With just under one month left in the 2025-26 OHL regular season, most of the sixteen playoff spots are either secured or very close to being secured.
Out east, six of the eight playoff spots available have already been clinched; the Brantford Bulldogs, Barrie Colts, Ottawa 67's, Peterborough Petes, North Bay Batallion, and Niagara IceDogs have all booked their ticket to the playoffs before the final nine-game stretch. The Kingston Frontenacs and Sudbury Wolves hold the final two spots up for grabs, though the ninth-place Brampton Steelheads are twenty points back of Kingston and eleven back of Sudbury. Kingston can clinch a berth as soon as Wednesday if the Steelheads lose to the Barrie Colts; if not, a win or an overtime loss on Friday against those same Steelheads would secure their place in the postseason.
In the West, five of the eight available playoff berths have been claimed; those spots are held by the Kitchener Rangers, Windsor Spitfires, Flint Firebirds, Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds, and the London Knights. The Guelph Storm occupy sixth-place in the Western Conference and can clinch a postseason berth as soon as Friday. Seventh-place Owen Sound isn't that far off; after a poor start to 2026, it seems that the Attack have rectified their struggles and emerged from the storm with some of their playoff positioning intact. Though just ten points separate them from the ninth-place Sarnia Sting, Owen Sound can clinch a playoff berth as soon as Saturday should the Attack win their next two games and Sarnia loses their next three.
I'll delve into such scenarios in depth a little later on, but here's all the major seeding that's up for grabs during the last few weeks of the OHL season.
First place in the Eastern Conference
It's possible to argue that whichever team earns first place in the Eastern Conference is more than likely set to go on a deep playoff run.
Currently, that top spot is held by the Brantford Bulldogs, who have 91 points through 59 games played. However, both the Barrie Colts and Ottawa 67's are within striking distance of the Bulldogs for that top seed; the Colts sit just three points back while Ottawa is five back of first. On Thursday, Brantford will travel to Barrie to play the Colts - who just won the Central Division and, in doing so, guaranteed themselves at least the second seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Though Ottawa can only finish first or third in the conference standings, they will travel to Barrie to play the Colts on March 12th.
Sixth place in the Eastern Conference
Though the Niagara IceDogs have a four point edge and a game in hand on the Kingston Frontenacs, this race could still very well go either way.
With both teams set to play each other on March 12th at the Meridian Centre, a win for Kingston would give the Frontenacs a lifeline as they hope to improve their seeding and hold off a late-but-determined push by the Sudbury Wolves. On the other hand, a win for Niagara would all but secure a date with the third-place team in the first round of the playoffs; considering that the Brantford Bulldogs are favoured to claim a top-two seed, such seeding could very well be the difference between a competitive first-round series and a quick first-round exit.
Though Niagara has the points advantage, Kingston does has a slight edge on the schedule front. The Frontenacs will kick off their final nine-game stretch of the season with home games against the league's bottom-two teams: the Brampton Steelheads and the Oshawa Generals. The Frontenacs will also have an additional game against Brampton three days after the big contest with Niagara.
As for the IceDogs, they'll have to contend with the East's top three teams (Ottawa, Barrie, and Brantford) four times over the course of their final nine games, with three of those contests coming in a one-week span between March 15th and March 21st.
Seventh place in the West
Before this weekend, one could've argued that the Kingston Frontenacs were on course to avoid a first-round series with Brantford.
Sudbury's 5-3 win over Kingston does change things relatively significantly. With eight games left in the season, nine points separate the Frontenacs from the Sudbury Wolves. Though that is a sizable gap, Sudbury does have a favourable end to the season. Not only do the Wolves have to play the Oshawa Generals and the Brampton Steelheads twice each, but they also get their home-and-home series with the Steelheads during their last three games, the same time in which Kingston has to play Peterborough, Ottawa, and Barrie to close the season.
That said, Sudbury also has to play Brantford and Barrie during their final eight games in addition two games against North Bay, the latter of which that Sudbury has beaten just once all season. That makes a nine-point swing somewhat more challenging to pull off, but eight points against the bottom-four teams in the league could help to ramp the pressure up if points are made up elsewhere.
First place in the Western Conference
Like Barrie out east, the Kitchener Rangers are in a pretty decent position when it comes to seeding. Given that they've already won their division, the Rangers will be guaranteed at least second place in the Western Conference standings. Unlike Barrie, Kitchener has firm control of first place in the Western Conference, sporting a five-point lead on the Windsor Spitfires in second place and a six-point edge on third-place Flint.
That said, the race for first isn't exactly done just yet. The Rangers will have to play Windsor and Flint one more time each before the season is out, while the Spitfires have one more encounter left with the Flint Firebirds.
Seeds 6-8 in the Western Conference
If the expression "limping into the playoffs" had a physical manifestation in the OHL, the Owen Sound Attack would definitely be taking on that saying.
Simply put, the Owen Sound Attack are limping towards the regular season's finish line while inflicting more damage from their losses than Squidward Tentacles when he was attacked by a sea bear during "The Camping Episode" (the Owen Sound Attack's mascot is a bear so I guess this comparison works).
Jokes aside, the Owen Sound Attack have clearly shed their early-season form, which was a bit up-and-down but still pretty good at times, for a run of results that could still very well take them outside of the playoff picture.
The Attack's first ten games saw Owen Sound finish with a record of 7-2-1-0 (wins, losses, overtime losses, shootout losses). Then, Owen Sound would lose eight of their next twelve games before winning four of their next seven games. Heading into Christmas, Owen Sound lost five straight to continue the streakiness.
What makes matters even worse for the Attack is that not only did they trade star goaltender Carter George to Sault Ste Marie in the weeks following the World Juniors, but their form following the winter break isn't exactly worthy of a playoff win or two. Since returning to play on December 28th, Owen Sound has posted a 3-15-2-2 record, giving them just ten points through almost a third of a season's worth of action.
That said, Owen Sound did well to rectify their slump over the weekend, sweeping the Erie Otters in a two-game trip south of the border. With ninth-place Sarnia failing to make up significant ground, Owen Sound can now start to think about the playoffs.
Though the Sound were on course for a top-four seed for much of the season's first half, they'll have a strong chance at improving their seeding throughout their final nine games of the season. Three of Owen Sound's final ten games will come against the Guelph Storm, who sit just three points ahead of the Attack for sixth in the Western Conference. The Storm will enter their own final ten game stretch on the heels of a three game losing streak that has seen the possibility of falling out of a top-six seed grow by the day.
Further down the standings, the Saginaw Spirit have a seven-point edge on the Sarnia Sting for the eighth-and-final playoff spot up for grabs in the Western Conference. That said, a playoff berth for Saginaw isn't yet guaranteed. The Spirit still have to play ninth-place Sarnia twice before the season is out; one of those matchups takes place on the final day of the regular season.
Outside of those two games, the Saginaw Spirit have two games left against the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds and one game against each of the Flint Firebirds, Erie Otters, Niagara IceDogs, and Brantford Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Sarnia will also have to play Kitchener (twice), Flint, Owen Sound, Windsor, and Erie before the season is out.