Saginaw Spirit 2025 OHL Priority Selection Primer

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OHL Saginaw Spirit

Saginaw Spirit 2025 OHL Priority Selection Primer

April 10, 2025 - Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Saginaw Spirit News Release


For the 23rd time, the Saginaw Spirit will participate in the OHL Priority Selection presented by Real Canadian Superstore. They join 19 other OHL teams in adding new players to their ranks, with the first three rounds will begin at 7pm on Friday, April 11th. Rounds four through 15 will begin at 9am on Saturday, April 12th.

Watch the OHL Priority Selection: CHL TV

Follow along in real time: Priority Selection HQ

OHL Priority Selection Process

The Spirit hold 15 total picks during the 15-round OHL Priority Selection, beginning with the 13th overall slot.

Saginaw's 2025 Selections by Round:

1st Round, 13th Overall

2nd Round, 40th Overall (from Brantford)

3rd Round, 52nd Overall (from Niagara)

4th Round, 73rd Overall (from Sudbury)

4th Round, 75th Overall

6th Round, 115th Overall

7th Round, 135th Overall

7th Round, 138th Overall (from Kingston)

9th Round, 175th Overall

11th Round, 215th Overall

12th Round, 235th Overall

12th Round, 236th Overall (from Brampton)

13th Round, 255th Overall

14th Round, 275th Overall

15th Round, 295th Overall

A Wealth of Draft Picks

With their 15 picks, the Spirit have the most draft slots since they took 15 players at the 2019 OHL Priority Selection. That draft class produced players who would go on to play 582 combined games for the Spirit, including Connor Punnett, Davis 'T-Bone' Codd, Roberto Mancini, Dean Loukus, and former captain Josh Bloom.

The Rookies of 2024

Eleven Saginaw-drafted rookies helped the Spirit to a 38-win season in 2024-2025 through a combination of the last two Priority Selections. 2023 3rd-round pick Carson Harmer led Spirit rookies with 50 points (23G-27A) in 68 games and finished second in scoring among OHL Rookies this season. Right behind him were Jacob Cloutier (2nd-round, 2023) in fourth place with 47 points and Dima Zhilkin (1st round, 19th overall) in seventh place with 43. The Spirit were the only team with three players in the top-10 of rookie scorers. The last team to do this was the 2022-2023 Spirit, with Michael Misa (1st, 56 points), Joey Willis (5th, 44 points), and Zayne Parekh (9th, 37 points).

Joining Zhilkin as players from the 2024 draft class to make their OHL debuts this season were Brody Najim (6th round, 110th overall), Trevor Theuer (10th round, 201st overall), Liam Campbell (7th round, 141st overall), Kaden Sienko (13th round, 261st overall), and Blake Barnes (7th round, 107th overall). Najim saw the most action out of the group, skating in 48 games in the regular season and recording 3G-3A-6P.

Hayden Barch (13th round, 256th overall), Graydon Jones (7th round, 136th overall), and Sammy DiBlasi (9th round, 176th overall) broke into the league with Harmer and Cloutier from the 2023 draft class. Jones stood out on the Spirit blue line in 54 games, spent mostly on the team's second defensive pair and gaining powerplay time as the season moved along. The now-18-year-old posted three goals and 16 assists for 19 points in his first OHL season.

Luck in the 13th Overall Selection

The Spirit have only had the 13th overall pick in the draft once before, where they selected Justin Kea out of the Central Ontario Wolves Minor Midget program in 2010. Kea played 253 games in Saginaw before becoming a 3rd-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 2012. He went on to be an ECHL All-Star with the Toledo Walleye in 2019 and skate in 71 AHL games before becoming a referee. He made his NHL officiating debut on March 28th, 2022 and was promoted to a full-time NHL official in 2024.

Homegrown Talent

By the postseason in 2025, 21 of Saginaw's 26 rostered players were original Spirit draftees, with 19 coming through the OHL Priority Selection. The only outliers were Calem Mangone (U18 Priority Selection) and Igor Chernyshov (CHL Import Draft).

Player Eligibility

North American players born in 2009 and non-overage players that were not registered with an Ontario based U16 AAA team from protected OHL territories are eligible for selection in the 15 rounds of the 2025 OHL Priority Selection.

Selected Players in the OHL

OHL Member Teams are permitted to register a maximum of four 16-year-old players selected in the OHL Priority Selection. Those 16-year-old players that are allowed to be signed are the first two 16-year-old players selected and a maximum of two additional 16-year-old wild carded players in any round of the OHL Priority Selection.

All other 16-year-old players selected are eligible to be called up as an "affiliated player" or "floating affiliate player" for a maximum of 10 games or for any OHL regular season or playoff games when such player's team has been eliminated from competition for that season.

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