The OHL Podcast

After a solid season in the discipline and reaction-time department, the OHL blew all of its goodwill out of the water with a frustratingly inconsistent final few weeks. Dan and Mike have some hopes for the off-season ahead when it comes to improvements to how the league dispenses justice and how it supports its officiating teams. Plus, increasing competition for the top 16-year old prospects shou...

From small town Ontario to OHL captain, where his time with the Kitchener Rangers is still marked by a disappointing playoff loss to the Peterborough Petes. Though drafted by the New York Rangers, Larry Huras really made his mark in Europe, where he's a multi-time European champion. The so-called "hockey lifer" is still in the game as he shares his coaching knowledge with the next generation. With...

With a red-hot Eastern Conference team and playoff races coming down to the wire, there's a lot to love in the OHL right now. Unfortunately, the OHL's own mess off the ice is the big story of the week and Dan and Mike dive into the terrible precedent that's been set by the league walking back its bounty suspensions. On the ice, it's all about Oshawa and how they've created some separation in a cro...

The investigation is complete and the punishment is severe after a bounty scandal in the Ontario Hockey League. Dan and Mike think the league sent an important message with the ruling, though, and they wonder about the impact on the Wolves' playoff hopes. Plus, London makes it five division titles in a row, the Otters return to the post-season after a seven-year absence (sort of), Guelph gets scre...

The Kitchener Rangers celebrated the 1982 Memorial Cup team last week and more than a dozen players from the franchise's first championship showed up. For some, it was their first time back inside the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium since they played in the arena more than 40 years ago. The Aud has undergone a couple of significant renovations since 1982 but the building still brought back a lot of...

Another off-ice story forces the guys to address the culture of the game and even brings out an appearance from Podcast Dad (aka Farwell). Then, it's on to a statement week by Oshawa, the race to the top of the East, the race to the bottom of the West, the race to 50 wins, 50-and-30-goal milestones, and a celebration of a couple of memorable championship teams. It's the content you can't get anywh...

Memorial Cup champion with the Niagara Falls Flyers. Captain of the Ottawa 67's. Drafted by the New York Rangers. Played pro in three leagues but you only need two words to describe Doug Keeler. Old. School. From bounties to goalie fights, and the time Don Cherry wanted to make sure "Digger" didn't get a hat trick when he played against him, take a trip down memory lane with Keeler. He's sure to m...

The Sudbury Wolves are being investigated for what could be the Ontario Hockey League's own bounty scandal, while a former Greyhound is suing the staff in the Soo. Meantime, Dan and Mike are also talking about the league's own rulings as a rash of suspensions has fans wondering what's right, what's wrong, and if the OHL front office can be influenced. All of that, plus the most colourful coach's c...

Sudbury makes a statement while the Storm struggle through the second half. Plus, Sawyer Boulton is in hot water with the league and that's got Farwell a little hot under the collar. While Boulton awaits his ruling, Connor Lockhart returns, the guys explore whether exceptions need to be made to the number of player cards available in an emergency, the new Commissioner might be newer than you think...

The Knights appear unstoppable, off-ice trouble in Oshawa casts another shadow over the game, the penalty thresholds we did not know existed, and the impact of a possible NCAA decision to accept players who have also played in the CHL. All of that, plus straight-to-the-point emails from the guys' Inbox, a tale of two goaltenders, the Petes paying a steep price, those funny Flint Firebirds, your De...

A banner is removed, another player leaves the ice for the classroom, and a closer look at the Flint Firebirds. Dan and Mike unintentionally run through the entire West Division before getting into why they love the East, how hard it is (or isn't) to score 50 goals, and whether or not there's a future for 3-in-3s in the OHL. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for informa...

Are star players still getting preferential treatment? A recent suspension ruling in the OHL suggests the answer to that question is yes. Plus, a scary incident in Sudbury injures a star player and has many questioning the role of the referee when two players clearly want to fight. There are also a couple of Eastern Conference teams catching our eye, streaks stopping and streaks starting, and our...

