By: John Humphrey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter
There was no silver lining for Jack Nesbitt after the Windsor Spitfires were eliminated from the Ontario Hockey League play-offs. Instead, it turned out to be a golden one.
The 6’4”, 185-lb. centre joined Team Canada at the 2025 World Under 18 Hockey Championships in suburban Dallas, Texas and was a key player for the Canadian squad that steam-rolled the competition (going undefeated in eight games) en route to claiming the gold medal.
“It was an awesome experience because it was a quick turnaround from the end of my season with the Spitfires,” said the Sarnia native who had just completed his second season in Windsor after being the Spits’ first round pick, 20th overall in the 2023 OHL Priority Selection. “I literally jumped on a plane the night after we lost game seven (April 22) and I met another player, Tyler Hopkins at the airport after his team (Kingston Frontenacs) had also just lost game game seven and we flew down together to join Team Canada”
Nesbitt and Hopkins flew out of Detroit and into Frisco, Texas, one of the host cities for the tournament.
Nesbitt, who scored 25 goals and added 39 assists along with 75 penalty minutes in 64 games, during the 2024-2025 OHL regular season, wasn’t distracted by the prospect of playing for his country if and when the Spitfires were eliminated from the OHL post-season.
“I was completely focused on helping us going as far as we could but I did know that I was on the list to be invited to play in the tournament,” he claimed. “But I also didn’t know if they were still going to be bringing in players at that late date. (the 2025 World Under 18 Hockey Championships opened on April 23).”
Team Canada already had a 2-0 record, outscoring the opposition by a combined score of 16-3 over Slovakia and Latvia) by the time Nesbitt played his first game with the squad on May 26. He ended up scoring twice and adding three assists in six tournament games with the eventual world champs. Nesbitt also scored a goal and added an assist in the gold medal game, a 7-0 win over Sweden.
In the big picture. there was no shortage of reasons why Team Canada turned in such a dominating performance at the 2025 World Under 18s, Nesbitt claimed.
“We had an amazing lineup that saw all four lines contribute and our defence was rock-solid too. We also had a bunch of 08s (players born in 2008 who were the youngest players on the team) who played big roles and contributed too.
“And in net (Frank) Ivankovic (Brampton Steelheads) and (Lucas) Beckman (Baie-Commeau Drakkar) were both awesome and they played very well,” he continued. “The coaches (head coach and Windsor Spitfire legend Cory Stillman of the Guelph Storm and associate coach Travis Crickard, assistant coach Mathieu Turcotte and goaltending consultant Dan De Palma) developed some great systems and we all bought in right away and executed them.
“In the end we bonded as a team very quickly and we played very well together.”
Nesbitt was speaking from experience of having to adjust his feisty style of play in international hockey has he has also won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2023 World Under 18 Hockey Championships
“The referees call a lot more penalties in IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) games and if you get into a scrum after the play is over you are going to get penalized,” he offered. “So, I stayed away from that stuff as much as I could.
“I still played good, solid, Canadian hockey though.”
While the 2024-2025 season is now in his rear mirror, exciting times still await Jack Nesbitt. He is a highly-rated prospect (with first round potential) for the 2025 National Hockey League Entry Draft that will be taking place on June 27 and 28 in Los Angeles.
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