OHL’s Bryan Crawford pushes expansion despite Toronto scars

OHL commissioner Bryan Crawford says he wants the league to grow by four teams over the next 5 to 10 seasons, framing expansion as both an opportunity and a logistical challenge. He points to player intake after a NCAA rule change, targets the Greater Toronto

The OHL’s expansion pitch doesn’t come with rose-colored memories.

Nearly 30 years after the league tried to grow by adding three teams in the Greater Toronto Area—back in 1997 and 1998—none of those franchises stayed put in their original markets. That history is sitting in the background as OHL commissioner Bryan Crawford. now in his third season in the job after being hired in 2024. talks about taking another swing at expansion.

“I’d personally like to see us grow by four more (teams) perhaps in the next five to 10 seasons,” Crawford said in an interview with Sportsnet this week.

The timing matters. Crawford’s argument is rooted in a changed player-development landscape and a new urgency to keep Canadian junior hockey flowing—at a moment when the NCAA has begun reshaping junior decisions.

Last season, the NCAA opened the door to CHL players starting then. That created player-retention challenges for Canada’s three major-junior leagues. but it also created something new for the OHL: interest from players who previously weren’t on its radar. The league. which has 20 teams. had about 120 players join last season who “wouldn’t have been a part of the league before the NCAA rule change.”.

That number is more than trivia inside the OHL. It’s the equivalent of four full rosters in a league that has captured the past three Memorial Cup titles.

Crawford sees that influx as a reason to keep the pipeline moving—both for players and for markets. Expansion, he says, is harder than simply picking cities.

“Part of the challenge is there aren’t facilities just sitting there waiting,” Crawford said. “So some of the places that could provide a great opportunity to be an OHL market. especially here in Ontario. you’ve got to build buildings. and that takes time. They’re projects that are managed in years. not months. and they are big investments by communities and it takes a lot of effort.”.

Still, he insists progress is already happening. “But we’ve made really good progress. There are some communities that are very, very engaged and very, very interested, public-private partnerships and those sorts of things. We’re really confident we’ll see an opportunity to grow our league.”

The places Crawford has in mind carry both promise and pressure.

In the Greater Toronto Area, he makes no secret of wanting more teams beyond the Oshawa Generals and Brampton Steelheads. That desire has a complication: the OHL’s earlier GTA expansion of three teams in 1997 and 1998 produced no franchises that remained in their original markets.

Crawford also points to Toronto as a particular challenge. “Toronto proper has lots of challenges, it’s such a competitive market,” he said. But he frames the opportunity differently—less about the city center and more about the ring around it.

“I’ve lived that running the Canadian Open. ” Crawford said. linking his time in golf’s RBC Canadian Open to his view of competition and presence. “So I think that when we think about it. to be able to build a presence around and circling the GTA. we think about Brampton and Oshawa now. what we could doing in York Region (where Vaughan is located) and Halton (Burlington). it could be really appealing for us. It’s the biggest hockey market in the world. and there’s certainly opportunity for communities that have their own identity.”.

Vaughan, just north of Toronto, and Burlington, a bit west, have explored the possibility of an OHL team in recent years, and Crawford says the league sees the logic of adding coverage across York Region and Halton.

Outside the GTA, the league has also looked at Chatham in southwestern Ontario, and it is holding two neutral-site games in Cornwall—an eastern Ontario market Crawford points to as a former OHL and QMJHL stop—next season.

Then there’s the bigger question: the U.S.

Crawford notes that an idea to add two USHL teams to the OHL didn’t work out a couple of years ago. Even so, he says the OHL would like company for its three American teams in Michigan and Pennsylvania, especially with a growing number of American players drawn by the NCAA pathway.

That pathway is part of the motivation. Crawford said the OHL’s draft has seen an influx “last year. ” and he described more and more American players who grow up with the aspiration of playing in the NCAA. “Now they can play in the best junior league in the world and still achieve their aspirations of playing NCAA hockey. ” Crawford said. “We need to make sure that pathway is there for them if they make our league deeper and stronger.”.

At the same time, he acknowledged the political friction that any cross-border partnership would bring. “Of course, that likely would be big political issue with USA Hockey and the USHL, which may or may not be solvable.”

There has been at least one public discussion involving the border. The mayor of Niagara Falls, N.Y., Robert Restaino, told the Buffalo News on Thursday that he has had discussions with Crawford about having an OHL team play in a proposed new arena in the border city.

After that, Crawford said there have been no recent discussions between the OHL and the USHL after some had wondered if there would be a path to work together.

The USHL. for its part. put out its own expansion news this week: a memorandum of understanding to establish clubs in Arizona. California and Nevada. With the 16-team USHL primarily in the midwest. how those new sites connect with transportation and logistics is something Crawford didn’t directly answer—but it’s likely to become a central question for anyone imagining a future OHL-USHL relationship.

The player movement happening right now is the other pressure point on Crawford’s agenda.

Since the NCAA rule change, a number of top USHL players have jumped to the CHL, which Crawford frames as a sign the USHL has designs on maintaining top prospects.

And across both leagues, there’s still momentum toward paths that don’t look identical anymore.

Twins Markus and Liam Ruck told Mike Morreale of NHL.com this week they plan to return to the Medicine Hat Tigers next season. In the WHL. the leading scorers are both top-two-round prospects for this month’s NHL Draft and are not following several others in joining the NCAA next season. Medicine Hat. Crawford’s OHL-wide ecosystem view aside. has its own storyline: the Tigers should be a force after making the Western Conference final this year. despite losing projected NHL No. 1 overall pick Gavin McKenna to Penn State.

The Tigers also have two good 2028 NHL Draft prospects in forwards Shaeffer Gordon-Carrol and Noah Davidson.

In the OHL’s own offseason chess. the Guelph Storm have been preparing for next season’s Memorial Cup by acquiring Tampa Bay Lightning prospect forward Ethan Czata from the Niagara IceDogs this week. Czata is described as a “very good piece. ” but the work is still visible: Guelph lost Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Quinn Beauchesne to Boston College last month. The Storm were not an OHL contender last season. and to have a chance to win the Memorial Cup on home ice. they’ll need more than one addition.

Elsewhere, the Kelowna Rockets didn’t do enough in the tournament, going winless after bowing out in the second round of the WHL playoffs.

The OHL commissioner’s expansion wish comes down to one simple tension: money and time for new buildings, old lessons from past GTA geography, and a player pipeline that has become both more complicated and more full.

Crawford wants growth—four more teams across the next 5 to 10 seasons—but the league’s roadmap is being drawn in real time, with communities, borders, and roster decisions all moving at once.

OHL Bryan Crawford expansion Oshawa Generals Brampton Steelheads GTA Vaughan Burlington Chatham Cornwall USHL NCAA CHL Medicine Hat Tigers Markus Ruck Liam Ruck Ethan Czata Guelph Storm Memorial Cup