SPITFIRE SPOTLIGHT is In Play! Magazine’s new feature that will highlight our coverage of the Windsor Spitfires. Our OHL Editor, John Humphrey will be interviewing current Spitfires players, coaches and other team personnel, in addition to your favourite Spits players from past seasons both long ago and not-o-long ago.
In the first instalment of SPITFIRE SPOTLIGHT John Humphrey interviews Windsor Spitfires General Manager Bill Bowler.
Windsor Spitfire GM Bill Bowler has long been one of the storied OHL franchise’s most iconic players. Drafted in the 13th round, 199th overall, of the 1991 OHL Priority Selection, Bowler went on to play four seasons with the Spitfires at the venerable Windsor Arena, starting with the 1991-92 OHL season. His career point total of 467 points continue to be the team’s most all-time and his 318 assists are still the OHL record.
Bowler’s number nine was retired by the Spitfires on December 10, 2011 and his banner has been high among the rafters at the WFCU Centre ever since.
After serving as the head coach and general manager of both the Chatham Maroons and then the LaSalle Vipers of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Bowler re-joined the Spitfires in July of 2019 as general manager when he took over from Warren Rychel.
Windsor Spitfire icon Bowler spoke with In Play’s Humphrey after his team had lost the first two games of the 2023-2024 OHL season.
In Play! Magazine (IPM) : What is your reaction to your team’s start to the 2023-2024 Ontario Hokey League regular season?
Bill Bowler (BB): It’s the start of a new season and we have a new coaching staff (former assistant coach Jerrod Smith has taken over as head coach after Marc Savard joined the coaching staff of the Calgary Flames and Casey Torres has joined the Spitfires as an assistant coach) and we have a lot of new faces in our lineup too. We are just getting going and we have a lot of time to improve our play, which I am sure that we will.
IPM: Talk about your 2023-2024 roster of the Windsor Spitfires.
BB: We have a lot of talent at every position and we have a great mix of veterans and first and second-year players too. We have size, speed and skill throughout our lineup and we have a lot of depth so when the turnover in our roster happens every season it is not as drastic as it could be. I have been saving it for awhile now that we want to be competitive every season instead of loading up for just one season. We like the makeup of our team and we just have to wait and get everyone healthy and back into our lineup and see how things play out from there.
IPM: The Spitfires have three players – Liam Greentree, Anthony Cristofaro and AJ Spellacy all eligible for the 2024 NHL Entry Draft and they are all highly-regarded. Is there a plan in place to keep the scouts’ room well-stocked this season?
BB:– There’s no question that those three are solid players and great persons and they are going to be looked at by NHL teams all season long by NHL scouts as well as other players on our team who are also eligible. They all played in the Hlinka/Gretzky Tournament (a summertime event that is widely considered to be the unofficial World Under 18 championship tournament) and they ll performed well. I think they have all been on the radar of NHL teams for awhile now and we are going to give them, and everyone else on our team the opportunity to prove themselves.
Everyone wants to improve their rating for the draft and there is a long season ahead for them to do just that.
IPM: Before you re-joined the Spitfires you were the head coach and general manager of the LaSalle Vipers, the Spits’ top farm team in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. How important is that relationship for the overall success of the Spitfires?
BB: The importance of that relationship is huge not only for us, but also for the Vipers. I don’t know if there are more injuries or more illnesses of players than there was seasons ago, but we also have to deal with the management of cards (player contracts) and the number of players that are available to us. To be successful in the OHL you have to have a good affiliation program and that is what we have with LaSalle. We also have some floating affiliates (players who are under contract with the Spitfires and who do not play in LaSalle) that we also have and those players are important for the overall success of the Spitfires too.
IPM: The Spitfires are starting the season (after opening on the road against the Sarnia Sting at the Progressive Auto Sales Arena on September 29) with an extended five-game home stand. Is that something that you wanted to do and how does that affect the team’s schedule for the rest of the season?
BB: I don’t think we have ever had so many games at home to start a regular season and we didn’t ask for it, it was just the way that things worked out. The OHL has to consider the availability of 20 facilities, in two countries, around the league when it comes to making the scheduling of games. It is a time-consuming process and while we are opening with most of our games at the WFCU Centre, before the end of the regular season we will play as many games on the road as we do at home.
I don’t know if there is an advantage or disadvantage to playing most our games at this time of the year.