The radio voice of the Windsor Spitfires on AM800 News says it was an extremely disappointing year for the team.
Steve Bell is reacting the 2023-24 season for the Spitfires after the team didn't make it to the playoffs for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
Windsor played their final game of the regular season on Saturday evening where they lost 8-5 to the Spirit in Saginaw. That loss marked their 13th consecutive defeat to end the season.
Bell, who has been the play-by-play voice for the Spits for over 40 years, says it was disappointing to see them eliminated from playoff contention.
A tough start to the year after head coach Jerrod Smith was let go by the organization in late November. Casey Torres was then appointed interim head coach for the rest of the season.
Despite the tough season, Bell says the Spitfires have a strong foundation moving into next season with a number of players including captain Liam Greentree who had a phenomenal season recording 90 points, centre AJ Spellacy, centre Ryan Abraham, and left winger Cole Davis.
Bell says after finishing first in their Conference the last two years, it was disappointing to see this exit.
"I think at the start of the season with a pretty good returning group they were expecting a whole lot more than finishing dead last in the Conference, and missing the playoffs. And there's 20 teams in the league, and four are not invited to the post-season party, and extremely disappointing that the Spits are one of those four that don't get the invite."
He says it now comes down to adding players around the core group.
"There is a good core group coming back led by Liam Greentree, Cole Davis, AJ Spellacy, and I would think that Ryan Abraham would be one of the three overage players, those players should be back. Now what general manager Bill Bowler, and the scouting staff have to figure out is how do they find some additional players through the draft and trades to make sure that this team is a whole lot more competitive next year.")
Bell says there's a lot of room for improvements next year.
"And it's not one area, I mean you win as a team, you lose as a team, I know that's an old cliche, but among other things they gave up well over 100 more goals than they scored, so there has to be improvements everywhere starting in goal, on defence, the forwards. You win as a team, you lose as a team, and there's certainly room for a lot of improvement."
Out of 68 games this season, the Spitfires won 18 of them, sitting in last place in the Western Conference, and 19th overall.
The Spitfires organization will be waiting for Wednesday for the 2024 OHL Priority Selection Draft Lottery. The Lottery will determine the order of selection for the first four picks of the first round of the selection, with Windsor having the potential to select first overall alongside the Niagara IceDogs, the Peterborough Petes, and the Sarnia Sting.
The 2024 OHL Priority Selection will take place on April 12 and April 13.