OHL Alumni Central

As usual, the Hershey Bears are storming through the American Hockey League season, taking no prisoners. The Bears are currently in first atop the Eastern Conference and second overall in the 30 team league behind only the Oklahoma City Barons. Helping out on the blue line are two grads of the Ontario Hockey League. These are the only two representatives of the OHL on the Hershey roster, a surprise when you consider there is only one non-North American born player on the club.

Danny Richmond was coaxed out of the NCAA by Dale Hunter to play one season with the London Knights in 2003-04. Richmond came to London already a draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes took Danny in the second round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, 31st overall. He had an exceptional season with the Knights and also won gold at the World Juniors as a member of Team U.S.A.

To date, Richmond has played in 49 NHL regular season games with Carolina and the Chicago Blackhawks. Of course, as a member of the Hershey Bears, he is now property of the Washington Capitals – a team stocked with former Knights and now coached by Dale Hunter. In eight years of professional hockey, Richmond has spent the majority of his time in the AHL. He has played for nearly 25% of the league’s 30 team, seven teams in eight years.

Where Danny Richmond was an American playing junior in Canada, Patrick McNeill was a Canadian playing junior in the United States. McNeill was a member of the Saginaw Spirit for four seasons from 2003-04 to 2006-07. Where Richmond is a bit of a hockey vagabond, McNeill was drafted by the Washington Capitals and has only played with their minor league affiliates since turning pro.

Patrick was a D-man with a nose for the opposing team’s net while in the OHL. In each of his final two seasons in Saginaw, he surpassed the 20 goal plateau. His 77 points in 2005-06 led all the Ontario Hockey League’s defensemen. It should be noted that McNeill was the first overall pick by the Spirit at the 2003 OHL Priority Selection.

McNeill was a fourth round pick of the Capitals at the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 118th overall. Other than 19 games with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays in his first pro season, he has been a mainstay with the Hershey Bears. For two consecutive years, 2008-09 and 2009-10, he helped the Bears win the Calder Cup as AHL playoff champs. The team is certainly headed in the same direction this season.

I remember being at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto a few years back and being a little confused during a game between the Marlies and the Rochester Americans. It was Oreskovic versus Oreskovich and I, quite frankly couldn’t remember which one was which.

Phil Oreskovic

Phil Oreskovic and Victor Oreskovich are both grads of the Ontario Hockey League, played in the league at the same time for two years and are listed at exactly the same height and weight.

Phil Oreskovic played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2006-07. He played the bulk of his OHL career with the Brampton Battalion, moving over to the Owen Sound Attack at the trade deadline in his final season. The stay at home defenseman was the fifteenth overall pick of the Battalion in the 2003 OHL Priority Selection.

Oreskovic was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 82nd overall. He appeared in ten games with the National Hockey League club in 2008-09, his only NHL experience to date. After three years as a regular with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, Phil was moved to the Hershey Bears for 2010-11. So far in 2011-12, he’s played a scattering of games for the South Carolina Stingrays of the East Coast Hockey League.

After starting his second season with University of Notre Dame in the NCAA in 2005-06, Victor Oreskovich returned to Canada and played the rest of the season and all of 2006-07 with the Kitchener Rangers. He put up decent numbers in his only full OHL season, scoring 28 and totalling 60 points in 62 games. 

Oreskovich came to the Ontario Hockey League already an NHL prospect. Victor was taken in the second round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalance, 55th overall. He has appeared in the NHL with the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks. Currently a member of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, Oreskovich has appeared in one game with the Canucks, so far this season.

Victor Oreskovich

34 year old Steve Valiquette is attempting to prolong his pro hockey career with a professional try-out (PTO) with the American Hockey League’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Valiquette played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1994-95 to 1997-98 and last played with CSKA Moscow of Russia’s KHL in 2010-11.

Steve Valiquette with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in 2005-06.

Steve played his first three and a half seasons in the OHL with the Sudbury Wolves. He was traded to the Erie Otters during the 1997-98 season and finished out his OHL career there. In 1996-97, Valiquette played 61 of Sudbury’s 66 games with the team finishing last in the Central Division and out of the Robertson Cup playoffs. With Erie, he played all seven games of their opening round series against the London Knights in his final season. Steve posted an impressive 1.93 GAA with one shutout in a losing cause.

Valiquette was an eighth round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, 190th overall. Steve never played for the Kings but has played a backup role with the New York Islanders, Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers. With the Rangers affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, in 2004-05, he teamed up with Jason LaBarbera to win the Harry Holmes Trophy as the best goaltending duo on the AHL. Valiquette played 35 games and posted a 1.77 GAA and a .935 save percentage.

One of Steve’s best performances in pro hockey came in 2005-06 with the ill-fated Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the then Russian Super League (RSL). Valiquette played 45 of the team’s 51 regular season games with a 1.95 GAA and .923 save percentage. Yaroslavl finished third overall in the league and lost in the semi-finals. Despite the numbers, the top goaltender award went to another Ontario Hockey League grad. Fred Brathwaite had a higher GAA, lower save percentage and played less games, yet the goalie who played for the Oshawa Generals, London Knights and Detroit Junior Red Wings between 1989-90 and 1992-93, took the prize as a member of Ak Bars Kazan.

