OHL Alumni Central

Vojtech Kloz played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League. Kloz was a Kingston Frontenac in 2003-04. He played 62 games and was definitely a stay-at-home defenseman getting only three assists over the season.

Kloz returned to his native Czech Republic in 2004-05 and played pro in that country at various levels until midway through last season when he made the switch to the Slovak Extraliga and HK 36 Skalica. Vojtech played a total of 39 games at the highest level in the Czech Republic, the Extraliga.

For a reference, the IIHF ranks the Czech Extraliga third in Europe while the Slovak Extraliga is fifth.

Michael Kolarz played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2004-05 to 2006-07, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Good enough to earn a spot on Team Czech Republic at the 2007 IIHF World Junior Hockey Tournament but not good enough to be drafted by an NHL club.

Kolarz played a partial season in the Central Hockey League after graduation from the Ontario Hockey League but has since mostly toiled in the Czech Extraliga 2. Last season was his first with MsHK Zilina of the Slovak Extraliga and he is back with the team for the 2010-11 season.

The Slovak Extraliga consists of 13 teams throughout the country of Slovakia. This past season, 2009-10, HK 36 Skalica finished sixth and MsHK Zilina finished tenth.

Check out Michael Kolarz’s profile page on the MsHK Zilina official website.

Check out Vojtech Kloz’s profile page on the HK 36 Skalica official website.

Check out this previous post about OHL alumni playing for HK 36 Skalica.

The Kalamazoo Wings of the East Coast Hockey League have the good fortune to have retained the services of the two Ontario Hockey League grads for the upcoming 2010-11 season. Each of the grads comes from the two Ontario Hockey League teams located in the state of Michigan, the Plymouth Whalers and Saginaw Spirit.

Andrew Fournier played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08, all with the Plymouth Whalers, although his first season consisted of only three games. He was a part of the Robertson Cup winning Whalers in 2006-07. He came out offensively in his final season, scoring 35 goals and 40 assists for 75 points in 64 games which placed him second on the team in scoring. He captained the team in that final season.

Undrafted, Fournier played his first season of professional hockey in 2008-09. He split the campaign between the ECHL’s Florida Everblades and Dayton Bombers. This past season, his first with Kalamazoo, Andrew led the team in scoring with 27 goals and 44 assists for 71 points in 70 games.

Patrick Asselin played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08. His first four seasons were played with the Saginaw Spirit and during his final season, the Spirit traded him to the Oshawa Generals where he was to help a power-packed Generals team go deep into the playoffs. His 78 total points in his final season put him third on the Generals in scoring behind the dynamic duo of John Tavares and Brett MacLean.

In 2008-09, Asselin’s first year pro, he played in Germany’s Oberliga (third tier, behind DEL and Bundesliga) with Herne. He scored 39 goals and added 40 assists for 79 points in 50 games with Herne which placed him two points out of the top spot on the team in total points. He returned to North America and the East Coast Hockey League this past season, starting with the Idaho Steelheads and taking a turn with the Utah Grizzlies before ending up in Kalamazoo.

Check out Andrew Fournier’s and Patrick Asselin’s profile pages on the Kalamazoo Wings official website.

Rob Dmytruk played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03. Each season he played in the OHL, he found himself on a different team’s roster.

Dmytruk’s Ontario Hockey League career began with the Belleville Bulls. His second season consisted of only 19 games with the Sudbury Wolves. In his final season, he went west and played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In total, Rob played in 89 regular season games in the OHL as well as six total playoff games.

After his Ontario Hockey League career, Dmytruk went the Canadian university route and played five seasons at Wilfred Laurier University. In his fourth season, 2006-07, he developed into an offensive defenseman scoring 11 goals and adding 21 assists for 32 points in 28 games. In his final two seasons with Laurier, Rob was a first team all-star.

2008-09 was Rob Dmytruk’s only season of professional hockey in North America and he bounced around between three different clubs in two leagues. He began the season with the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL and moved on to the Rapid City Rush and Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League.

