A member of the Windsor Spitfire calls the decision to cancel the OHL season "disappointing."
The league made the cancellation announcement Tuesday stating the recently extended stay-at-home order and increasing cases of COVID-19 across the province led to the decision.
Right winger Matt Maggio says there was an emotional Zoom call with teammates following the announcement.
"The team Zoom call, obviously, was a pretty emotional call just saying goodbye to all the over-agers," he says. "As far as talking to other guys around the league that are my age, what's going to happen now with their training? Pretty understandable, a lot of guys want to take some time off."
Maggio says it's tough training for a season that's now not happening.
"The worst part is the mental game. It being my draft year and seeing all the ranking online and not being able to really showcase yourself," he says. "We're really the only league that hasn't been able to showcase at least some form of hockey."
Maggio is eligible for the NHL draft this year and he's just hoping for the best.
"It's pretty up in the air right now. Not many people even know what's going to happen. For right now the draft is still going to happen. I did get a chance to go over to Sweden earlier this year and play a few games there. That was a good experience for me to get some looks and play some games," he says.
The OHL will be the only one of Canada's three major junior hockey leagues not to hold a 2020-21 season.
The league had reached an agreement on a return-to-play plan with the Ontario government earlier this month.
With files from Rob Hindi