Frontenac Phantoms coming in September (CW*)

Jeff Green | Feb 24, 2021

*Covid willing.

Just about a year ago, in early March, the announcement was about to be made that a team, based at the Frontenac Arena. would be joining the one year Eastern Ontario Super Hockey League (EOSHL).

The new team would be bringing competitive hockey back to the arena, and the region, for the first time in over ten years, since the demise of the Frontenac Flyers, Junior B team, in 2010.

The announcement was pretty quickly snuffed out by the COVID-19 pandemic, which arrived in March. The EOSHL held its first season in 2019, with 4 teams, and was looking forward to an expanded 2020 season, with as many as 10 teams.

The 2020 season did not happen, and even without COVID the Frontenac Arena would not have been able to host the team in 2020/21 because an inspection revealed that the ice surface needed to be rebuilt, a construction project that is taking place right now.

Flash forward to this week. Colton Di Stefano, a paver who lives in the Bath area with his wife and newborn baby, is the proud owner of the Frontenac Phantoms, a name that he came up with after toying around with a few different ideas.

“I wanted the name to have the right sound and I also knew that I wanted to honour the Frontenac Flyers, and Phantoms came to me and it stuck,” said Di Stefano, in an interview this week.

The team's logo is similar to the old Flyers logo, but with a twist for the Phantoms.

The new team already has a roster of 18 players signed up to play for the team, including Di Stefano himself and others who played their youth hockey at the Frontenac Arena. The roster is available at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In order to make the team a success, Di Stefano said that attracting fans to home games will be essential, as is attracting sponsors. He has developed three sponsorship levels, each offering different public profiles, for $500, $1,000 and $1500.

He is optimistic about the future of the league.

“The future of the league is pretty bright,” he said. “It's about a 2 hour, 20 minute drive between the teams at the far end of each extremity, so we have filled in the region pretty well with ten teams. It honestly works best in the smaller towns, it brings a little bit of excitement for the small kids.”

But Di Stefano knows that the 2021 season is not a sure thing.

“In order to cover the cost of ice time, insurance and everything else, we need to have fans in attendance, and we don't know yet if that will be possible in September.”

He is hoping, however, that 2021 will be the season that the Phantoms and the EOSHL really get going.

“This is all new to me. I've never owned a hockey team, and it is a really exciting venture. Tim Laprade, the arena manager, has been very supportive. He sees this as a benefit for the arena, and I do too. I’m looking forward to getting on the ice.

Colton Di Stefano can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.