After a workmanlike 3-1 road win in Sudbury on Friday evening, the Barrie Colts welcome the North Bay Battalion for their home opener tonight at Sadlon Arena to begin the club’s 30th Ontario Hockey League season.
Game time is 7:30 p.m.
The Colts enter this season vastly transformed from last year’s rebuilding campaign. Here are half a dozen things to watch as the season dawns with the Colts considered one of the OHL’s best teams.
Who’s in, who’s out
The Colts had very few graduation losses from a team that finished eighth in the Eastern Conference. Local goaltending product Ben West and deadline pickup Thomas Stewart were the two most notable players who outgrew junior hockey.
Stewart’s fellow defencemen, Jack Brauti and Blair Scott, were traded. Chris Grisolia, Roenick Jodoin and Kyle Morey were released before the season started.
New arrivals are much more notable. NHL-drafted forwards Brad Gardiner, whose father, Bruce, grew up locally before embarking on a pro career, and Emil Hemming were added, as was another Dallas Stars prospect, defenceman Tristan Bertucci.
More recently, Swede Gabriel Eliasson came to Barrie after being picked by the Ottawa Senators in June, forgoing an opportunity to attend the University of Michigan next season.
Parker Vaughan was taken fifth overall in the spring draft and he looks like a keeper. That group joins a lineup that already included recently drafted Cole Beaudoin (Utah) and Riley Patterson (Vancouver) up front, and Kashawn Aitcheson, who is expected to be a top-50 NHL pick in 2025, at the back end.
Add in Beau Akey’s return to good health after missing most of last season and the Colts are flush with top-end talent.
Contrasting last season with this one, the Colts played the second half without an NHL-drafted player once Akey (Edmonton) was out and Eduard Sale (Seattle) was dealt. Right now, the Colts have seven players whose rights are owned by NHL teams, five of whom were taken in the first two rounds. Aitcheson effectively boosts that number to eight.
Additionally, the Colts own the OHL rights to John Mustard, a Chicago Blackhawks prospect, and Will Moore, a potential NHL first-rounder in June.
Backup blues?
The Colts will ride Sam Hillebrandt hard in goal, but the OHL plays a 68-game schedule shoe-horned between Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon each week. Backups need to play at least 18 to 20 games, often more.
Right now, the Colts’ nominal No. 2 is Ben Hrebik, with first-year Arvin Jaswal earning extended time in training camp and preseason.
Reading the tea leaves, it’s not a stretch to think general manager Marty Williamson will help his coach, the guy he sees in the mirror every morning, by adding a more experienced puck stopper.
That move, if it comes, will have to happen before December because Hillebrandt is expected to play for the United States at the World Junior Hockey Championship.
Parker and the pups must play
The Colts have loaded up, but the downside of being a contending team is finding a spot for your bright, young prospects.
Vaughan is the most notable example, but there are at least two or three other 16- and 17-year-olds currently with the Colts, and at least that many playing elsewhere after good training camps and/or preseasons. More opportunity could come in December/January, when a few Colts are expected to play in the World Junior in Ottawa.
Beaudoin used his increased role as an OHL rookie two years ago to blossom into a legitimate NHL prospect and he may well get the call to play in his hometown for Team Canada. It would be hard to imagine Beaudoin ascending that development curve so quickly without the opportunities Williamson gave him as a 16-year-old.
Mid-roster squeeze
With an impressive collection at the top end, and a few youngsters pushing up from the bottom, there remains an excess to requirements in the middle.
A pair of 2006-born forwards, Carter Lowe and Bode Stewart, both have the look of solid OHLers but have yet to break through as go-to guys.
Though a year younger, Shamar Moses has little wiggle room despite showing well as a brave, pesky rookie and coming into camp slimmed down and focused.
In OHL parlance, these are the types of players who could be moved if the Colts are looking to further bolster their lineup and, frankly, it may be good for them to get a better opportunity elsewhere. In saying that, Stewart looked sharp on Friday night, picking up two assists and being picked the game’s first star, and Lowe scored the eventual game winner.
Speaking of trades
Speculation involving the Colts has been rife all over the cesspool that is social media/comment forums. Eliasson’s pending move to Barrie was telegraphed for a few weeks. The longer melodrama involves Winnipeg Jets prospect Colby Barlow.
Barlow, who is from Orillia and has family ties to Barrie, will be dealt from the Owen Sound Attack when or if the Jets return him to junior hockey. The problem is the Jets could elect to play the long game with Barlow, which would impact his situation. Though it looked for a time as though Barlow could end up in Barrie, that possibility is now remote. The price is too high, and it may make more sense to seek help elsewhere at less steep of a cost.
Though stranger things have happened, such as:
Adding Moore Mustard?
Not only could Moore and Mustard help the Colts now, but they also cost nothing because Barrie owns their OHL rights. Less is known about Mustard, who is listed from Newmarket. He has also spent a significant time in the U.S. and is currently at Providence College.
It’s an open secret that the Colts have communicated with Moore’s family and representatives, but that “nothing is imminent,” according to one source with knowledge of the situation.
Feeling nosey and, frankly, bored at a recent preseason game, your humble scribbler sought out the opinion of an NHL scout. Asked what he would do if he were in Moore’s shoes — not yet in college, in his NHL draft year with an opportunity to play close to home on one of the OHL’s best teams — the man, an OHL graduate a notch younger than your typical scout, was succinct:
“I know what I’d be doing,” he said while gazing around Sadlon Arena. “I’d come here.”
