I wouldn't necessarily view it as a bad thing. If you don't have many "rookie" second or third year players coming in, your team wouldn't necessarily have anyone on that list. For Kingston, I suspect that last years team is going to be similar in make-up to this years team but with a year of experience under their belt. Kingston was so young last year that most players will return and there probably isn't a lot of room for second or third year "rookies" to crack the roster. It is kind of a unique situation for a player. I think back to Vince Dunn from Niagara that played his 1st year for Jr B Thorold. For his second year he joined the IceDogs and had a strong season. I would have put him in the category of "Unheralded Rookie"
Kingston, Mississauga, and Peterborough were the three teams to not have players mentioned.
You pretty much nailed the reasoning. I tried to focus on players that I anticipated could get consistent ice time and eventually work their way up the lineup. For those three teams, the depth returning is pretty great, in addition to so many of their top end 02's playing on the big club already.
That's the reason a team like London always has so many players on this annual list, because their second, third, fourth round picks just can't crack the OHL roster full time most years. So they play a year in Tier 2, then make the jump and qualify for a list like this.