Spitfires like American lads
There is no such thing as cross border tension when it comes to American born kids playing for the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.
And really, when you think of it, there should be no tension at all between the good neighbour countries of the United States of America and Canada. (Which is a story that we won’t get into here.)
What we will get into — and be happy to do so — is to note that the Ontario based Spitfires have eight American born players signed ahead of the ’26-27 OHL season. And they are from no less than four separate states.
The list of good American boys who the OHL Spitfires have signed are as follows.
Americans In Windsor. Leading the way are a pair of returning 2008 birth year forwards in Ethan Garden (in photo at left) and Caden Harvey. And also signed with the Spitfires of Windsor are incoming 2008 birth year defensemen Drake Gram and Sam Wathier (in photo above), 2008 birth year goalie Jake Windbiel, 2009 birth year forward Ty Bergeron, 2009 birth year defenseman Jack O’Dell and 2010 birth year defenseman Jake LaMontagne.
Four States Of Spitfires. Garden, Gram, Bergeron and LaMontagne are all from the Metro Detroit area of Michigan. Meanwhile, Windbiel and O’Dell both have Chicago, Illinois roots. And Harvey is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania while Wathier is originally from Des Moines, Iowa.
To heck with politics. This is hockey.
OHLers On Team USA. Five players from five different OHL teams have been named to the United States roster for the 2026 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which is slated to take place Aug. 3-8 in Edmonton. The Team USA members from the various OHL teams are Spitfires forward Ty Bergeron (in photo at left), Kingston Frontenacs forward Nolan Snyder, Niagara IceDogs forward Michael Tang, Peterborough Petes forward Gerry DiCunzolo and Flint Firebirds goalie Mason Courville.
