Spitfires’ Roster Rebuild Begins as OHL Trade Window and Draft Approach – Hockey Writers – OHL

With the 2026 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Memorial Cup wrapped up in Kelowna, BC, (congrats to the Kitchener Rangers), the focus is now on the 2026-27 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) season. For the Windsor Spitfires, that means a rebuilding of the roster, and the work starts right away.

After making a run to the championship this season (losing to the Rangers in the Western Conference finals), Spitfires general manager Bill Bowler knows this season won’t be easy. With so many holes to fill on the roster and the club looking to rebuild, June has the potential to be a key player in the process. Let’s break it down.

Spitfires’ Roster Work-in-Progress for Bowler

The OHL has more of a cycle than the NHL where, if you go to the championship game in 2025-26, chances are you will rebuild in 2026-27. That’s what happened to the Spitfires.

A bowler has his work cut out for him. He would lose goaltender (20-year-old) Joey Costanzo, defenseman Wyatt Kennedy, and Alex Pharand to graduation. After that, you can add forward captain Liam Greentree (New York Rangers), AJ Spellacy (Chicago Blackhawks), and Nathan Villeneuve (Seattle Kraken), all of whom will go forward.

In November 2024, the NCAA and CHL agreed on a new transfer rule, allowing players to move freely between leagues. With that, we can include forwards Jack Nesbitt (University of Michigan), Ethan Belchetz (Michigan State University), and Cole Davis (University of Connecticut), as well as defensemen Carson Woodall (Boston College) and Jakub Fibigr (Ohio State University) in the list of graduates. There’s a lot to take in.

With the new transfer rule, the Spitfires can’t rule out the potential loss of senior defenseman Conor Walton and defenseman-turned-forward Anthony Cristoforo to the college route, either. Both are tentatively penciled in for next season, but the movers are there for a reason.

If Bowler had lost his overagers and NHL prospects, he would have sent in players like Cristoforo, Davis, Belchetz and Fibigr to help rebuild. Instead, they are left with more and more holes and a difficult time finding the assets to move. How do they rebuild? With two drafts, trades, and free agents, they are now underway.

Building from Frameworks

In the next two weeks, the Spitfires will participate in two drafts – the OHL Under-18 Draft and the OHL Draft.

The OHL Under-18 Draft takes place online on Monday, June 8 at 7:00 pm Every OHL team drafts two players (or three, if a goaltender is selected) under the age of 18, who were not protected by an OHL team, and play for an authorized U18 AAA club in Ontario, Ontario Hockey season, Ontario Hockey Federation, Northern Hockey Federation, Northern Hockey Ontario

The good news is that it gives the bowler three more options. The bad news is that most of the players selected are very deep. In 2024, the club selected goalkeeper Michael Newlove for the first time, and he became Costanzo’s backup this season. Besides, they don’t have much more than “break the glass in case of injury” effectiveness. However, the draft could work as Saginaw Spirit forward Calem Mangone (227 points in 241 games) and London Knights forward Jacob Julien (148 points in 172 games) were both selected in 2021.

The main event will be the OHL Draft on Fri., June 12 and Sat., June 13, taking place in person at Slush Puppy Place in Kingston. Due to his deadline acquisition, and according to the OHL Draft Pick Database, Bowler has a first-round pick, two in the fourth round, and picks in Rounds 7 through 15. It’s eerily reminiscent of the 2023 Draft where they only had picks in the first, fifth, and sixth rounds because of the 3022-in2 re-entry. Unfortunately, Nesbitt (first round) is the only core of that draft.

In this case, the bowler needs to hit as many wickets as possible, especially in the first and fourth round. Their first round pick has the potential to step in and contribute on the first night. That’s what 2025 first-round pick John McLaughlin did. He earned the trust of head coach Greg Walters, played early, and became a big piece of their playoff run.

Bowler won’t replace everyone in the draft, but he’ll be an important step to fill a few holes this summer.

Trade, free agent, and transfer season is here

Tuesday morning marked the opening of the June OHL trade window, and we’ve already seen a few deals around the league, including a repeat of the Brantford Bulldogs.

The trade window is open from now until Friday, June 26, except for June 11-15 when it is closed for the OHL Draft. We are likely to see more moves around the league, and that should include the Spitfires. However, there are two sides to this letter.

While Bowler has plenty of gaps to fill, he’s not known for making moves in June. The last time he did it was in 2023 when he traded defenseman Jacob Holmes to the Kingston Frontenacs to start that rebuild. He also doesn’t have many picks or players to work with because of previous trades and the aforementioned NCAA changes. He may have to develop or risk a player with untapped potential.

He could also go the free agency route, as he did last summer with defenseman Jonathan Brown. Bowler brought in an 18-year-old boy from Shattuck-St. Mary’s and, while Brown committed to Yale in 2026-27, pushed it back to 2027-28 to give him two seasons in the OHL. Another signing or two like that would go a long way in helping the new system.

Bowler can also look to his previous draft to bring in players who have played elsewhere this season such as 2024 OHL fifth-round pick Sam Wathier (US National U18 team and Boston College commit) or 2025 CHL first-round pick Michal Svrcek (Slovakian forward who plays in Sweden). Although it may not be easy to convince, both could be important players for 2026-27.

There are plenty of gaps to fill in the Spitfires roster, but June is a prime time to start that process. Although a bowler is usually patient and quiet before making any move, he is entering a crucial period to the next stage. We’ll see if calm and calculation wins the race before the calendar turns to July.