Windsor — For Team Canada forwards Ethan Belchetz and Jack Nesbitt, Monday’s arrival at the World Junior Summer Showcase felt like a homecoming. After spending the past two seasons together with the Windsor Spitfires, the two reunited at WFCU Centre for this week’s training.
Pretty soon, though, they won’t be teammates. They’ll be rivals, cast on opposite sides of a college hockey war. After three seasons in Windsor, Nesbitt is joining Michigan. Belchetz joins Michigan State after two years with the Spitfires. As both teams cast their eye on Big Ten and national championships, the path may very well run through each other.
“Right now we’re still teammates, so we’ll keep it as that,” Belchetz told The Detroit News.
“It’ll be fun,” Nesbitt added. “Being with him the past few years, and now we’re on the other side.”
It wasn’t until this offseason that each player decided to make the jump to college hockey. After losing to OHL champion Kitchener in the conference finals, both players made college commitments in May.
“We both just focused on our season, and then after the season, we just kind of just talked to agents and stuff and worried about that,” said Nesbitt, who scored 58 points in 55 regular season games and tacked on 10 more in the OHL playoffs. “But no, we just did whatever we could throughout the year, and then made that decision. And now we’re here, and we’re gonna focus on this.”
Even if college decisions came quickly after the season, Belchetz maintains that his priorities weren’t split during the season.
“When we were in Windsor throughout the year, our main objective was to win a championship and give our best foot forward in Windsor,” Belchetz said, whose season ended in a broken collarbone during a March practice.
“So for me personally, it wasn’t too much about worrying about school or anything like that. It was worrying about winning hockey here in Windsor. And then I go out with a tough injury there, and it kind of gives me some time to think about my future and what I want to do there.”
For the unacquainted, Canadian Hockey League teams carry a fandom akin to SEC football, especially those teams in the OHL. Windsor is no exception, and there are some fans that still aren’t too thrilled to see two of their star players — Belchetz being a former No. 1 overall OHL draft pick — walk out the door for college hockey.
And so those decisions came with some shock, and some anger, and all the other emotions one could expect when love turns to longing.
Get used to it. In today’s hockey landscape, where decades of restrictions came off like a ripped Band-aid this past season. Led by No. 1 overall Toronto Maple Leafs pick Gavin McKenna, a number of top CHL stars came to the NCAA. They included Philadelphia Flyers first overall pick Porter Martone, who stepped into the NHL as an immediate contributor once his lone season in East Lansing ended. It’s a journey that Utah Mammoth first-round pick Belchetz wants to emulate. Nesbitt is also a Philadelphia prospect, drafted in the first round the same year as Martone.
All told, 13 first-round NHL draft picks this past June are CHL alumni who either played in the NCAA their draft year or are committed to join an NCAA team in the future. Decades of division are over.
Though some Windsor fans may still be frustrated by the loss of talents like Belchetz and Nesbitt, some watched as the two came back for Monday’s practice. They’ll suit up for games this week, culminating in Saturday’s showdown between the USA and Canada.
“Them just showing up and watching our practice, stuff like that, it’s awesome to see,” Nesbitt said. “And I love this rink, I love this city, and everything. So it’s awesome to be back.”
Eventually, both players hope fans come around to the idea of CHL alumni taking their talents to college hockey. NHL general managers certainly did.
“I just think it’s new,” Belchetz said. “It’s a new rule. It only came out a couple years ago, so obviously right now it’s new, it’s fresh. Some people aren’t used to it.
“But at the end of the day, I think it just gives players more freeway of what they want their route to be. And at the end of the day, all of our goals — we have a similar goal here is to play professional hockey and play in the NHL for a long time.”
No, that new college rivalry rivalry hasn’t quite set in yet, or at least a couple of past and future teammates are putting that all aside for the national team. For now, they’re still teammates with Canada. Wait until they face off at Munn and Yost, or at the Duel in the D come February.
Belchetz and Nesbitt both attend the Summer Showcase as candidates for the 2027 World Junior team. Canada reclaimed gold in the tournament a year ago in Minnesota, after Team USA won golds in 2024 and 2025.
