What is Up With the Midwest?

Most years the Midwest division is one of the best in the OHL. Its hard not to expect this when the division is made up of the Erie Otters, Guelph Storm, Kitchener Rangers, London Knights, and Owen Sound Attack. Some of the leagues juggernauts comprise this quintuplet, and a lot of top NHL talent has come out of these teams. Just in recent years we have seen well over thirty players who came out of this division that are currently making their living in the NHL.

With this in mind, the division this season is more competitive then ever. London came into the year expected to go on a massive run with the likes of Cowan, Barkey, Halttunen, and Bonk being supported by Simpson brought in to mind the crease. Meanwhile, Owen Sound has a strong veteran group to support the powerhouse goalscorer in Barlow. Guelph, despite losing their number one center in Poitras and Allen being out injured, has had spectacular goaltending from Gillespie and league leading special teams being spearheaded by the likes of Bowman Buchinger, and the coming out party of Luchanko. Standout performances from the likes of Misaljevic, Rehkopf, and Brzustewicz paired with a team that just jells together has turned the expectations of Kitchener rebuilding into a team that’s instead top of the league in points. Finally, there is Erie, that is not the same powerhouse that the other four are looking to be, but posses a lot of talent that the club seems fit to support as they have brought in Gaudreau which has seem them go 5-3-1 in their last nine including outing the Knights.

As it stands, the division has four teams in a position to go for a playoff run and Erie who although I think should sell, looks more poised to retool and be a real challenge for teams to play. Expect at least four of these teams to sit in the top six seeds in the West this year heading into the end of March.