OHL 2013 Final Summary

The 2012-2013 OHL season sort of lacked its “big league” prowess compared to year’s past because of a lack of it’s junior star prowess in the upcoming NHL draft and the fact that somehow more OHL players graduate earlier than players in the WHL and the QMJHL. The lack of seasoned 20 year old players and a shorter schedule (68 OHL games compared to 72 WHL games) plus less travel than it’s WHL and QMJHL counterparts should mean that the younger 16 and 17 year old players would have it easier than most players but it did not transpire into a star studded campaign. Sean Monahan is probably the best that the OHL has for the upcoming 2013 draft but he has been very inconsistent with a struggling Ottawa 67′s team. Ryan Strome (New York Islanders draft pick) and Mark Scheifle (Winnipeg Jets draft pick) deserve honourable mentions for their great effort this season as well as Boone Jenner (Columbus Blue Jackets draft pick) who have demonstrated excellence in their on-ice play this season as that will go towards a great future for those youngsters and they were a part of the cast of an unusually high number of 19 year ld players that played in the OHL this season. Goaltender Malcolm Subban was arguably the top goaltender this season as he led his Belleville Bulls team to first place in their conference and look ready for a deep playoff run.

As I mentioned the Belleville Bulls will take a serious run at the OHL Championship as well as the London Knights who have a couple of highly touted 2013 NHL draft prospects as well as a dominating cast of veterans including Olli Maata, Seth Griffith and Alex Broadhurst who have bee great playing together this season. High profile draft prospects Max Domi (son of Tie Domi) and Bo Horvat who both are expected to be drafted in the top 60 have had great success this season with the Knights as they all want a piece of the Memorial Cup as they are expected to make a deep run into the playoffs and they are the favourite to win the OHL title.

The offensively deep Plymouth Whalers and the poised and experienced Barrie Colts are expected to be in the hunt for the OHL title as well with each placing 2nd in their respective conferences this year. The favourable underdog team to try and steal the show is probably the defensive savvy Owen Sound Attack who ranked first in least goals against this year as they boast the likes of defenceman Cody Ceci and goaltender Jordan innington who played for the world juniors for team Canada last winter. Another team that has a good chance of making it deep is the sizable Oshawa Generals who have the two best power forwards in the league with Boone Jenner and Tyler Biggs playing on the top line. They have good secondary scoring with Scott Laughton and Scott Sabourin providing point per game offense.

My pick for the dark horse this season is the Guelph Storm (5th in the west) because of their goals differential. Whenever you come across a team that has scored a lot more goals than goals against but yet doesn’t get as many wins as they should have means that they dominated in their wins but lost a few tight battles and teams like that have the element to surprise but the Storm do not boast any big names nor they have a star scorer but they play as a team and they have the ability to be clutch when push comes to shove and they have a small chance in advancing to the OHL finals although I doubt it because London and Belleville have made significant progress into making deep playoff runs.

Player	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
1		Vincent Trocheck	Plymouth Whalers (total)	63	50	59	109	58
			Saginaw Spirit	35	24	26	50	34
			Plymouth Whalers	28	26	33	59	24
2		Charles Sarault	Sarnia Sting	68	22	86	108	28
3		Nick Cousins	Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds	64	27	76	103	83
4		Eric Locke	Saginaw Spirit	68	44	53	97	84
5		Reid Boucher	Sarnia Sting	68	62	33	95	53
6		Ryan Strome	Niagara IceDogs	53	34	60	94	59
7		Garret Ross	Saginaw Spirit	61	44	46	90	114
8		Kerby Rychel	Windsor Spitfires	68	40	47	87	94
9		Max Domi	London Knights	64	39	48	87	71
10		Boone Jenner	Oshawa Generals	56	45	37	82	58
11		Seth Griffith	London Knights	54	33	48	81	52
12		Zach Hall	Barrie Colts	63	24	57	81	38
13		Mark Scheifele	Barrie Colts	45	39	40	79	30
14		Daniel Catenacci	Owen Sound Attack	67	38	41	79	115
15		Sean Monahan	Ottawa 67′s	58	31	47	78	24
16		Brett Ritchie	Niagara IceDogs	53	41	35	76	40
17		Cameron Brace	Owen Sound Attack	66	35	39	74	74
18		Tyler Graovac	Belleville Bulls (total)	60	38	35	73	18
			Ottawa 67′s	30	21	14	35	8
			Belleville Bulls	30	17	21	38	10
19		Joshua Leivo	Kitchener Rangers (total)	63	29	44	73	52
			Sudbury Wolves	34	19	25	44	34
			Kitchener Rangers	29	10	19	29	18
20		Riley Brace	Mississauga Steelheads	66	21	52	73	89

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