The Knights are back. Again.  (Photo: Mike Hensen, The London Free Press)

If we were to look for a comparison in professional sports, who are the London Knights?  

Are they the New York Yankees? The big-market franchise that leans into the strength of its vast resources to recruit and retain top talent? Like the Yankees of the 1980s, the history of the Knights is also filled with blocks of time lost to chronic bumbling and defeat.  

Maybe they’re more like the New England Patriots? A franchise turned around by the arrival of two key figures. In Foxborough, MA., it was Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. In London, the Knights have never been the same since the Hunter brothers rolled into town.  

Are they the Lakers? The home of marquee talent and, occasionally, marquee drama.  

Whoever you think they are, the undeniable fact is: They remain a powerhouse.  

The Knights open the OHL championship final series at home tonight against the Oshawa Generals. It is the second straight championship meeting between the two teams, and it’s the third straight appearance for London.  

London won the series last year, having lost to Peterborough the previous year.  

“We haven’t accomplished everything we need to do,” Knights GM Mark Hunter tells our Ryan Pyette. “We have a tough series coming up with Oshawa. You’ve got to finish the job. That’s why it’s called the finals. It’s the two best teams playing to try to win something.” 

That has been a theme through so much of this season: London doing ... something.  

- Star forward Easton Cowan set an unofficial points streak record.  

- Forward Landon Sim was suspended for calling an opponent a Mennonite.  

- Defenceman Cam Allen was suspended and pleaded guilty to impaired driving.  

Through it all, the Knights kept winning. They are 12-0 through the first three rounds of the OHL playoffs. Whatever their parallel in pro sports might be, the Knights are very good at hockey. 

“There’s no jealousy in the room,” Mark Hunter tells Pyette. "They have a common goal of winning hockey games and I’m impressed with how the group of players keeps pushing and supporting each other. I think that’s what it’s all about when you have a hockey team.” 

You can read the full story right here.

Jim Parker covers the Spitfires for The Windsor Star and, this week, he answers questions about the team, the city and the league. If you have a question that you’d like one of our OHL reporters to answer, please drop us a line here: lfpnewsletters@postmedia.com 

Q: If the London Knights are the New York Yankees of the OHL, who are the Spitfires?  

A: It’s just my opinion, but I believe success in the OHL comes down to two main things — market and ownership. There are some terrific people in the OHL working in smaller markets, which often forces a more targeted approach to success every three-to-four years. Bigger markets simply have more resources to invest in the product, which is what happens in places like London, Kitchener, Oshawa, Windsor and others. However, the second key is how ownership utilizes those resources and if it’s used to invest in the product. Remember, London still holds the Canadian Hockey League record for the worst season record at 3-30-3 in 1995-96. However, Mark Hunter and Dale Hunter purchased the team in the spring of 2000 and the rest is history. If you look at Windsor, the ownership group of John Savage, Stephen Savage and Brian Schwab have followed in the footsteps of former owners Bob Boughner and Warren Rychel. The trio aren’t as hands on when it comes to putting players on the ice, but they have put good people in place and allowed them the freedom and resources to make the team competitive on a regular basis. If the Knights are the Yankees, please realize each team has just two (World Series or Memorial Cup) titles this century. Windsor is still the only team in the CHL to boast three Memorial Cup titles this century. So, maybe the Spitfires are more like the Boston Red Sox, who have four titles this century, or the San Francisco Giants, who also have three titles since 2010. 

Q: What is a reasonable expectation for Windsor next season? 

A: At the very least, a fourth West Division title in five years. If you look at some of the graduations that other teams will experience this year, the expectations will definitely be for the Spitfires to contend for a Western Conference title as well as an OHL championship. The club’s highly productive 2022 draft that brought standouts Anthony Cristoforo, Liam Greentree, A.J. Spellacy, Cole Davis and Carson Woodall into the fold all hit their final year of junior eligibility before several move on to pro life. 

Add to that a year of maturity from a potentially even more successful 2024 draft that brought in Ethan Belchetz, J.C. Lemieux, Carter Hicks, Max Brocklehurst, Andrew Robinson, Grady Spicer, Jake Windbiel and Ethan Garden, who all debuted in 2024-25, and there are plenty of building blocks in place for success next season and that doesn’t event count Ilya Protas and Jack Nesbitt as well as potential overagers Joey Costanzo and Wyatt Kennedy. 

Q: Where might you place a ceiling for a kid like Ethan Belchetz? He’s listed at 6-foot-5 and 226 pounds at only 17 – how scary might he end up being to play against?   

