Take a look around as you make your way through the first few days of 2018.
If you see someone wearing a jacket with a logo on it, balancing a phone between their shoulder and ear while drinking coffee and pacing back and forth — and looking as intense as a lawyer making final arguments before a jury — then you have probably discovered an Ontario Hockey League (OHL) general manager.
It’s best just to admire it from a distance. From now until Jan. 9 and 10, OHL GMs aren’t all that safe to approach. They are caught up in their own world, attempting to make their team better right now or resign it to being better in the future. Sometimes it’s a bit of both.
The deadline to trade overage players in the OHL arrives on Tues., Jan. 9. That gives a day to sort out the three spots OHL teams are permitted to use on 20-year-olds, ensuring they all have places to play when the dust of the trade deadlines settle.
The official trade deadline is on Jan. 10.
Figuring out the mix of buyers and sellers is much like predicting the future. Some things are easy to suggest. The sun will come up. You will need to run to the grocery store for milk. London drivers will change lanes without signalling.
Teams like Hamilton, Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie are easy picks to be buyers. Hamilton already has been, adding Nicholas Caamano, Ryan Moore and Riley Stillman since November. Sarnia is having one of their most successful seasons ever and the Soo Greyhounds have won 23 consecutive games in a row.
The Flint Firebirds have made moves with the future in mind. After four 50-win seasons, expect Erie to make deals for next year and beyond.
Predicting what the London Knights might decide to do is difficult.
London started the year with a 1-8-1 record. But since then, they have gone 18-6-1.
“We are happy with where our team is going. To have that start and then finish the first half like we did is pretty phenomenal. With (Joseph Raaymakers) coming in and playing as well as he has, it has definitely given us a huge boost of confidence in our goaltending and the fact that we can take some chances and give up the odd chance because he has out back and he’s going to make some big saves. When you finish the first half of the season like that, you feel good going into this time.”
London has six wins in their last eight games. They have picked up at least a point in seven of eight.
Their record since a 5-1 win in Kitchener on Oct. 20 stacks up with any OHL time not named the Soo Greyhounds. Sault Ste. Marie has won 23-straight games and through the first half of the season, sits as the official measuring stick for any team with designs on a run.
The Knights have played the ‘Hounds twice and lost both times, but both games came inside that first 10-game stretch. Anyone on London will tell you they feel like a very different team right now.
So, Knights fans will be left to do a little bit of guessing when it comes to what might happen in the next 10 days, but rest assured, there isn’t any guesswork happening inside Simpson’s office.
He and the rest of London’s brain trust avoid the element of surprise. Preparation has been a major key to their continued success and that goes for what is happening on the ice as well as off the ice.
When asked about scenarios for the Knights, Simpson didn’t hesitate to say there are many.
“It’s a big board in my office, that’s for sure. You are always looking at ways to improve your club right now and improve your club for the future and you have to be able to look at both options.”
General managers are always talking to each other, feeling out who is heading where and what that might mean for their respective clubs. This isn’t like the start of a 100-metre dash. This is more like the time in a marathon when you get near the finish line and you begin to hear the cheers of the crowd in the grandstand.
“Definitely right now your calls ramp up,” says Simpson. “The funny thing about it is when you get into this time of the year, the landscape is always changing as well. The call that you have today with another GM changes on the next call based on other conversations he’s had. It’s kind of a working organism that’s always moving.”
The important thing is to move with it. That’s something Simpson and the Knights did very well a year ago when they acquired Mitchell Stephens, Mitch Vande Sompel and Dante Salituro. Getting to overtime of Game 7 against the eventual OHL champion Erie Otters didn’t end the year with a trophy held high, but it wasn’t all that far away.
Simpson says the Knights head into the next 10 days with the same mindset they have had since Mark and Dale Hunter purchased the team in 2000.
“Our philosophy has always been that you don’t change your team based on what other teams are doing … You have a plan for what you are looking for and where your team is going and where you want it to be now and in the future and what you need to be able to do that. You definitely have some pieces that you are looking for, it just depends on whether you can make that happen.”
That is what will be keeping Simpson’s phone attached to his ear until the deadline has officially passed.
Monday’s Trade between Windsor and Kingston
The Frontenacs officially gave notice that they want to take a run at a championship in 2018 by acquiring two players who won one in 2017. Kingston sent Cody Morgan, four second round picks, a third round pick and a conditional third round pick to Windsor for defenceman Sean Day and forward, Gabe Vilardi. Vilardi is headed home to Kingston and was the 11th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings. Day is a draft pick of the New York Rangers and is currently playing in his fifth OHL season. He entered the league with the Mississauga Steelheads as a 15-year old in 2015 after being granted exceptional status. Both won the Memorial Cup with the Spitfires last May.
Buyers or sellers
There are some interesting storylines to watch. Some teams have already started to make moves, but some are a complete puzzle. The Saginaw Spirit struggled at the beginning of the season. Had that continued, it would be easy to say that would have made hulking 19-year old defenceman Keaton Middleton a prized pick-up. But the Stratford native has helped the young Spirit to a tie for fourth place in the West with London and Windsor right now. Saginaw will be an interesting team to keep an eye on.
In the east, the conundrum can be found in Sudbury. The Wolves are two points out of last place overall and that would suggest they are ready for a rebuild. But, they have a new ownership group and a fan base that has seen the team play six playoff games in the past three years.
The Wolves picked up Kirill Nizhnikov in a deal with Barrie. Will they make more moves just to try to get into the post-season?
Right now there are all kinds of questions and very few answers, but as always, that will change in a hurry.
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