Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

Spirit lead the way in OHL preseason media polls

 

By @MichaelCaples –

As the 2019-2020 OHL season nears, the league has announced media polling on a variety of topics, and the Saginaw Spirit appear in plenty of the results.

Saginaw received 54 percent of the vote for the most important question of all – “who will win the Robertson Cup as OHL champion?”

Last year, they reached the conference finals for the first time in program history.

The Spirit got 92 percent of the vote for finishing first in the West Division, while Cole Perfetti received the most nods (38 percent) for the presumptive points leader in the OHL this upcoming season.

Perfetti also received 46 percent of the votes for who will be the league’s top 2020 NHL Draft prospect, second only to Quinton Byfield (54 percent of the vote).

Birmingham native Bode Wilde is expected to be the league’s top defenseman – if the New York Islanders decide their second-round pick needs another season in juniors, that is.

Chris Lazary received 46 percent of the vote for who will win the coach of the year honors.

The Flint Firebirds received some recognition as well, as the media selected them as the team that will be the most surprising, at 62 percent. “Not only will they get into the playoffs, they could make some serious noise doing it” was the comment attached from an unnamed media member.