Sweet on HoneyBaked ‘D’
Windsor Spitfires rode the cross border shuttle across the St. Clair River to Detroit to haul aboard hulking defenseman Jake LaMontagne from the high end HoneyBaked AAA program in the fourth round of the 2026 Ontario Hockey League priority selections draft.
The 6 foot 4,190 pound LaMontagne — who scouts say improved greatly as the ’25-26 season went on — had four goals, 56 assists, 60 points in 83 games for Detroit HoneyBaked, which is a powerhouse Tier 1 elite program.
To be sure, sharp eyed Spitfires general manager Billy Bowler and tireless director of player personnel Mark Seidel clearly did their homework in coming up with LaMontagne, who a trusted insider says is only beginning to scratch the surface of his high ceiling potential.
LaMontagne became the third Honeybaked player — all defensemen — to be picked at the 2026 OHL Draft as Max Lappan went in the first round to the Niagara IceDogs and Ivan Belikov was picked in the second round by the Sudbury Wolves.
All three have good size to the point of being mean and nasty.
Lappan is listed at 6 foot 2, 200 pounds while Belikov and LaMontagne both size up at 6 foot 4, 190 pounds.
Lappan put up 24 goals, 108 assists, 132 points in 89 games for HoneyBaked over the course of the ’25-26 season. He stood out at the annual OHL Cup, producing two goals, eight assists, 10 points in seven games as HoneyBaked became the first American team to ever win the prestigious tournament.
Over to Belikov, he scored 10 goals and set up 25 others in 84 games for HoneyBaked this past season.
All three HoneyBaked players are represented by top notch agent — and former National Hockey League goalie — Eddie Mio of Octane Sports. A Windsor native who has represented legends of the game such as Joe Thornton, the ageless Mio played in more than 200 NHL games — when it was only a 21 team league — while stopping pucks for the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings.
