The biggest surprise of the first full weekend in the CHL is reining Memorial Cup Champions, the Windsor Spitfires losing their first two games of the season. Of course they had a lot of their regular players at NHL camps. They still had the consensus top two picks in 2010, Taylor Hall and Cam Fowler in the line up.
Now with the additions of Adam Henrique, Greg Nemisz, Richard Panik (no pun intended), and Jesse Blacker all back, they should start to tear the OHL apart.
If you look down at the Spitfires roster, they have depth. Austin Watson and Justin Shugg are also highly touted 2010 prospects. The defense will continue to get stronger when Ryan Ellis returns from the Predators camp.
They do have a weakness and it’s the same weaknesses that they had last season. Their goaltending is shaky. Ever since signing in the OHL after originally committing to Bowling Green, Josh Unice has been falling from cloud nine.
The Kitchener Rangers signed him to be their goalie to lead them to the Memorial Cup but traded for Steve mason later in the season. He did play in the Memorial Cup because Mason got injured. At the trade deadline he was traded to Windsor to bring his Memorial Cup experience to the Spitfires. He didn’t play. Now the fans are wanting a change.
Should they get a goalie? I think so but I believe they can get by for the first half of the year with Unice. They have Jack Campbell who’s apart of the USA NTDP. With last year’s drama with Brandon Maxwell not being released by USA Hockey, Campbell will not be joining Windsor this year.
They will make a trade to acquire a top notch goalie at the deadline They have the assets to do so without hurting their chances at another Memorial Cup.
