By Max Lewis
Photo: The Mississauga Rebels celebrate their 2010 OHL Cup victory, the only championship by a wild card team in the tournament’s history.

Every year the OHL Cup features the best of what Ontario minor hockey has to offer. As the 2016 edition nears, Minor Midget AAA teams from across the province (and from the U.S.) are battling for a chance at glory.

Historically, yearlong frontrunners have found success at the final showcase before the OHL draft, but in 2010 it was the Mississauga Rebels – a wild card entry captained by current Calgary Flames forward Sean Monahan – that skated away with the prestigious trophy.

Four GTHL clubs – the Don Mills Flyers, Markham Majors, Mississauga Senators and Vaughan Kings – are hoping to channel their inner-Rebel in the coming weeks in the new GTHL Wild Card Play-in Series. 

Like the 2010 Rebels, all four teams lost in the first round of the Scotiabank GTHL Playoffs. Unlike the 2010 Rebels, two clubs still have a shot at a guaranteed spot in the tournament’s wild card play-in round, under the new format for 2016.

In past years, the four semi-finalists from the GTHL playoffs clinched berths in the OHL Cup, while fellow GTHL clubs waited in limbo for the Tournament Selection Committee to determine the wild card teams, a group selected from a province-wide pool.

The committee will still choose three teams for the OHL Cup Wild Card Play-in Games, but the other five such slots will be determined by postseason results, including two from the GTHL.

Beginning Wednesday, Feb. 24, the Flyers, Majors, Senators and Kings will continue on the road to the OHL Cup in the first-of-its-kind GTHL Wild Card Play-in Series.

The Flyers – who finished No. 5 in the regular-season standings – will face the Kings (No. 8) in the first series, while the Majors (No. 6) and Senators (No. 7) meet in the second matchup. Both series are first to eight points.

The Flyers possess a potent, high-powered offence that can give opposing defenseman nightmares. The Don Mills roster is highlighted by captain Jack McBain, a prototypical power forward with soft hands and a hard shot, and Tyler Weiss, a slick and speedy winger who is currently with Team USA at the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

For the Kings, it all starts on the backend with defensive stalwart Giovanni Vallati. The smooth skating defenceman, who plays top minutes and in all situations, is at his best when quarterbacking the power play. The Kings’ offence is led by forwards like Maxime Grondin and Brady Rutherford.

The other series features two teams best known for their gritty, hard-nosed play, as well as their masked men between the pipes. The Senators lean on goaltender Alexis Gravel, an MVP recipient at the 2015 Scotiabank GTHL Top Prospects Game who is also off to Lillehammer to backstop Team Canada. His Majors counterpart, Jack Irvine, is smaller in stature but relies on his exceptional reflexes to make his saves.

A new format means new opportunity. So, will one team rebel against tradition and capture the OHL Cup as a wild card? We’ll see on March 21.