When Hamza Havusic signed with the Windsor Spitfires this week his phone lit up.
“The boys,” he said with a chuckle of the source of the congratulatory messages that flooded his Instagram feed.
Those lads were his teammates on the record-setting Stouffville Spirit last season.
“The coaches were good. Everyone was good, including my teammates. It was just the environment created (in Stouffville.) It was all so good. I really had fun. And it was also a successful year. We did really well. It was a good time.”
Thanks to a standout, albeit injury-hampered, rookie season with the Jr. A Ontario Junior Hockey League squad Havusic is one and done and preparing for life one level up, with Windsor of the major junior Ontario Hockey League.
Last year’s Spirit team had the best regular season record (40-14-2-0) in the 30-year history of the franchise before going two rounds deep into the OJHL playoffs.
“It was awesome,” Havusic said while watching Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals. “The coaches were good. Everyone was good, including my teammates. It was just the environment created (in Stouffville.) It was all so good. I really had fun.
“And it was also a successful year. We did really well. It was a good time.”
Havusic, who will turn 18 on July 3, went undrafted across the OHL after his U16 season (2023-24) with the Toronto Nationals. He used that rejection to get better and bigger.
A year later, Windsor selected him in the first round, 25th overall, of the OHL’s U18 draft. That followed a 23-point season with the Vaughan Kings U18s and an appearance in the GTHL all-star game. He signed with the Spirit a year ago.
Havusic had 18 points (6 goals/12 assists) in 34 games in Stouffville, despite missing significant time with a late-season collarbone injury.
He was selected to represent the Spirit in the OJHL’s inaugural Zach Hyman Prospect Series.
“It was way different from U18 playing with Vaughan,” Havusic said. ‘Guys were bigger, stronger, faster. And it was overall just better hockey. I had to just adjust to the speed and the other parts of the game.”
Putting on 20 pounds and growing one inch to 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds didn’t hurt his stock either.
Spirit Head Coach TJ Hill is full of praise.
“Really happy for Hamza,” the 2025 OJHL Coach of the Year said. “He’s a great kid and a great hockey player. He battled a lot of adversity this year with respect to some bad luck with injuries but he always came back better.
“The sky is the limit for him. Everything he’s achieved to date has been very well deserved.
Windsor Spitfires General Manager Bill Bowler is another member of the fan club.
“Physically, (Havusic) is ready,” Bowler told the Windsor Star this week. “He contributed last year on a good hockey team (in Stouffville). He keeps growing and maturing and we expect him to fight for playing time.”
“Size and physicality are important in hockey, but it’s generally hard to find in hockey,” Bowler told the newspaper. “When you see Hamza’s growth and improvement, that’s an intriguing player.”
The Etobicoke resident is hitting the gym four times a week, skating up to five teams weekly and somehow squeezing in work on a landscaping crew this summer. He says he’ll miss Stouffville.
“I’ll be back,” he said. “I have to check in with the boys.”
Other graduating Spirit players to make commitments this spring include:
- Evan Breckles, Concordia, Wisconsin (NCAA Division III)
- Jacob Martineau, Albertus Magnus (NCAA Division III)
- Hayden Sabourin, TMU (OUA, U SPORTS)
Other members of the team to sign with OHL teams include Elijah Chavez and Ben Radley (Peterborough) and Lucas Demiglio (Brampton).
The Spirit will open its main training camp in mid-August.
The Ontario Junior Hockey League regular season is expected to begin in early September.
