The London Knights are now flush with NHL first-rounders and poised to be heavyweight contenders again.
The arrival of Finnish defenceman Juho Piiparinen from Vegas camp further cements London as one of the Ontario Hockey League’s top dogs in the early days of the new season. The 18-year-old Golden Knights prospect joins Marcus Nordmark (Ducks), Maksim Sokolovskii (Flyers) and Jaxon Cover (Senators) on a Knights team loaded for another run at the league championship.
“It takes a full team to win, but you still need stars,” London associate GM Rob Simpson said. “You need players when the heat rises in the playoffs – like Easton Cowan, Denver Barkey, Oliver Bonk and Sam Dickinson did (in 2024-25) – they make special plays at the right time.
“We’re hoping for big things from these guys, but we feel like we have a good team here overall. We like the direction we’re going now.”
To free up roster space for Piiparinen, the Knights moved Finnish forward Luca Santala to the Kitchener Rangers Thursday for second-, third- and fourth- and eighth-round picks in the 2030 OHL priority selection. London also got a Rangers first-round import pick in 2027 in exchange for a third-rounder in the same draft.
Santala, a top 2027 NHL prospect, made his OHL debut with London last Friday but sat out the rematch Saturday in Windsor. He practised this week with the Knights.
London’s recent roster construction is a literal callback to the late stages of the first round of the 2026 NHL draft in Buffalo in June. Sokolovskii (No. 27), Nordmark (No. 28) and Piiparinen (No. 29) were selected consecutively, and Cover was the final pick (No. 32) of the round.
“We’re really excited to add Juho,” Simpson said. “He had an amazing NHL camp and looked very good in the exhibition game he played. He has size, he’s mobile and was a captain of multiple teams (back home). We’re happy and appreciative to Vegas for entrusting us with his development.
“He’s going to be another player who brings excitement to our fans and building.”
Piiparinen represented a swing for the fences by Mark Hunter and his scouting staff. After selecting up-and-coming Finnish forward Luca Santala in the summer, the Knights already had a crowded import situation with Linus Funck, Sokolovskii and Nordmark in the mix.
The new import rules state that if the Knights were to choose again in the second round (at No. 101 overall), they would have to take an NHL first-rounder.
“We took a chance knowing Nordmark hadn’t said yes to coming here,” Simpson said. “In that scenario with drafting Luca, we took Piiparinen so we could shift him to our (import) frozen list right away. It wasn’t in our plans that either of these guys would show up. It was a little shot in the dark of understanding the rules of what we could do.
“It happened to fall our way this year.”
CAVALRY COMING: More blue-chippers are on their way home.
Veteran forward Ryan Brown returned to London after training camp with Dallas, and goaltender Aleksei Medvedev is back from his stint with the Vancouver Canucks.
The only player from last year’s roster still outstanding is Cover, who had a wildly productive rookie tournament with Ottawa. He nursed a lower-body injury during main camp and remains in the nation’s capital for the time being.
In his absence, over-ager Evan Van Gorp has enjoyed a hot scoring start with two goals and five points in two games. The Knights will look to the 20-year-old Watford native and fourth-year OHLer for guidance.
“Van Gorp has been with us a long time,” GM Mark Hunter said. “So has Medvedev and (they) understand what needs to get done to make sure our team is a team and a family – to make sure everyone is getting along and working together to be a good hockey club.
“We have a good nucleus here.”
LUCKY LEAGUE: The OHL is extremely fortunate the Knights won their home opener in overtime last week against Windsor.
The dramatic finish prompted the league to respond this week after London was improperly issued a delay of game penalty for a supposed challenge of Windsor’s dubious tying goal with fewer than 14 seconds left in regulation. It also confirmed Spitfires coach Greg Walters’ observation that the video review component was unavailable for the majority of the game – but somehow worked for the London challenge late in the third period.
Essentially, the Knights shouldn’t have been assessed a minor penalty for a challenge on that play because goals scored in the final minute and overtime of every OHL game fall under automatic review. London was able to kill off the delay of game penalty and won on Cooper McAslan’s late heroics.
In terms of video review, there are some problems that pop up here and there and can’t be avoided. A better guideline would be to establish that if review is not available at the start of a period, it should not be allowed for the rest of that period.
That would alleviate a lot of Walters’ well-founded concerns.
“The OHL is aware of both the procedural and technical issues that affected Friday’s game in London,” the league said in a statement to The Free Press. “These have been addressed internally as well as with both clubs, and the league is working to ensure any technical matters are resolved ahead of this week’s games.”
The first step is acknowledging the problem. Of course, the big question remains whether Windsor’s tying goal should have counted or been overturned due to goaltender interference.
AROUND THE RINK: Knights 2026 second-rounder Jack Samek scored a hat trick and had six points in the London Nationals’ 8-1 victory over the LaSalle Vipers Wednesday at Western Fair. The 16-year-old from Etobicoke has four goals and nine points in his first four Junior B games as the Nats head to Stratford Friday . . . Former Knight Landon Sim dropped the mitts with ex-Kitchener Rangers defenceman Matt Andonovski in a Toronto-Ottawa exhibition game this week and recorded the takedown. That’s two Memorial Cup winners going at it. Sim’s younger brother Ewan, a Knights draft pick, is playing in Strathroy right now . . . Watch out for the unbeaten St. Thomas Stars in the Junior B ranks. They have several Knights prospects in their lineup, including forward Ryker Kesler, and are a fun team to follow.
KNIGHTSWATCH
Friday: vs. Owen Sound, 7 p.m. at Canada Life Place. The Attack split with Kitchener to open the season.
