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The London Knights will raise their Ontario Hockey League championship banner at home against the Flint Firebirds on Friday, Sept. 27.
The two clubs will also meet the following night in Michigan, as the league revealed all 20 clubs’ home openers on Thursday.
The Memorial Cup champion Saginaw Spirit, who beat London 4-3 in a dramatic final June 2, will raise their banner against Sarnia on Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Dow Event Center.
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Brampton will make its OHL return Sept. 27 against Brantford at the CAA Centre after the Mississauga franchise, which will still be called the Steelheads, opted to move. The entire regular season schedule will be released Monday.
Next season will also mark the end of one era and the start of another after it was announced Bryan Crawford has been named OHL commissioner.
The 42-year-old Crawford will assume the role held by 75-year-old David Branch, who announced his plans to retire a year ago. Branch has served as the league’s commissioner for nearly 45 years and also served as president of the Canadian Hockey League from 1996-2019.
A Hamilton native, Crawford was a two-sport athlete while attending Queen’s University in Kingston. He won a pair of Ontario University Athletics bronze medals in track and field and was named rookie of the year for the football team in 2001 and specials teams player of the year in 2002 while pursuing a degree in political science.
Crawford participated in the annual East-West All-Star football game in 2004 in preparation for the Canadian Football League Draft and was a fifth-round pick by the Toronto Argonauts in 2005.
He spent seven seasons in the CFL with Toronto playing at running back and on special teams.
After retiring, Crawford served as the interim executive director and director of operations at Ontario University Athletics from 2013-15 before moving on to become senior director of operations for Canada Basketball from 2015-18.
Since 2018, Crawford has served as a Golf Canada executive and tournament director for the RBC Canadian Open.
– with files from Jim Parker, Windsor Star
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