We’re finally here. The 2025-26 OHL season kicks off tonight, with the Oshawa Generals hosting the North Bay Battalion, and the Brampton Steelheads taking on the Peterborough Petes.
As the new year commences, let us take a look at five games that OHL fans will want to tune into on opening week.
Thursday, September 18, has two games to begin the OHL season. One of them is between Brampton and Peterborough, where we will see the regular season debut of the 2025 first-overall pick, Kaden McGregor.
McGregor will get to experience what a packed Peterborough Memorial Centre looks and feels like, and all eyes will be on the Jack Ferguson Award winner. He didn’t light up the pre-season with points, recording only one goal in three games. However, his game isn’t strictly built on production. He’s an uber-competitive forward who will outwork his opposition for pucks and holds himself accountable. Though McGregor may not be putting up the points in a game, you can expect him to be increasing the tempo and pace of the game.
Brampton will also be interesting to watch this year, as most media members around the OHL expect them to take a step back and enter into a rebuild. However, they went 4-1-1 in the pre-season, and had three players in the top 10 for scoring: Julian Demiglio (10), Kieran Witkowski (9), and Gabriel Chiarot (7).
Let’s foreshadow something. We enter May, and the OHL Finals are about to begin. It’s the Brantford Bulldogs facing off against the Kitchener Rangers. The reason for this foreshadowing is that both teams are expected to be among the top teams for the upcoming season. The OHL recently released its first power rankings. Brantford earned the top spot, while the Rangers weren’t far behind at number three.
This is surely to be one of the most competitive games of opening week. Both teams possess an abundance of talent and depth at the forward position, allowing them to go toe-to-toe in matchups. Brantford finished the pre-season with the best record at 5-1, and even though they lost 70-goal scorer Nick Lardis, the team comfortably replaced him with a surplus of forwards — Adam Benak, Sam McCue, Cooper Dennis, and Caleb Malhotra.
We mentioned when first-overall selection Kaden McGregor’s regular season debut was, so let’s look at when the second-overall pick, Jaakko Wycisk, will make his debut.
The Guelph Storm have its season-opener against the Erie Otters on Friday, Sept. 19. Let’s be honest, the Storm weren’t a very entertaining team to watch last season. They got a little more excitement once forward Lev Katzin joined the team in December, but there really wasn’t a lot of star power on the team to get fans out of their seats at the Sleeman Centre.
One of the most exciting players on Guelph’s roster heading into the new season is their first selection from the 2025 draft, Wycisk. He tied Illia Shybinskyi for most points on Guelph during the pre-season with five, already creating some eye-popping moments. At 16 years old, Wycisk already possesses the strength and dexterity to knife through opponents in high-traffic areas to create scoring chances. Early betting odds for OHL Rookie of the Year should have him near the top of the list.
Here’s another game featuring two teams who are expected to contend for an OHL Championship this season. Can the London Knights complete the three-peat? The Windsor Spitfires ended the previous season in rather embarrassing fashion, getting reverse-swept by Kitchener in the second round of the playoffs. The returning players are bound to play with a chip on their shoulder, and we will see if that edge begins in their first game against the champs.
There will be plenty of scouts at every Spitfires game this year, with 2024 first-overall pick Ethan Belchetz entering his NHL draft season. The unicorn, a highly talented 6-foot-5 power forward, is projected to go in the top ten. The Hockey News writer Ryan Kennedy listed Belchetz 4th overall in his early top 32 rankings list. TSN’s Craig Button had him 5th overall, behind Niagara IceDogs forward Ryan Roobroeck. Will Belchetz hit the 40-goal and eclipse the 100-point mark? He certainly has the skill set to do so.
The last game fans will want to tune into is of a rivalry, which is a long-standing one in the OHL. Kingston and Oshawa rarely ever play a game that isn’t chippy and filled with many trips to the penalty box. Both teams kicked off the OHL season last year, with the Generals winning a tight game 3-2. Ironically, there weren’t a lot of penalties or animosity in that game. However, they played each other one month later, and that game featured two fights and a total of 22 infractions, resulting in 50 penalty minutes.
Now, Oshawa’s star forward Beckett Sennecke and captain Ben Danford, along with Kingston’s firepower of Jacob Battaglia, Tyler Hopkins, and Kieren Dervin, will not be in this game as they attend NHL training camps, unless they are cut early. The talent level of this game drops off with those five absent, but it also allows some players to get a first taste of OHL action and make a strong first impression as to why they should remain with the team once those players come back. For this reason, it should create a more competitive environment for both teams.
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