It will be a young Windsor Spitfires squad that will begin another Ontario Hockey League season on Thursday night.

The Spitfires will open the season at home against the Guelph Storm. Puck drop is at 7:05 p.m.

The Spits have five first-year players and ten second-year players on the roster to start the season.

Windsor has named fourth-year forward Luke Boka as the club’s new captain. The 19-year-old native of Plymouth, Michigan set career highs with 15 goals and 40 points in 64 games last season.

Spits Head Coach Trevor Letowski says Boka deserves to wear the ‘C.’

“We feel like Luke has really grown each year he's been here, both on and office the ice," says Letowski. "We really trust him. I think the biggest thing is the way he works every day. As a staff, we think that the really good leaders in junior hockey are the ones that work hard and set that example for the rest of the team. Luke is our hardest working player, day in and day out."

Forwards Cole Purboo and Chris Playfair have been named assistants.

"We think we've got a great core of leaders and a real partnership brewing here with our players," adds Letowski. "We're into something good and it's just going to grow from here.”

Star goaltender Michael DiPietro will be a big part of the team’s success. The 19-year-old Amherstburg native was named OHL Goaltender of the Year last season. DiPietro tweeted Thursday that he will be returning to the Spitfires from the Vancouver Canucks NHL training camp.

Windsor finished the 2017-18 regular season with a record of 32-30-4-2 and finished sixth in the Western Conference. The Spitfires would lose in the first round of the playoffs to Sarnia in six games.

Windsor won four of the five exhibition games prior to Thursday night’s season and home opener.