This is Part II of my season in review wrap-up. I’ve listed at least one awesome thing and at least one not awesome thing about each and every team. Part I included Buffalo through Oshawa, and this one includes Oshawa through Vancouver. Part III, coming soon, will list some awesome and not awesome things about the league in general.

Ottawa Bears of Black

Awesome

• Jeff Teat was excellent as usual. Rob Hellyer was as good as they expected, if not better. Callum Jones was amazing and won Defender of the Year.

Not Awesome

• Similar to Oshawa, in that they had their offense working in some games and their defense working in others, but rarely both in the same game. Zach Higgins was pretty good but when he had a rough game, the offense couldn’t bail him out.
• They won eight games but only three were against playoff teams.
• Even with those issues, the Black Bears were a playoff contender into March but didn’t score double digits in any of their last five games and lost them all. All they had to do was beat the Thunderbirds in their last game of the season and they’d have made the playoffs, but there was definitely some defecation in their sleeping apparatus. The fact that they lost that game wasn’t the problem, it just looked like a lack of effort. They tied for their lowest offensive output of the season.

The Wings of Philadelphia

Awesome

• They only had five wins on the season, but four were against playoff teams – Buffalo, Colorado, Georgia, and Toronto, and they also beat Las Vegas who just barely missed the playoffs.
• Michael Sowers looked great until he got hurt, and Kyle Jackson looked great in his return to Philly.
• Nick Damude didn’t have an incredible season overall but had a few really great outings. He held his opponents to only seven goals once and five goals twice. And one of the five goal games was against Las Vegas, the highest scoring team in the league.

Kyle Jackson

Not Awesome

• Scored seven or fewer goals in seven games. They also had one eight and two nines, which means they scored under ten goals in more than half their games.
• Looks like the Wings are done in Philly… again. We don’t know if it will be the team relocating or the league having yet another dispersal draft, but it sounds like the possibility of new ownership taking over the team and leaving them in Philly is pretty much zero.

Rochester Hawks of the Knight

Awesome

• Connor Fields followed up his MVP season with 41 goals and 119 points. Ryan Lanchbury surpassed 100 points for the second straight year.
• They started strong – 4–1 including wins over eventual playoff teams San Diego and Buffalo.

Not Awesome

• After that strong start, they dropped off a cliff. They went 1–5 over their next six games, which cost both Mike Hasen and Pat O’Toole their coaching jobs. Then once Randy Mearns came in, they went 1–6.
• Both goaltenders had rough years. Hartley had a GAA over 12 and save percentage of 76.6%. Hutchcraft’s GAA was almost 14 and his save percentage was 71.6%. They gave up 12 or more goals in twelve of their eighteen games and held their opponents under ten goals only twice.
• Ryan Smith certainly wasn’t terrible but dropped 8 points from last season, which was down 15 from the previous one.

The Seals of San Diego

Awesome

• They made the playoffs, beat the #2 seed Mammoth in the quarter-finals, and then took the eventual Champion Rock to three games in the semi-finals.
• Zach Currier set a career best with 57 points, though he played a lot more offense than his usual transition.
• Wes Berg’s 74 points was his lowest in a full season since his rookie year of 2016. But he still led the team, and in more than just scoring.
• Not so much awesome or not awesome, just interesting: Over the first half of the season, they either won by several or lost by several – only two games were decided by two goals, and there were no one-goal games. But all of their last nine games were decided by one or two goals.

Not Awesome

• Chris Origlieri getting hurt in the semi-finals certainly didn’t help though Dunkerley played very well.
• Only two teams scored fewer goals than the Seals. Tre Leclaire was the only player over 30 goals.

The Rush of Saskatchewan

Awesome

• Ryan Keenan had a career year with 95 points. Zach Manns was also excellent, basically replicating his 2024 season almost exactly (one fewer goal and three more assists).
• Frank Scigliano had a GAA of 9.43, good for fourth in the league, and only slightly higher than his 9.40 of last year when he was named Goaltender of the Year.

Not Awesome

• They started the season 10–1, but then cooled off significantly. Not as bad as Rochester, but they were 2–5 in their last seven. They still ended up with a home playoff game, but they had lost any momentum they might have had earlier in the year.
• Only saw Clark Walter in five games. He was a healthy scratch a bunch of times in favour of Levi Anderson, a complete 180° reversal from last season. In 2025 and 2026, Anderson played in 19 regular season games with the Rush, while Walter played in 20. They have played together in only four games.

The Rock of Toronto

Awesome

• I’d say winning the Championship was pretty awesome.
• Their rookies were incredible. Obviously the Big Three (Kirst, Hiltz, English) were outstanding but Kelleher was also excellent and both Moran-Weekes and Hucal made significant contributions as well.
• Rose was very good, then got injured and Holowchuk was very good, then Rose returned and was even better than before. Hopefully we’re done with the “Rose can’t step up in the playoffs” crap from the haters.
• They didn’t lose back-to-back games at any point this season.
• “The Rock of Toronto” was the tagline for a Toronto radio station in the 80’s. I think it was either 1050 CHUM or 104.5 CHUM-FM.

Not Awesome

• The veterans all seemed to struggle. Other than 2025 when he was injured, Mark Matthews had his lowest points-per-game average since 2014 (though he still tied CJ Kirst for the team lead in points). Josh Dawick dropped by 20 goals and 18 points. Chris Boushy dropped by 12 goals and 26 points, though he was strong in the playoffs. Dan Craig’s points-per-game average has dropped for the third straight season, this time to a career low.

The Warriors of Vancouver

Awesome

• Finished with a 13–5 record, the franchise’s best record since 2002 when they were 14–2 as the Albany Attack. They’ve played as four different teams since then.
• They were the #1 seed in the playoffs, the first time they’ve been #1 in the league since 2010 when they were the Washington Stealth, tied with Orlando at 11–5. It was the first time they were #1 in the league by themselves since, again, the 2002 Attack.
• Christian Del Bianco was just what they expected, with a GAA under ten and a save percentage of 81.3%.
• With Jesse King and Curtis Dickson joining the team, there was some question of whether one scoring leader would emerge and who that would be. Keegan Bal grabbed that title with both hands and ran with it, all the way to an MVP ballot and an Offensive Player of the Year award.
• Dickson and King were great additions as well, and Marcus Klarich continues to improve.
• The defense was outstanding, with ten games of holding their opponents to under ten goals. Much of that was Del Bianco but a lot of it was the defenders in front of him dictating where shots were taken from, or if they were taken at all.
• Like the Rock, the Warriors didn’t lose back-to-back games all year.

Not Awesome

• Secondary scoring wasn’t really a thing for the Warriors. The top five scorers (Bal, King, Dickson, Charalambides, and Klarich) were as good as the top five on any team but after them, the numbers dropped significantly. Christian Del Bianco was sixth on the team with 17 points. Then again, only four teams scored more goals than the Warriors so it’s possible they didn’t care.
• I’m guessing they’re not a fan of the “one and done” playoff format. They were the #1 seed overall but had one bad game in the playoffs, and that was it. They had a 7–1 lead at halftime but didn’t score at all in the second half, and allowed Halifax to come back to win by three.