Kingston is not really an OHL Champioship contender, however, (like most years) who really is from the East? The Fronts are 2nd in the Eastern Conference right now; there's no reason to not think they could make a run for a division title this year. They'd be in tough in the finals, but that's the case most years for the east.
There's a lot of teams in the East who are very similar. But if you're a team like Kingston, you're going to take a chance of being the 1 team of the 6/7 teams that are very similar that'll win the East? But if you're not that team then you lose Helvig for nothing.
If I'm Kingston, I look at my roster and say yeah we're a good young team but this isn't the year we're winning it and move Helvig if there's a good return and then next year when my roster is better then I go for it
Exactly what the Gens did last year. They were in first place but they looked around and were like yeah we're not winning this year, let's get McShane/Blacker and a million picks and now we have 3+ years where we actually have a shot to win starting in 2018. Kingston obviously wouldn't get that kind of return but same thinking