This past season, Dmytruk moved to the European hockey scene and played with Eindhoven Kemphanen in the Netherlands. He continued his offensive ways with 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points in 42 games.

This upcoming season, Rob has shifted to France’s Ligue Magnus and the Ducs Dijon. We’ve noted before that not many Ontario Hockey League alumni play in the Ligue Magnus. Hopefully Rob will find great success with Dijon.

Rob Dmytruk’s profile has yet to appear on the Ducs Dijon official website but you can follow this link to the story on the the website announcing the arrival of Rob.

Marek Kvapil played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05, with the Saginaw Spirit. Kvapil started that season with HC Slavia Praha in the Czech Republic under-20 league. After eight games, he made the move to the Ontario Hockey League and was an offensive powerhouse on a Spirit team that had the least goals for in the OHL. He added seven games for the Czech Republic at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships where he produced two goals and three assists as the Czech’s lost out to Canada in the semi-finals but beat the USA for the bronze.

Kvapil finished up his season in Saginaw with 25 goals and 37 assists for 62 points in just 53 games. With the Spirit scoring just 150 goals on the season, Marek factored in on 43.4% of the team’s total goals, despite missing 15 games.

Kvapil found his way into the Ontario Hockey League record books during his short career. He is tied for the OHL record for the fastest goal to begin a period. He scored four seconds into the third period of a game against the Mississauga IceDogs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning drafted Marek in the sixth round of the 2005 NHL draft, 163rd overall. He spent three years following his one year stint in the Ontario Hockey League playing for teams in the AHL and ECHL (AHL – Springfield Falcons, Norfolk Admirals; ECHL – Johnstown Chiefs, Mississippi Sea Wolves).

Kvapil will start his third season in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga this upcoming season. His first two seasons were played with HC Vitkovice but he has made a change this year and signed on with HC Kometa Brno. Marek hopes to help lift Brno from 12th in the 14 team league in 2009-10 to at least a playoff berth this season. In the Extraliga, the top ten teams make the post season.

Marek had the fortune of representing the Czech Republic this past spring at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Germany as the Czechs won the gold medal. He was mentioned in this previous post regarding OHL alumni on the Czech team for the tournament.

Check out Marek Kvapil’s profile page on the HC Kometa Brno official website.

Check out this great profile of Marek Kvapil in the alumni section of the Saginaw Spirit official website.

Welcome to our latest installment of SSSFS, featuring five more great sites for wide world of hockey.

Word On A Wing (Memoirs From Motown) – A great site for in-depth stats and news about the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. In fact, they claim to have unique statistical analysis you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Broad Street Hockey (For Philadelphia Flyers Fans) – A very in-depth and interactive site about the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers. This site is part of the SB Nation network.

The Ryan Coke Experience – This is the personal blog of Tom Collins, a Newfie born on St. Patrick’s day that doesn’t drink yet has the fortune of being named after an alcoholic drink. Follow me so far? According to his bio, he was once asked if he would consider changing his name to Ryan Coke (as in Rye and Coke) and it sort of stuck. Anyhow, the blog is not 100% hockey but there some’s great commentary and opinion that is heavily weighed in the Montreal/Ottawa direction.

The Power Play Post Show – If you’re a fan of the American Hockey League and you haven’t heard of this site, you’ve been missing out. The PPPS is ‘the only internet-based AHL talk show’ and is hosted by Bob Howard and Jason Wilcox. The show is a weekly and the site has a full archive in several audio formats. Featured guests each week are the who’s who of the AHL world.

Eishockey Blog – To broaden your view of the wide world of hockey, eventually you have to leave the comfort zone of the English language. Eishockey Blog is a German language blog based out of Basel, Switzerland. Cut and paste the articles into Google Translate for a fairly decent translation or just take a serious shot at reading it. You’ll find that with your obvious knowledge of hockey and the English language, German isn’t all that hard to decipher.

Check out the previous editions of SSSFS:

Week I

Week II

Week III