Brampton could go all-in then rebuild around the two 1sts. But I think they will be a bit conservative keeping the core age group intact going for a deep run followed by a greater effort for a championship run.
That is probably the best route for Brantford as well. As we saw with Oshawa, a practice run can turn out to be a trip to the OHL final.
Kingston, Oshawa, and Sudbury are teams with a greater need to win now imo.
As of right now, the issue is we need to see what the rosters look like in November. Oshawa is my pick to be the leader out of the gate provided they get all their eligible players returned but that may be a bit of a challenge with Kumpalainen’s most recent comments. Ritchie is also 50-50. If he were on a less competitive NHL team, I think he would have been a goner! But, I do feel they will return their full roster including Roobroek as an OA.
Brampton will need to address the issue of their four 2025 2nd round picks. They may very well decide to ONLY round out their OA’s and Import positions (similar to Ottawa in 2023). If so, they likely use 2-3 of those 2nd round picks as trade pieces. However, I think they’d need to move two of them forward to 2026 or 2027 so they have those pieces available the following year. I agree they are more likely than not to get their ‘05s back as OAs. MacDonell and Misa are strong OA candidates IMO. BUT! There is something to be said about a bird in hand. If they are in position and running on all cylinders in the first half, I think they need to make the push this year. That would likely require Leenders to be their major trade chip on top of the 2nds. I think if they address their OA situtation and add one key 19 year old, they will be super strong.