The London Knights head into the regular season just about 16 months removed from a Memorial Cup championship. Their first game will be against the most recent Memorial Cup champs, the Windsor Spitfires. After that, there are 67 more games to determine the fate of this year’s roster. Here is how the competition looks right now.
The main rivals (and there are six)
Windsor Spitfires
They are the defending Memorial Cup champions and they now have players on their roster who know how to win. That makes any team dangerous. The question is: How many players from last year’s team will be back?
Windsor has already done a good job filling in some holes with players who will appreciate the opportunity to play in the OHL. Preston Mizzi is getting his second shot. Igor Larionov (son of the other Igor Larionov) and Jake Smith are getting their first cracks.
Logan Stanley has been traded to Kitchener. He definitely won’t be back.
Logan Brown, Gabe Vilardi, Mikhail Sergachev and Sean Day are all question marks. Day was born in 1998, but played in the OHL as a 15-year old, so he is eligible to go to the American Hockey League under the Rico Fata rule (anyone who has played in the league for four seasons, beginning at 15).
Michael DiPietro will be back in net. He is now property of the Vancouver Canucks and he can make a whole lot of saves and win games by himself. With inexperienced back-ups, he may have to play a whole lot of Windsor’s games this year.
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Sarnia Sting
Since London and Sarnia are separated by just over 100 kilometres of 400-series highway, this should be the Knights’ biggest rivalry every year.
But it gets tough to keep the intensity up when meaningful games come along about as often as a total solar eclipse.
Since the Sting moved to Sarnia from Newmarket in 1994, the teams have met annually in the pre-season. They have played over 150 times in the regular season. And through 22 seasons, they have seen each other exactly once in the playoffs.
It was back in 1999 in an unremarkable first-round series. End of story.
This year both teams will likely feel their season has fallen short if they do not find themselves alive in Round 2 next spring. If that happens, there is an excellent chance that the London-Sarnia playoff drought will end and that could cause some major tremors up and down the 402.
Sarnia made moves last year to be more competitive this year. They have done a good job building their team. They have offensive firepower in Jordan Kyrou, Anthony Salinitri, Adam Ruzicka and former Knight, Drake Rymsha. Defensively, Sarnia is solid and they have overage goaltender, Justin Fazio in net. Look for him to have a big year.
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Owen Sound
The Attack are fairly stacked. They have offence, defence, work ethic and under Ryan McGill’s system, they were poised to become the leading power in the west. McGill became one of the many OHL coaches to move onto the American Hockey League or the NHL. (McGill is now with the Vegas Golden Knights) Todd Gill has taken over and will look to pick up where Owen Sound left off last year. Their biggest question is in net where Michael McNiven is not expected to return. The Attack acquired goaltender Zach Bowman from Sudbury before the start of the season. Will Nick Suzuki stay in Vegas this year? If he does, it will hurt. If he doesn’t, it will hurt the rest of the OHL.
Kitchener Rangers
Kitchener now has former Windsor defenceman Logan Stanley on their team. He was traded to the Rangers in the summer. They also have Adam Mascherin and Connor Bunnaman. The biggest question they face is, “Do they have enough to be a real contender?”
Erie Otters
Recently, London and Erie have played some incredible games against each other. Their series in the spring that went all the way to overtime of Game 7 just made the list even longer. Erie can’t help but take a step or three back this season after four straight 50-win seasons. They have lost game-breakers like Dylan Strome and Alex Debrincat, but still have a steady defence corps and players like Kyle Maksimovich, Gera Poddubnyi and Ivan Lodnia who get a chance to step into the spotlight. They have a new coach in Chris Hartsburg who will still make them tough to play against.
Guelph Storm
The Storm have had two down years in a row, but their last and second-last finishes have landed them Ryan Merkley and Tag Bertuzzi. New head coach and GM, George Burnett swung a deal to land them Owen Lalonde, the second overall pick in 2016. Guelph will make the playoffs this year and could even challenge for home ice. There is exceptional youth on Guelph’s roster and it will help to rekindle the Knights-Storm rivalry.
The rest of the West
Soo Greyhounds
The ‘Hounds have finished first in the OHL’s West Division in three of the past four seasons. They have one conference final appearance to show for it. They have lost forwards Blake Speers, Zach Senyshyn and Bobby MacIntyre to graduation and with it some important depth up front. Still they seem to have the belief that their roster can win now.
They are one of those teams that will be dangerous based on the sum of all of its parts. Sault Ste. Marie is a tough team to play against. They have excellent team speed, good tempo and defencemen who get involved in the play.
Matthew Vilalta was a golden free agent find in net last year and he takes over the No. 1 job this year.
Flint Firebirds
Graduation and the fact that you can only have three overagers will hit Flint hard. They could have had as many as eight 20-year olds returning to the team. They do have some excellent youth and as this year goes along, the Firebirds will see a shift in leadership from their older core to players like 2016 first-round pick, Ty Dellandrea. Adding Nic Mattinen from the Knights helps a young defence corps.
After a difficult start in Flint, the Firebirds are doing things right as they look to build themselves into a contender.
Saginaw Spirit
A passing of the torch is taking place from older to younger in Saginaw as well, however, they are still a step behind their state rival. Troy Smith takes over as head coach.
Keys to the East
Barrie Colts
Londoner and first overall pick, Ryan Suzuki and NHL draft prospect, Andrei Svechnikov, are going to make this team fun to watch and hard to play against. They still need to time to mature.
Hamilton
They will be able to score. Defensively, they have some veteran depth. Who will step up as their No. 1 goaltender?
Kingston
The Frontenacs have a number of returning forwards, including 42-goal man, Jason Robertson. They are thin on defence. Overcoming that may determine whether or not goalie Jeremy Helvig becomes a potential overage pickup for a top contender at the trade deadline.
Mississauga
They are the team to beat from the other conference until someone proves to be better. They have more offensive firepower than any team in the OHL. They showed well against Erie in the OHL Championship series. They are ready to take the next step, but that step is never as easy as it looks.
Niagara
Of the 22 returning players on Niagara’s roster to start the pre-season, 13 of them were born in 1999. That isn’t the typical balance that major junior teams seek as they build. Look for more roster tinkering as Akil Thomas grows into the Ice Dogs’ next star.
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North Bay
Stan Butler is as solid a defensive coach as you will find in junior hockey. His style makes his teams competitive every year. Goaltending is the biggest question mark coming into the season, but assistant GM, Adam Dennis, knows a thing or two about that.
Oshawa
The Generals built for this year with the hope that they would be selected to host the 2018 MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament. That will be played in Regina after the Pats won the bid, but Oshawa will be right in the race to earn a spot.
Ottawa
Andre Tourigny comes in from the QMJHL to take over behind the 67s bench. He also has experience as an NHL assistant coach. Look for Ottawa to focus on young players like defencemen Peter Stratis and Kevin Bahl as they build under new GM James Boyd.
Peterborough
The Petes will be the team from the East that may get overshadowed by the Steelheads during the season, but they will be the team no one wants to face in the playoffs.
Sudbury
Since the end of last season, the Wolves have changed coaches and traded 2016 second overall pick, Owen Lalonde. They have talented forwards, but big holes on defence and in goal.
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