With the Guelph Storm set to kick off its 2024-25 campaign tonight at the Sleeman Centre against the Owen Sound Attack, the team has made it clear it’s big picture focus is on the future, building around the 11 players on this year’s team who are 16 and 17 years old.
That doesn’t mean good things can’t happen this year.
The OHL Western Conference appears to have one great team, a couple of good teams and then seven teams that are all at various stages of building for the future, not this season.
That means Guelph could finish anywhere from fourth in the conference to out of the playoffs.
You can see our OHL preview here.
New Guelph Storm coach Cory Stillman isn’t about to say too much about how his team will play this season.
The Storm kicks off the 2023 campaign tonight at the new Friday game time of 7:07 p.m. at the Sleeman Centre against the Owen Sound Attack.
“I can’t give away secrets, can I? Stillman said with a laugh Friday morning.
“It won’t be conservative. We’re going to go hard. In today’s game, like everyone says, we want to play fast paced. Play the game fast, but with structure.
“We know we’re going to make mistakes and we’re going to have to have support for players that make mistakes. If you make one by working hard, there will be another guy to cover up for you. We just can’t afford to make two mistakes on the same play.”
Training camp answered many questions, but some remain.
“Still questions to be answered. There’s a new staff, new players, new system: so there will still be some questions … there will still be mistakes made, but as long as we can learn from them and not continue to make them, we’ll become a better team.”
With five or six teams in the Western Conference in rebuild mode, Stillman agrees his team could finish in the top four or it could be fighting for a playoff spot.
“Among the teams that are rebuilding it’s going to be who can get a jump early,” the coach says. “The month of October and into November we’ll start to see the teams that are separating themselves from the rest … the playoffs is a goal and home ice would be better. But it’s Sept. 27th, we’ll have to see how everything plays out.”
Guelph will be missing some bodies tonight.
Jett Luchanko and Vilmer Alriksson are still at NHL camps and a flu bug is running through the team and some players won’t be able to go.
Get there early: Friday night home games now have an earlier 7:07 p.m.
New bench crew: Cory Stillman is the new coach, replacing Chad Wiseman. Associate coach is Rob Davison and assistant coach is Scott Simmonds.
Who’s gone: Braeden Bowman, Gavin Grundner, Brody Crane, Zander Veccia, Michael Buchinger, Brady Hislop, Chandler Romeo, Damian Slavik.
Who’s new: First rounder Alex McLean, second rounder Carter Stevens, third rounder Colin Ellsworth, defenceman William Haley (acquired Thursday), import Daniil Skvortsov, 2023 picks Steven Johnston and Jimmy Sutherland.
Goaltending: Brayden Gillespie absolutely carried the team through the first third of last season before coming down to earth the rest of the way. He’s clearly the number one guy in net, but the team things very highly of Ellsworth, as it does Zach Jovanovski, a signed 2023 pick playing for the Ayr Centennials.
Gillespie is talented goalie searching for consistency. But so was Jacob Oster before he became OHL goaltender of the year. Ellsworth brings confidence at the backup position that wasn’t really there last year and you don’t keep 16-year-old goaltenders and not play them, so there will be some emphasis on development.
Defence: It will be interesting to see the pairings and how things evolve up to the trade deadline. NHL-signed 19-year-old Cam Allen would seem a likely trade chip to help fuel the rebuild while Tommy Budnick and Rowan Topp are steady, reliable veterans. Quinn Beauchesne and Rylan Singh should provide plenty of offence and puck movement from the back while import Skvortsov is the lone rookie on the back end. Journeyman 19-year-old William Haley was brought in for depth and the draft picks playing down the road in Ayr will likely see some duty as the season wears on.
Forwards: The Storm should be able to throw out a top line as good as most in the league with Jett Luchanko, Vilmer Alriksson and Max Namestnikov providing what should be a killer line and dominant power play force if kept together. The issue lies in secondary scoring, and whether the likes of Charlie Paquette, Jake Karabela, Hunter McKenzie and the 17-year-old group can increase production enough make a difference.
