London Knights, ON - OHL Case Study

The London Knights have long been a staple of success in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and the past few seasons have only cemented that status. Since joining the GameStrat team for the 2021–22 season, the Knights have continued to dominate—with three straight appearances in the OHL Championship and Memorial Cup (2023, 2024, and 2025), back-to-back first-place regular season finishes, and now, their third Memorial Cup title in franchise history.

A powerhouse organization from top to bottom, the Knights are led by brothers Dale Hunter (President & Head Coach) and Mark Hunter (Vice President & General Manager)—two of the most respected names in Canadian junior hockey. And while their reputation has always been elite, their continued investment in tools like GameStrat’s live replay system reflects a commitment to staying ahead of the curve. In fact, this year’s Memorial Cup Final saw London defeat Medicine Hat, just one year after a close loss to fellow GameStrat program, the Saginaw Spirit in last year's Memorial Cup.

With a standard of excellence already set, the Knights continue to look for any edge that helps keep them on top. We sat down with Assistant Coach Rick Steadman to hear more about how GameStrat Replay has fit into their on-bench coaching and contributed to their overall workflow.

London Knights after winning the 2025 Memorial Cup. Photo by: London Knights/X

In our conversation with Coach Steadman, he illustrated the way in which utilizing GameStrat Replay for instant replay on the bench increases coaching efficiency.

It makes it a lot easier to watch and coach the game. If you see that someone made a mistake on the ice, when you go to give them feedback you can watch it with them and show them exactly where they made the mistake. It’s that instant feedback and players today want that instant feedback.

London Knights coach & player using GameStrat on the bench. Photo By: Matt Hiscox Photography

With the introduction of new technology, such as iPads with live video on the bench, comes some concerns about the learning curve for players and staff. However, Coach Steadman believes that the transition to using GameStrat Replay for instant replay on the bench was extremely smooth.

It took our guys basically one shift to pick it up. Half the time they’re grabbing the iPad from me before I get the chance to show them because they really want to see it. Just last game we used GameStrat Replay to mark all the scoring chances so we could go in and watch it between periods. So we are constantly utilizing it as much as we can because of the ease of it.

London Knights players using GameStrat's live video replay on the bench.

When it comes to the quality of the system, Coach Steadman ensures that GameStrat Replay provides top performance in comparison to any other systems providing live video on the bench.

We had connection issues with other instant replay systems before, but we’ve had none of those issues with GameStrat Replay. We were worried about lagging video footage but now we have it and it’s there right away. It’s got great definition, replay capabilities, in time support and its very enjoyable.