Spitfires shouldn’t shake up lineup with trades to win a championship this season
Yes, the Windsor Spitfires are off to an outstanding start to the 2024-2025 Ontario Hockey League season. Yes, the Windsor Spitfires have quickly established themselves as the surprise team not only in the OHL, but perhaps in the entire Canadian Hockey League. And yes, the Windsor Spitfires have proven themselves to be a team to be reckoned with.
But no, with less than two months until the January 10 trade deadline, Spits general manager, Bill Bowler, should not go out and bring in a star or superstar player or two to make a championship run this season. Quite frankly, the cost would be too high and there is too much talent on this team for this to be a one-off season of greatness.
Sorry to disappoint you Spits fans, but your favourite junior hockey team has not arrived early and this is not their year to go all-in. This is the first of what will hopefully be a string of successive championship-contending teams. But this is just season one of that program and the 20024-2025 campaign should be viewed and used as a launch pad of sorts.
The 2024-2025 edition of the Windsor Spitfires are a talented team, but they are a young talented team and other talented teams around the league have had their sights set on this season as perhaps being their championship run year. As such, these teams are going to spend, spend, spend to improve their teams, perhaps overtaking the Spitfires in the process. But these teams are gong to pay a heavy price – likely in terms of young players and future draft picks. Let these teams pay those prices as it will lessen their ability to match trade offers of the Spitfires in future seasons – when the young players of today have more experience and have polished their skills over the course of two or three seasons.
The Spitfires are going to be good – very good – in 2025-2026. The only three players that are guaranteed not to be back next season from this current squad is the overage contingent of defenceman Tnias Mathurin and forwards Noah Morneau and Ryan Abraham.
Current OHL scoring leader and Spits team captain Liam Greentree, currently in his third season in Windsor, may indeed be graduate a season early and joint the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. Greentree was selected in the first round, 26th overall, of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft by the Kings and will get a long look at their training camp in the fall of 2025.
Rookie centre Ilya Protas, who has 10 goals in his first 12 games as a Spitfire, could also be in Windsor for just one season as the big forward from Belarus was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the third round, 75th overall, in the 2024 NHL player lottery, from Des Moines of the United States Hockey League, where he played last season. As such, the Capitals will have the option of assigning him either to their American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey, Pennsylvania or the Spitfires next season. However, the Caps brass might look favourably on returning Protas to Windsor where he would again be a key player on another talented laden Spitfires squad that could contend for an OHL championship.
If and when other OHL contending teams make a big splash at the trade deadline and then eventually catch up to and surpass the Spitfires in 2024-2025, don’t fret too much Spits fans as the price that these clubs will pay shortly will greatly diminish their ability to pay for similar upgrades for the next couple of seasons. This is the start of great things to come for the Spitfires, and there is no need to rush things!
If Bill Bowler does make a move leading up to the trade deadline, it should be for a stay-at-home physical veteran defenceman who has a penchant for clearing-out the crease in front of goaltenders Joey Costanzo and Carter Frogrett. And hopefully an incoming rearguard, if there is one, will have a 2006 birth-date show he will be here not only for the remainder of the current OHL campaign, but perhaps for the next two (including a potential overage season) and will be a key cog in the team’s ongoing development.
The Spitfires do have a full draft pick cupboard for the next three seasons which would be put to best use either by making the picks at the OHL Priority Selection. The team has 14 plus one conditional draft picks in 2025, 16 draft selections in 2026 and another 15 in 2027. These totals include five second round picks (two in both 2025 and 2027 and one in 2026) which are the most valuable draft selections that OHL teams can trade away.
All of these picks could/should be in play AFTER this season as the Spitfires look to build upon the solid foundation of players that they already have. A few of these future draft choices could/should be moved out in order to bring in an impact player or two, especially since there might not be many roster spots to fill on the next few Spits teams.
In addition to the current talented core of young players toiling in Windsor this season, the Spitfires also have three players – forwards Max Brocklehurst and Julian Gignac and goaltender Jake Windbiel. The trio could all be full-time Spits in 2025-2026 and beyond.