Imo, there are two tiers of contenders. The first tier are London, Niagara, Ottawa, and Guelph (if/when all hands are on deck).
Oshawa, Saginaw, Soo, and Sudbury are good enough teams to win one series against the best, but unlikely to win in the conference and OHL finals
I agree with you 100%... with everything other than including Niagra in that category. I sincerely believe they belong in the second tier.
We can agree to disagree on that front. I just feel they will get a higher feeling “placement” because of their eastern geography. After Niagra, the bottom falls out a bit. I would place Oshawa and Sudbury underneath Ottawa and Niagra but not closely underneath.
If playing out of the west, the top grouping of London, Guelph, Saginaw and Sault somewhat water down what Niagra would “feel” like. There isn’t much of a gap between the top end and the bottom of however you would rank the 4 west teams I’ve listed. I’m not saying there isn’t a gap, there is, just smaller a gap compared to what I see over in the east after the top two teams of Ottawa and Niagra. This, to me, creates a different feel for how one would assess a team like Niagra.
Again, good? Yes. Will they be a conference final contender in the east? Yes.
If ranking without conference boarders, are they overall in the top 4 teams? Overall points not factoring in and a western schedule that would impact their current standings - I think they don’t rank in the top 4.
I guess where three dog stumbled on my personal assessment was the “contender” tag. Will Niagra contend for the Eastern conference final? Yes. Will they contend for the OHL final? Unlikely. Which is no different for the Sault in the west. Unfortunately, I’m ok with admitting that and focusing my energy on cheering on an entertaining run for a team that was not supposed to be in any conversation at all.