A first-place showdown that should have been a showcase for the Ontario Hockey League instead turns into a gong show in London. Plus, the Bulldogs have bite and the East remains anyone's conference. We've also got an unintentional series of bold predictions, hands being tentatively backed away from panic buttons, responses to your emails, and our Prospects of the Week. Hosted by Simplecast, an Ads...

As the dust settles on the trade deadline, there's added drama as a traded player decides to go to school and now the team that acquired him wants the league to investigate. Dan and Mike do some investigation of their own before also diving into the white hot Green Machine in London, pump some tires in Oshawa while worrying a little bit about Owen Sound, and chuckle over some misadventures while b...

More than 50 players and 100 draft picks were traded from the end of the Christmas break to the trade deadline on January 10th. The Saginaw Spirit did what they promised and found just about every available player, adding a whopping 10 new pieces in total. But it was the Owen Sound Attack who surprised some by being the first team to jump into the trade pool after Christmas and, by the time all wa...

We're still here! And we wanted to check in during this half-holiday kind of week. The kids may not be back in school from Christmas break (at least in Ontario) but the Ontario Hockey League is back in our favourite arenas and is it ever bringing drama! We've got a 7th place team making trades to add assets, the London-Sarnia rivalry delivering some suspensions, an utterly bananas Eastern Conferen...

Either one of us is soft or the other is an a$$hole. Or, maybe, two people can just disagree on a point of view and still be friends after. That might be the case following our discussion about the suspension of coach Greg Walters. There's also another suspension to Sawyer Boulton to talk about, some small(ish) trades, milestones to mark, and mid-season awards to hand out! All of that in this epis...

It would seem to be a full-circle story, but I don't think this story is finished yet. Rob Wilson played on a Peterborough Petes championship team and then, more than 30 years later, he coached the Petes to another OHL championship. But there's also all the stuff in between, including when he'd almost given up on hockey but was coaxed back into the game, only to win a Colonial Cup. From Ontario to...

The Wolves make their move in the East (and we don't think it will be their last) and, as we head into the Christmas break, there are at least a dozen teams who have to think they're in the mix. So, what does that mean for this year's trade deadline and where will we see the most activity? The guys give it their best guess, plus look at the season-to-season progress of the Kitchener Rangers, wonde...

He held Kingston's franchise record for goals as a rookie for 40 years (until some kid named Shane Wright came along). He still holds the record for most goals and points in a single season. He's also one of only a handful of NHL players to score 70 goals in a season and one of only a slightly larger number to score 150 points in a single NHL season. And all along the way, Bernie Nicholls did it h...

The guys didn't plan it this way but there's a lot of love for the East this week, while a little concern has been noted in the West. OK, there's a little concern in the East too, but such is life in the OHL as the calendar flips and we wait for a team to take the reins and start running away with the league. Dan and Mike discuss some of their favourite storylines right now, have a little fun with...

He was a rookie with the Oshawa Generals Memorial Cup team in 1990 so he didn't see any ice during the playoffs but Mark Deazeley would go on later to score one of the biggest goals in Toledo hockey history and not only win his championship, but earn a spot in the city's Sports Hall of Fame. Everything in between is a blur of pro stops, substance abuse, and a revealing book about pent up trauma an...

The league loves it. Governors love it. Almost all fans love it. But is the parity we're seeing in the OHL this season something to celebrate? Dan and Mike debate what may be an unprecedented level of parity in the league. Plus, some chalk talk about coaching, a discussion about the best player in the league today, a message to national hockey organizations about the World Junior Championship, rec...

The knock was always that he was too small. But from junior to the pros, Don Edwards didn't listen. He just stopped pucks. From the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL to a Vezina Trophy with the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, Edwards would go on to play for two more teams, including his childhood favourite Toronto Maple Leafs. He was also a member of Team Canada at the 1981 Canada Cup and his story about getting...

Just your average week in junior hockey as the Memorial Cup hosts begin to assert themselves (and make some slick additions to boot), the defending OHL champs are turning heads almost one-third of the way into the season, and the Barrie Colts suffer a big blow. Plus, a Sudbury slide, woes in Windsor, how the league can bring us closer to the game, and our Prospects of the Week. The OHL Podcast is...