MSU commit Rogowski has something to prove
It’s hard to lose track of Brooks Rogowski on the ice when the rangy center stands 6-foot-7, but that’s exactly what Finland did to open the third period of Monday’s 5-1 USA Blue win. Off a slick feed from linemate Carter Sanderson (a North Dakota commit who had a hat trick Sunday), Rogowski took a 2-on-1 rush and fired a quick release shot underneath the crossbar.
It’s the kind of skilled goal that Rogowski is trying to show is more common in his game. Because for all the grinding elements of his game, and for all his intimidating size, the Brighton native also believes he can bring more offense. He had a goal and an assist in a 6-1 win over Sweden on Sunday, too.
“It’s becoming a more prominent part of my game,” Rogowski told The News, his chin bleeding from a high stick later that period. “I think people are starting to recognize it as well. Everyone sees my size and just expects, you know, fourth-line guy (who) just fights and sticks up for others. But I think there’s a lot more, and it’s been developing throughout this year.”
Rogowski scored 15 goals and 42 points in 46 games for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals last season before the Vancouver Canucks drafted him 33rd overall in June’s NHL Draft. He is headed back to Oshawa next season before joining Michigan State a year from now.
Rogowski could play for Adam Nightingale a bit sooner if he makes the U.S. national junior team. Monday’s game was another strong performance as he continues to make his case.
“I think just being that versatile guy, right, I think that’s going to benefit me,” Rogowski said. “Everyone knows I can play that fourth final role. I execute that well. I think it’s more just showing everyone that I can be that top-six guy, can be on the power play. … Having that ability to do that just opens up way more space for me, way more opportunity, and I think it’s coming along very well.”
The son of former Chicago White Sox draft pick Casey Rogowski, he passed up the family sport of baseball and committed full time to hockey at 16. It was around that same time Rogowski shot up from 5-foot-10 to north of 6-foot-4, and he kept growing to his current height. His size is a rarity at forward.
“I’ve always been a center,” he said. “I’ve always been really good at faceoffs. So it kind of just stuck. I’ve tried to play D, it just was not pretty.”
Hyper childhood led Gordon-Carroll to NHL path
Though he’s one of the younger players on the ice, Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll has stood out for Team USA at the World Junior Summer Showcase as a quick and agile skater and a pest on the forecheck. Who would’ve thought that a niche youth sports rule in Utah would’ve set him on a path to be an NHL draft pick in 2027.
Gordon-Carroll was a hyper 4-year-old boy when his parents wanted to give him an outlet to burn some energy. They wanted to get him into organized sports, but in his home state of Utah football and soccer started at 6 years old. The sport that didn’t? Hockey, and so he laced up his skates.
“My parents put me into learn to skate, and that honestly just made me tired for my parents,” Gordon-Carroll told The News. “So pretty funny story.”
And also a bit of an odyssey. Growing up in Utah, Gordon-Carroll and his father used to drive 700 miles to Colorado for him to play for the Thunderbirds’ youth organization. Eventually, that got to be too much travel. So he and his family packed up for Chicago, where he won a 15U national championship with Gino Cavallini’s Chicago Mission program in 2024.
The past two years, Gordon-Carroll played for Medicine Hat in Canada’s Western Hockey League, where last season he scored 37 points in 41 games in the regular season, plus another 12 points in 15 playoff games. He’ll head there again this season for his draft year.
Though he isn’t an alumnus of the National Team Development Program, he is familiar with a lot of his current teammates at the Summer Showcase from those Chicago Mission days. Red Wings second-round pick Victor Plante, another camp attendee, was on that team. So was Michigan State-bound Jack Hextall. That makes it easier to mesh with some of those teammates.
“It’s a big camp. Obviously putting the USA sweater on is always an honor,” Gordon-Carroll said. “I just gotta play my game and show them what I’m made for.”
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@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: UM-MSU hockey rivalry splits up Windsor stars Nesbitt, Belchetz
Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Connor Earegood, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
