozen stage with a sweet seven side of National Hockey League draft picks who are all poised to play prominent roles in ’25-26. And the Bulldogs also have some fledgling OHL talent that is braced to bloom.
One such baby Bulldog is 2008 birth year forward Aiden O’Donnell, who Brantford took in the first round of the 2024 OHL priority selections draft. The 6 foot 1, 180 pound O’Donnell had some what of a basic rookie campaign for Brantford in ’24-25, scoring seven goals, 10 assists, 17 points in 58 regular season outings. He then added an assist in 11 playoff matches.
O’Donnell will be on the close watch list of National Hockey League scouts in ’25-26 ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft. And Mike Dawson, who is a detailed, thorough scout for the Seattle Kraken of the NHL, took note of the interest level in O’Donnell.
“He finished (the ’24-25 season) well and is of high interest coming into this year,” Dawson relayed to Hockey News Windsor when asked about O’Donnell.
Dawson, like most NHL scouts, would have seen a lot of O’Donnell as a rookie in ’24-25 while evaluating Brantford star centre Jake O’Brien. O’Brien was eventually picked by Dawson and the Kraken with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft.
As far as the ’25-26 OHL season, O’Donnell isn’t the only 2008 birth year forward who is part of the Brantford youth group.
Another is Nik Rossetto, Brantford’s third round pick at the 2024 OHL priority selections draft. The five foot 10, 160 pound Rossetto actually outscored O’Donnell in ’24-25 with nine goals, 10 assists, 19 points in 57 regular season games and then added another goal, three assists, four points in 11 playoff outings. But Rossetto had shoulder surgery during this summer and could possibly miss up to the first third of the ’25-26 OHL season.
Overall and to be sure, there is plenty of excitement in Brantford and high expectations for the Bulldogs come the ’25-26 season led by the previously alluded to, seven NHL draft picks that include forwards Marek Vanacker (first round, Chicago Blackhawks, 2024), Jake O’Brien (first round, Seattle Kraken, 2025), Adam Benak (fourth round, Minnesota Wild, 2025) and Sam McCue (seventh round, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2024), defensemen Owen Protz (fourth round, Montreal Canadiens, 2024) and Edison Engle (sixth round, Winnipeg Jets, 2025) and goalie Ryerson Leenders (seventh round, Buffalo Sabres, 2024.)
Brantford is making no secret that it has intentions of Eastern Conference supremacy in ’25-26 under new ownership led by Stuart Hyman and his sons Zach Hyman (of Edmonton Oilers, NHL fame) and Spencer Hyman — with veteran OHL bench boss Jay McKee returning as head coach.
Spencer Hyman, who will be a first year OHL general manager at age 31 after a decade of apprenticeship in the junior A ranks, not only inherits a good group of Bulldogs from ’24-25 but he himself has had a nice summer on the player acquisition front. Besides aforementioned overage Sam McCue, who was obtained in an off season trade with the Flint Firebirds, Hyman as the GM also traded for sand paper forward Ryder Boulton from the London Knights.
All in all, the Brantford Civic Centre — aka the 58-year old Mad House on Market St. that routinely plays to capacity crowds of 3,000 plus — is setting up for what could be a banner style season for the Bulldogs in ’25-26.