A: Although it might be going a little too far back for some fans, Belchetz has the physical attributes and scoring touch to be mentioned in the same breath as Eric Lindros. However, it’s up to Belchetz to raise his game and take it to that next level. In his rookie season, Belchetz showed he could be a dominant force at times - like four goals and six points in just his third game in the league. However, the OHL’s first overall pick was not the league’s rookie of the year. His size provided plenty of advantages in minor hockey to make room on the ice, but Belchetz found plenty of players that were as big in the OHL this season and not willing to make life easy for him. Belchetz will continue to get bigger and stronger, his abilities will also improve and become more refined. After 38 points in 56 games as a rookie, I would expect him to make an offensive jump as big as 2023 first-round pick Jack Nesbitt, who went from 18 points as a rookie to 64 as a sophomore and is now poised to be an NHL first-round pick. There are scouting services already touting Belchetz as a top five pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. If he continues to develop, as expected, don’t be surprised if the physical tools, paired with added offence, push him even higher up that list. 

Q: What are some of the long-term impacts you might see in the OHL because of the change to the NCAA eligibility rule?  

A: So much of this changing landscape is still not clear. Having players develop in the OHL before moving on to play in the NCAA after their overage season has benefits for both sides. However, when players opt to jump earlier than expected — like Henry Mews did by leaving Sudbury for Michigan and Luke Misa opting to leave Brampton for Penn State — it creates real planning problems for OHL teams looking to set up a program to make a run or focus on a rebuild. It’s still not clear what monetary incentives are there for players to head to the NCAA and things also have to be balanced out with junior hockey players only getting two years to sign with an NHL club after being drafted and NCAA players getting double that time. It has the potential to be a win-win for both sides, but it could also develop into a feeding frenzy for talent that will impact many junior teams and especially smaller market clubs.

Departed overager Tnias Mathurin. (Photo: Tiffany Luke, Kitchener Rangers)

In the old days of October 2024, players heading into their final year of OHL eligibility would have a handful of pathways to follow. If the NHL was not in their future, they could look to a career in the minor leagues or in Europe. They could look at Canadian universities.  

Flash forward to the modern day of November 2024, when the NCAA changed its rules to allow OHL veterans to play in its schools, an entirely new path has opened. And Windsor will send three more players down that path next season.  

As our Jim Parker reports, all three of the team’s overage players from the 2024-25 season have found a home in the U.S. collegiate system.  

Defenceman Tnias Mathurin is heading to the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Noah Morneau is headed to Bowling Green State University and Ryan Abraham is off to Michigan Tech University. 

“My head’s still on the route of going pro and (the NCAA) is more wanting to do more to try and chase (a pro career), especially with my career and with the injuries,” Mathurin tells Parker. “In the NCAA (pro scouts) still have eyes on you and it’s a chance to mature my game before I make that transition.”  

You can read the whole story right here.  

Life is not easy as a small-market team in the Ontario Hockey League. Teams in Windsor and London and Oshawa and Kitchener can pitch their fancy facilities, proximity to major markets and a long list of recent successes on the ice and in the NHL draft.  

Spare a moment for the North Bay Battalion.  

What do they pitch?  

“We are not London, we’re not Kitchener, but I think we have a program that is comparable in other ways,” Battalion president Adam Dennis tells our Greg Estabrooks. “I think the closeness and buy-in that we have with our community, the way our coaches have built the program up have put us into that realm." 

The Battalion has established ownership and stability in the front office. It has also gone on several extended runs in the OHL playoffs.  

“I think the number of free agents that have shown interest in our program is evidence of that," Dennis tells Estabrooks. “I think it’s cool that we have had some calls over the past couple of weeks from players looking for teams and we are on that list.” 

You can read the whole story right here.  

Maddox Schultz. In a hockey net. (Photo: Kayle Neis, Regina Leader-Post)

In Regina, our Darrell Davis spends some time getting to know Maddox Schultz, the 15-year-old who seems destined to become a familiar name in Canadian junior hockey circles.  

Davis reports Schultz is the son of two skating instructors. He’s a strong skater and a goal-scorer who has chewed through a half-dozen nets at the family home in Regina.  

“His hockey IQ, his explosiveness, his skill, compete, he’s the whole package,” his coach, Ryan Hodgins, tells Davis. “Plays really well in his own end, he’s defensively responsible and he makes his teammates better. He’s a good teammate.” 

You can read the full story right here.

(Photo: Bob Davies, Sault This Week)

With this week's entry of Snap Shot, we have achieved Snap Shot singularity, with James Elliott unleashing a Snap Shot during the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds development camp.