This past season, Valiquette played in the KHL for CSKA Moscow. CSKA was dismal, finishing 19th overall in the 23 team league and out of the post season. Steve still recorded decent numbers, playing in 35 games with a 2.94 GAA and .897 save percentage.

Bridgeport hopes to find a spot for their original goaltender. Steve played with the Sound Tigers in their first two years of existence, 2001-02 and 2002-03. Bridgeport is the AHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders and currently sits tenth in the fifteen team Eastern Conference.

I had absolutely no plans to write an article dedicated to Remembrance Day. But then… I was reseaching AHL rookie of year winners through the years and wondered just who this guy was that the league’s top rookie trophy was named after. Dudley ‘Red’ Garrett played just one season of professional hockey in 1942-43 before joining the armed forces.

Dudley 'Red' Garrett of the New York Rangers.

I found that OHA stats and general info from that era are pretty scarce. However, Garrett was from Toronto and played for the Marlboros during the 1941-42 season. It is written that he led the OHA in penalty minutes that season with 61 in 18 games. He was property of the Toronto Maple Leafs but was traded to the New York Rangers prior to the 1942-43 season for star and Hall of Famer, Babe Pratt.

In 1942-43 at the young age of 18, Dudley played six games with the American Hockey League’s Providence Reds and 23 with the Rangers. The strong defenseman was in the running for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie that season. Before the season was over, Red was off to war.

On November 25, 1944 at the age of 20, Garrett paid the ultimate price and lost his life off the coast of Newfoundland. Not much more than eight months later, the Americans bombed Hiroshima. About a month after that, World War II was over. Three years later, for the 1947-48 season, the Dudley ‘Red’ Garrett Memorial Award was first handed out. The first recipient was Bob Solinger of the Cleveland Barons and the second was Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender, Terry Sawchuk.

In Garrett’s only NHL season, it was the first year of the ‘Original 6′ era. The Brooklyn Americans folded after the 1941-42 season, leaving the league with the six teams that would comprise the NHL until 1967-68. Each team played 50 regular season games and the Rangers finished last with just eleven wins and 30 points. Detroit finished first overall and won the Stanley Cup over the Boston Bruins. 1942-43 was also the debut of Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard and Ted Kennedy. Garrett played more than both as Richard appeared in 16 games with the Montreal Canadiens and Kennedy played just two with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So… on Remembrance Day, be thankful that kids like Dudley ‘Red’ Garrett went off to war to fight for our freedom so that kids like

Dudley 'Red' Garrett Memorial Award.

Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin can concentrate on playing hockey.

The Peoria Rivermen are off to a mediocre start to the American Hockey League season, sitting at a game below .500. The St. Louis Blues affiliate features seven Ontario Hockey League grads on the roster for the start of the 2011-12 season. One of the coaching staff is also a former OHLer.

There are some great Peoria Rivermen hockey cards on eBay, right now!

Phil McRae played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 2006-07 to 2009-10. He played most of his OHL career with the London Knights before moving over to the Plymouth Whalers to finish off his final season. McRae was a second round pick of the Blues at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, 33rd overall. Phil appeared in 15 games with St. Louis in 2010-11 and is in his second season with Peoria.

Jonathan Cheechoo played three years in the OHL from 1997-98 to 1999-00, all with the Belleville Bulls. Cheechoo was a second round pick of the San Jose Sharks in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 29th overall. He had six full seasons with the Sharks, including 2005-06 when his 56 goals led the league and earned him the Rocket Richard Trophy. After playing a partial season with the Ottawa Senators in 2009-10, he spent the 2010-11 season in the AHL with the Worcester Sharks. This is his first season with the Rivermen.

Mark Cundari played for the Windsor Spitfires from 2006-07 to 2009-10 and was an integral part of the team’s back to back Memorial Cup victories in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Undrafted, Mark was picked up as a free agent by the Blues and is starting his second season with Peoria.

Stefan Della Rovere played for the Barrie Colts for four seasons from 2006-07 to 2009-10, acting as team captain in his final two. Della Rovere led the Colts into the Robertson Cup finals in his final season where the team lost to current teammate Mark Cundari and the Windsor Spitfires. Stefan was a seventh round pick of the Washington Capitals at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, 204th overall. In 2010-11, Della Rovere got into seven games with St. Louis but spent most of his time in Peoria.

Anthony Peluso played in the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons from 2005-06 to 2008-09 with the Erie Otters, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Brampton Battalion. Peluso was a sixth round pick of the St. Louis Blues at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, 160th overall. This season marks Peluso’s third with the Rivermen.

Anthony Nigro played in the OHL for four seasons from 2006-07 to 2009-10 with the Guelph Storm and Ottawa 67′s. Nigro was drafted by the Blues in the sixth round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, 155th overall. This is Anthony’s second season with Peoria.

Danny Syvret played three full seasons with the London Knights from 2002-03 to 2004-05. He was a third round pick of the Edmonton Oilers at the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 81st overall. Danny has made it into 59 NHL games to date with the Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim Ducks. This is Syvret’s first season with the Rivermen.

Assistant Coach of the Rivermen, Drake Berehowsky, played for the Kingston Frontenacs and North Bay Centennials between 1988-89 and 1991-92.