Windsor Spitfires hope to rebound after down year with top OHL draft pick Belchetz
The Windsor Spitfires will play their Ontario Hockey League (OHL) regular season home opener Saturday night, hoping to build on a perfect 5-0 preseason record and a 5-4 victory over the Saginaw Spirit Wednesday in their season debut.
The game against the Kitchener Rangers will be the Spits' third of the season; the second is on Friday, when they face off against the Sarnia Sting at Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia.
Windsor had a poor showing in 2023-2024, finishing last in the West Division with just 44 points and a record of 18 wins, 42 losses, five overtime loses and three shootout losses.
But it's coming into 2024-2025 with a new, experienced head coach in Greg Walters and the first overall draft pick, Ethan Belchetz.
"I think it's been pretty good so far," Belchetz told CBC.
'It's been super exciting'
"We're just clicking as a team right now, and it's been really fun, and it's been super exciting."
A journalism student and longtime Spitfires fan called Belchetz "an excellent unit," a player who is huge for his age, who already has "an NHL body," and who possesses a tremendous skill set.
"He's a borderline great skater, possesses a silky set of mitts, and he can absolutely rip the puck, sometimes rifling it past the goalie at a moment's notice," Kameron Seguin said.
"You never expect much from a 16-year-old in his rookie year, but I would not be shocked at all if he ended up over a point per game, especially playing with this offence."
Belchetz, who previously played in Oakville, had two assists in the Saginaw game, both on power plays.
Ethan Belchetz, from Oakville, Ont., was the first overall pick in the 2024 OHL draft by the Windsor Spitfires. (Meg Roberts/CBC)
He spent the summer preparing for his OHL debut by working on his skills, his speed and his conditioning, he said.
"The biggest thing for me was to keep up with the fast pace of the OHL," Belchetz said.
"As a bigger guy, that might be a little difficult ... but yeah, this summer I've worked on the conditioning a lot and really focused on mobilization so I don't get injured or anything like that."
Seguin said other players to watch on the Spitfires team this year include forwards Liam Greentree — recently a first-round draft pick for the NHL's Los Angeles Kings; AJ Spellacy; Ryan Abraham and Ilya Protas and defencemen Anthony Cristoforo and Tnias Mathurin.
New coach Greg Walters will help give the team structure and attention to detail on the defensive end, he added, something he also brought to his previous team, the Owen Sound Attack.
"More than anything, he expects his team to be defensively responsible," Seguin said.
"I think another thing to look out for is the size of the Spits. They have a large team with guys like Belchetz, Jack Nesbitt, Ethan Martin and Connor Walton. They all kind of tower over the opposition teams. Walters wants the guys to take the body, and the Spits are well-equipped to do that."
Seguin said he is excited to experience the atmosphere in the WFCU Centre on Saturday night.
"Spits fans didn't have a ton to cheer about last year," he said. "But when the Dub gets rocking, it's absolutely electric."
