Spits have a few spots open
There are a few roster spots up for grabs as the Spitfires are into training camp — and then exhibition games — ahead of the ’26-27 Ontario Hockey League regular season that starts in three weeks.
Goalies. Last season’s backup Michael Newlove returns as Windsor’s presumptive starter with 2024 seventh round draft pick Jake Windbiel having the inside track on the no. 2 spot. Windbiel has apprenticed the past two seasons with the nearby LaSalle Vipers — the Spitfires affiliate team — of the Greater Ontario Hockey League. He is already signed with the Spitfires.
Defensemen. Ready to go are overage returnees Anthony Cristoforo and Conor Walton along with fellow holdovers Andrew Robinson and Jonathan Brown. Also signed — for a total of nine — are incoming defenders Grady Spicer, Jesse DeBruyn, Sam Wathier, Drake Gram and Jake LaMontagne. Notably, Spicer and DeBruyn have each played a handful games for the Spitfires before this season. Meanwhile, LaMontagne is the youngest of the group with a 2010 birth date as a fourth round draft pick of the Spitfires this year.
Forwards. There are 10 forwards who are all but guaranteed roster positions leaving the likes of Cole Dubowsky, Shawn Costello, Ian Inskip and free agent invitee Carter Drigo (in photo at left) to battle for two or three reserve spots. Dubowsky and Costello, who both have 2007 birth dates, are low scoring skaters with good size who have played parts of the past few seasons in the OHL. Inskip, meanwhile, is 2009 birth year skater who was the Spitfires second round draft pick in 2025. And Drigo, who was born in 2007, is coming off of a ’25-26 season in which he scored 32 goals in 48 games for the Espanola Paper Kings of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.
The AC Factor. The above mentioned Anthony Cristoforo, who will be going into his fifth OHL season, is a versatile standout who can play forward or defence.
