The disappointment in George Burnett's voice was obvious Tuesday, shortly after the Ontario Hockey League announced it was officially cancelling any hope of returning to play this season.
"It's disappointing for everyone, but I feel for the players because I know how hard they've worked and how much they wanted to return to play," Burnett said Tuesday.
"We always had a hope there would be some type of an abbreviated season ... It all seemed to be leading up to that, but then things got worse and it all got shut down."
The team broke the official news to the players Tuesday morning.
"No question they were disappointed," he said.
Burnett lamented the unceremonious end to the OHL career of Eric Uba and Keegan Stevenson, who would have been the team's overage players this season. Both have made commitments to play university hockey in the fall.
A plan to host games in four hub cities around the province with financial assistance from the provincial government was just hours away from being announced when third wave of the pandemic shut it all down, OHL commissioner Dave Branch told media in a Zoom call Tuesday afternoon.
"It should be noted that a couple of weeks ago we in fact received permission form the chief medical officer and from the premier of the province that we could return and play. On the eve of that announcement the COVID-19 conditions dramatically worsened. It resulted with not being able to proceed with that announcement," Branch said.
"We would not even consider playing without the health authorities approval and support," Branch said.
"I can only hope that when we look back and players get on with their lives, they will come to understand – even more so in respect – that their best interests were looked after."
He said the league plans on playing a full schedule next season.
Burnett said the team had as many as seven rookies pencilled in for this season (both from the 2004 and 2003 draft year) and now the number of rookies will likely be even higher next season.
That's seven players who never played their first OHL game," Burnett said.
Branch said Tuesday that plans for this year's OHL Priority Selection Draft would be revealed in the next week or so.
Burnett said there was some scouting done before the first major lockdown in December, but other than that there has been a lot of watching skill sessions and video tape.
Storm scouts also do some scouting of players when they are in their bantam year.
"No question" there's challenges involved in evaluating this year's draft class, he said.
