The Best Individual OJLL Playoff Seasons Since 2008

The OJLL finals begin Wednesday as the Mimico Mountaineers will head up highway 10 to take on the Orangeville Northmen. The winner of the series will advance to the Minto Cup. 

It’s been a fun playoff season so far, but one of the major storylines has been the play of Joey Spallina and the Orangeville Northmen. Throughout the first six games of the playoffs, Spallina has a wild 42 points (20 goals, 22 assists). 

That prompted an investigation into the best playoff seasons by a single player in recent OJLL history. Reliable data is available back to at least 2008, so the data reference below goes back that far. To remove any small sample size outliers, only the top 25 scorers from each playoff season are included.  

The most points by any player in that time frame was Johnny Powless in 2013, who has a remarkable 86 points in 16 games. That season included a seven-game series against the Whitby Warriors team that featured Chad Tutton, Mitch De Snoo, and the brothers Hossack. In other words, Powless scored against elite competition. 

The next best season came just last year, when Braedon Saris had 80 points in 14 games en route to the Minto Cup. Obviously the raw production is dependent on the number of games, but Saris and Powless are the only players in this time frame to have eclipsed 80 points. Below are the top 25 playoff seasons in terms of points. 

The most goals in a single playoffs was Cody Jamieson, who had 46 goals in 18 games during the 2008 playoffs. The most assists was Reilly O’Connor who had 59 in 14 games during those aforementioned 2013 playoffs. 

But, as mentioned, the raw numbers can be misleading because they are so dependent on games played. On a per game basis, the most points per game in this time span? 

He has a long way to go, but Spallina’s 7 points per game is the best mark in the database. No player has ever averaged that many points over an entire playoff. 

In fact, players have scored 6 or more points per game only eight times. Three of them were Jeff Teat.

The high water mark for an Ontario champion was Teat in 2018. He came back that year from Israel after the first round (he was playing for Team Canada), and scored 48 points in the 8 remaining playoff games. Spallina has a whole point per game to lose in order to still be that mark. But the playoffs get tougher not easier, so there is lots of work to be done. 

From a goals per game perspective, only one player in the dataset has beaten Spallina’s current pace. That player would be Rochester Knighthawk and LCD’s own Dan Lomas, who scored 17 goals in his first round series against the Peterborough Lakers in 2013. 

Austin Staats in 2017, and Brock Haley in 2022 were the only players to score 3 or more goals per game and also win the Iroquois trophy. Below is the list of guys to average 3.00 goals per game or higher. 

In conclusion, Spallina is aligning himself with some elite names. But lots of work remains, both for himself and for the Northmen, to finish the race and raise the trophy. The Mimico Mountaineers will have lots to say about both. 

Look for a full preview of the OJLL finals tomorrow!