Four OHL teams to regard
Okay, it is summer time and the living is easy. But for those with any sort of relationship with the Ontario Hockey League, we remind you that the restless hands of time are ticking towards the start of another season. So whether your OHL connect is up north in Sault Ste. Marie, into the southwestern Ontario region of Windsor, in the mid Michigan area of Flint, or where the Bulldogs bark in Brantford, we have words of (some) wisdom to write ahead of the ’25-26 season on four teams to watch.
WINDSOR
This is a team that could well unseat the reigning Memorial Cup champion London Knights atop the Western Conference of the OHL. And maybe even make a run at the OHL title.
The Spitfires, who finished third overall among the 20 teams of the OHL in ’24-25 with a record of 45-17-6 — their 96 points were 52 more than what they managed when they missed the playoffs in ’23-24 — are expected to again be a force to be reckoned with come the ’25-26 season with as many as 18 to 20 returning players.
The returnees include the high end likes of forwards Liam Greentree, Ilya Protas, Jack Nesbitt, Cole Davis, A.J. Spellacy, Ethan Belchetz and J.C. Lemieux and defensemen Anthony Cristoforo, Carson Woodall, Conor Walton and Carter Hicks. Then there are a pair of presumptive overages in goalie Joey Costanzo and defenseman Wyatt Kennedy.
Greentree and Nesbitt (first rounders) and Protas and Spellacy (third rounders) are already National Hockey League draft picks and Belchetz, Lemieux and Hicks are likely to follow.
In short, the Spitfires have one of the very best general managers in the OHL in Billy Bowler and perhaps the most under rated head coach in the league in Greg Walters. Bowler and Walters are a dandy duo who worked very well together in ’24-25, which was their first as a GM-coach tandem.
SAULT STE. MARIE
If the pressure is not on returning head coach John Dean to elevate the Greyhounds to a top four team in the Western Conference, then it damn well should be. Dean, who was recently given a two year contract extension by the Greyhounds despite the fact that the Soo has had losing seasons in two of the last three, has a better than average team to lead in ’25-26.
Notably, the Greyhounds had four forwards taken at the 2025 NHL Draft led by Brady Martin (first round, Nashville Predators), Travis Hayes (fourth round, Pittsburgh Penguins), Jordan Charron (fifth round, Pittsburgh) and Marco Mignosa (seventh round, Tampa Bay Lightning.)
The Greyhounds also have big goalie Landon Miller returning as a fourth round NHL pick by the Detroit Red Wings two years. Also returning is point per game defenseman Chase Reid, who is already being projected as a first or second round pick at the 2026 NHL Draft.
Looking ahead to the 25-26 campaign, Dean will be rightfully expected to lead the Greyhounds to not only a winning record during the regular season but at least one round of playoff series triumph.
FLINT
The ’25-26 season will be the third for the Firebird troika of general manager Dave McParlan, head coach Paul Flache and head scout Mike Oliverio — and vast improvement is expected. The Firebirds have made the Western Conference playoffs as a lower seed in each of the past two seasons only to lose in the opening round both times.
Flint is heavy on 2006 birth year players and among them are productive forwards Kaden Pitre, Nathan Aspinall, Alex Kostov and Hayden Reid. The Firebirds also have three players who were taken at the 2025 NHL Draft — 2006 birth year goalie Evgeny Prokhorov (Buffalo Sabres), 2007 birth year forward Jimmy Lombardi (Los Angeles Kings) and 2007 birth year defenseman Rylan Fellinger (Toronto Maple Leafs.)
Besides Prokhorov between the pipes, the Firebirds also added overage (2005 birth year) goalie Mason Vaccari by way of a summer time trade with the Kingston Frontenacs.
To be sure, Flint has the parts to move up from the lower half of the Western Conference to be a top four team in ’25-26 especially if McParlan as the GM can add to the overage group either from within or by another trade.
BRANTFORD
Ah, this is a team that is making no secret that it has intentions of Eastern Conference supremacy in ’25-26 under fresh ownership led by Stuart Hyman and his sons Zach Hyman (of Edmonton Oilers, NHL fame) and Spencer Hyman.
Spencer Hyman, who will be the first year GM 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 busy summer on the player acquisition front.
To be sure, there is lineup strength from standout goalie Ryerson Leenders to defenseman Owen Protz to proven forwards Sam McCue, Marek Vanacker and budding superstar Jake O’Brien — a first round pick by the Seattle Kraken at the 2025 NHL Draft — not to mention up and coming young forwards such as soon to be second year skaters Aiden O’Donnell and Nik Rossetto. (Rossetto, it should be noted, is recovering from off season shoulder surgery.)
The Bulldogs are fresh from a ’24-25 OHL campaign in which they edged out three other teams by a mere five points to finish atop the Eastern Conference regular season standings. And while injuries to key players ended Brantford’s spring playoff run at two rounds, the Bulldogs are building it up to make another charge for the finish line in ’25-26.
Besides the overage McCue, who was acquired in an off season trade with Flint, Hyman as the GM also traded for pesky forward Ryder Boulton from the London Knights and signed free agent defenseman Edison Engle, who was picked by the Winnipeg Jets in the sixth round of the 2025 NHL Draft.
And to add more icing on the cake, Hyman used the second overall pick at this year’s Canadian Hockey League import draft to take small but ultra skilled and speedy forward Adam Benak. Benak was a fourth round nab by the Minnesota Wild at the 2025 NHL Draft.
They are waiting to growl in Brantford.
