2024-25 OHL season preview
Can anyone top the London Knights this season?
That’s the biggest question around the OHL as the 2024-25 season gets set to begin tonight.
The 2023-24 J. Ross Robertson Cup winners, the Knights return a large portion of their winning roster this season.
While questions loom over whether Easton Cowan (TOR) will stick in the NHL coming out of camp, the Knights can expect to see Denver Barkey (PHI), Oliver Bonk (LDN), Sam Dickinson (SJ), Ruslan Gazizov, Kasper Halttunen (SJ), Jacob Julien (WPG), William Nicholl (EDM), Sam O’Reilly (EDM), Jared Woolley (LA) in the lineup each night. Plus, they added Jesse Nurmi (NYI) in the CHL Import Draft.
Dale Hunter’s squad will begin the season as the no. 3 ranked team in the CHL’s Top 10 preseason rankings.
However, the threat of the Brampton Steelheads looms large. Ranked no. 2 to start the season, the Steelheads made a splash in the offseason ahead of their move out of Mississauga.
They acquired 50-goal man Carson Rehkopf (SEA) from Kitchener and boast many NHL prospects of their own that include Angus MacDonell (DAL) and Luke Misa (CGY). The club also has one of the top prospects for the 2025 NHL Draft in Porter Martone while Jack Ivankovic (2025) has the crease to himself after Ryerson Leenders (BUF) was moved to Brantford.
The Oshawa Generals – who fell to London in the OHL Championship Series last season – return many of their stars that includes Ben Danford (TOR), Cal Ritchie (COL) and Beckett Sennecke (ANA), who was the third overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. They begin the season ranked no. 8.
Expect Brantford to also be in contention with a roster that is headlined by a pair of Chicago Blackhawks prospects in Nick Lardis and Marek Vanacker. The Bulldogs took the tenth spot in the CHL’s Top 10 preseason rankings.
Every game from the OHL can be seen live on CHL TV.
Watch live on CHL TV
Available to fans from coast to coast, CHL TV is accessible on the CHL mobile app, in addition to Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire, and online at watch.chl.ca. Each year, CHL TV offers access to more than 2,000 regular-season games covering the CHL’s three Member Leagues and 60 markets across Canada and the United States. Fans can download the free CHL app via the App Store and Google Play.
