Alex Pharand, who split this season with the Sudbury Wolves and Windsor Spitfires, will head stateside this fall.
As the OHL off-season continues on for 18 of the 20 teams in the league, more and more players, and specifically overages, are deciding where to continue their hockey careers.
One of those is Alex Pharand, who's coming off the end of his five-year OHL career with a trip to the Western Conference Final with the Windsor Spitfires.
The 21-year-old will head to Clarkson University next season, becoming the second OHLer in the past few weeks to announce their commitment to Postdam after Frontenacs captain Vann Williamson did the same last month.
Alex Pharand with the Sudbury Wolves, before a mid-season trade to the Windsor Spitfires. (Photo: Logan Taylor/OHL Images)Pharand was a first-round pick from the Hamilton Bulldogs in the 2021 OHL draft, playing half of his rookie season in the Hammer before being dealt to his hometown Sudbury Wolves.
He then spent parts of the next four seasons there, before this year's trade to the Windsor Spitfires as an overager mid-season as they loaded up for the playoffs. All in all, he put up 184 (74+110) points in 323 career OHL regular season games, while adding value defensively and in the faceoff dot.
In 2023, Pharand was selected in the fourth round of the NHL draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, though they never signed him as his rights expired in 2025.
Now, he'll head out to Clarkson in the fall to continue his hockey career in the NCAA.
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