Ottawa 67's young roster is surprising the OHL, showcasing depth on offense and stellar import talent. Their surprising early season success continues with back-to-back wins over the weekend.
The Ottawa 67’s were the team of the weekend in the OHL, outscoring their opponents 15-5, and coming away with two wins to improve to 15-5-2, and five points back of the still undefeated in regulation, Brantford Bulldogs.
The weekend started on Friday, with the blowout game of the week. The 67’s embarrassed the struggling Sarnia Sting on home ice, outshooting them 44-26, and skating swiftly past them 9-3. After that loss, the Sting decided to fire Head Coach Alan Letang.
Ottawa hosted the Niagara IceDogs the following night, and their offense didn’t slow down.
They scored three goals in the opening frame against Sarnia and did the exact same against the IceDogs. Ottawa added another three goals in the second and third period, taking down Niagara 6-2.
The 67’s had contributions all throughout their lineup over the weekend, but import forward Jasper Kuhta was exceptional, registering two goals and four assists. The Finnish forward leads all Ottawa players in goals (14), points (25), and shots on goal (71). His +13 is fourth-best on the team. Needless to say, the 67’s knocked it out of the park drafting and signing Kuhta.
We should mention that Ottawa’s first pick in the 2025 CHL Import Draft, Ondrej Ruml, also had an outstanding weekend, scoring three goals and four points. Both import players signed in the summer and have been pivotal to the team’s rather surprising success.
Ottawa had contributions from Carolina Hurricanes prospect Filip Ekberg as well, who recorded two goals and three assists. Ekberg has missed about half of Ottawa’s games thus far this season, but is producing at a point-per-game clip. He is currently on a seven-game point streak, with four goals and eight assists during this stretch.
The other forward who had a productive weekend showing was their third overall pick from the 2025 draft, Brock Chitaroni. The 16-year-old forward put together a five-assist weekend, moving him past the double-digit mark in points (12 in 16 games). Chitaroni recently won a silver medal at the 2025 U17 World Hockey Challenge, leading all OHL representatives on Team Canada White in points (3 goals, 3 assists).
Head Coach Dave Cameron caught a lot of hate for his performance as Head Coach for Team Canada at last year’s World Juniors tournament. However, he has 15 years of head coaching experience behind an OHL bench. He understands how to employ an effective system to win games in this league, which is being put on full display by Ottawa through the first two months of the year.
No disrespect to the players on the 67’s, but this roster isn’t one that many hockey fans are following. They have only one NHL-affiliated player: Filip Ekberg. The average age of their team is 17.91. It is a young team in Ottawa who are playing above expectations.
Ottawa currently sits in third place overall with 32 points. They haven’t lost a game in regulation in their last nine outings. Their 52 goals against are the second-fewest in the league, despite posting the league's worst penalty kill percentage (69.6%).
A significant reason for their success has been the play of rookie netminder Ryder Fetterolf, who was named the OHL’s Rookie of the Week. It’s the second time he has won the award in the last three weeks. Fetterolf recorded 23 saves in a 2-1 shootout win over the Kingston Frontenacs last Wednesday, and followed it up by stopping 26 of 28 in the team’s win against Niagara on Saturday.
Fetterolf, 17, is on a six-game winning streak, batting a 10-2-1 record. He signed with the 67’s as a free agent in the summer and currently holds the league’s second-best goals-against-average (1.90) and save percentage (.928). NHL scouts won’t like that he is only six feet tall, but it’s impossible to ignore his dominance in the crease, doing it as a rookie.
The Ottawa 67’s face off against Kingston, Kitchener, and Owen Sound this week. Will they sweep another week?
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