Windsor Spitfires via Detroit
The cross border shuttle from Detroit to Windsor figures to be even more eventful for the Spitfires come the ’26-27 Ontario Hockey League season.
Already established with the Spitfires through two full seasons is 2008 birth year forward Ethan Garden. And now signed by Windsor and ready to debut as an OHL rookie with the Spitfires in ’26-27 is 2009 birth year forward Ty Bergeron.
Both Garden and Bergeron are Metro Detroit products as OHL priority selections draft picks by Windsor general manager Billy Bowler.
The 5 foot 8, 170 pound Garden was an absolute heist by Bowler as a ninth round draft pick by the Spitfires from Detroit Little Caesars in 2024. And Bergeron was taken by Bowler and the Spitfires in the third round of the 2025 OHL draft from Detroit HoneyBaked.
Garden has already played two full seasons in the OHL with the Spitfires straight out of the Little Caesars AAA program.
Remarkably, regular season and playoffs included, Garden already has the experience of 145 OHL games with Windsor. Garden played in 67 games as a Spitfire rookie in ’24-25 and had seven goals, 12 assists, 19 points. And the peppery pivot had more of an advanced role with the Spitfires in ’25-26 and produced 20 goals, 28 assists, 48 points in 78 games.
As for Bergeron, the 6 foot 2, 185 pound centre recently signed an OHL contact with the Spitfires.
Bergeron has opted to play with Windsor and the OHL after spending the ’25-26 season with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League. Bergeron skated in 71 games for Muskegon as a 16 year old rookie in ’25-26 and totalled eight goals, 16 assists, 24 points as one of the youngest players in the USHL.
The Spitfires originally drafted Bergeron after a spectacular ’24-25 season with Detroit HoneyBaked in which he tallied 62 goals, 78 assists, 140 points in 90 games.
Meanwhile, Garden and Bergeron may not be the only Metro Detroit products to play for the Spitfires in ’26-27.
There is a possibility that 2010 birth year defenseman Jake LaMontagne could end up with the Spitfires in ’26-27. Windsor took the 6 foot 5, 200 pound hulk from Detroit HoneyBaked AAA in the fourth round of the recent 2026 OHL priority selections draft.
The hard working, LaMontagne — who HoneyBaked head coach Matt Romaniski said improved greatly as the ’25-26 campaign went on — had four goals, 56 assists, 60 points in 83 games for the Detroit team over the course of the past season. And Romaniski told Hockey News Windsor that he would not be surprised if LaMontagne played in the OHL in ’26-27, adding that he feels the Spitfires got “a real steal” in nabbing the huge defenseman in the fourth round.
Either way, the plan is for LaMontagne to be playing in the Spitfire system in ’26-27, either in the OHL with Windsor or in the Greater Ontario Hockey League with the nearby LaSalle Vipers.
