OHL Alumni Central

Richard Rochefort as a member of the Augsburg Panther of Germany's DEL.

Hockey – It’s popular everywhere. Ontario Hockey League grad Richard Rochefort is one of a handful of Canadians that is bringing credibility to the Asia League Ice Hockey.

Rochefort played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1994-95 to 1996-97. His first two seasons were played with the Sudbury Wolves and his final season was split between the Wolves and the Sarnia Sting. Richard was a steady 20+ goal scorer in each of his three seasons and had seasons of 65, 65 and 70 points.

Rochefort was drafted in the seventh round of the 1995 NHL draft by the New Jersey Devils, 174th overall. He spent five seasons, from 1997-98 to 2001-02, with the Albany River Rats of the American Hockey League.

Starting in 2002-03, Richard became a world traveller, toting his hockey equipment from country to country. He has played in Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Germany and Japan. This past season, Rochefort played in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) with the Augsburg Panthers.

This upcoming season, 2010-11, Richard returns the ALIH with the Nikko Icebucks. The Icebucks have been less than marvelous over the past few seasons. They’re counting on Rochefort to help them into a top four position in the seven team league in order to move on to the post season.

Richard played previously in the ALIH for two seasons, 2007-08 and 2008-09. Both seasons were played with the Seibu Prince Rabbits which played out of Tokyo. The team is now defunct.

The ALIH official website is in English and can be found here.

The Nikko Icebucks website is only in Japanese and is not quite ready to go the for new season. The site can be found here.

Check out this previous post on the Asia League Ice Hockey.

We just had a post on Australia’s AIHL. Almost as far from the mainstream hockey world is the Asia Ice Hockey League. The league consists of 7 teams: 4 in Japan, 2 in South Korea and 1 in China. The league’s official website is in Japanese and English and the English is pretty good. The site can be viewed here. There are currently two Ontario Hockey League alumni playing in the Asia League.

Dustin Wood played his OHL days with the Peterborough Petes from 1998-99 to 2001-02. He is currently with Anyang Halla which plays out of Anyang City, Korea. To find Dustin’s profile page on the team’s official website (mostly in Korean), click here to go to the website – mouseover ‘TEAM’ on the upper tool bar and click on the first item in the list. This will bring you to the roster list. Dustin is number 23 under defenceman.

Trevor Gallant played for the Kitchener Rangers from 1991-92 to midway through 1994-95 when he was traded to the North Bay Centennials. He finished out his OHL career with the Centennials in 1995-96. He finished 7th in league scoring in 1993-94 with the Rangers with 39 goals and 80 assists for 119 points. He was 4th in league scoring in his final season with totals of 47 goals and 58 assists for 105 points.

Trevor is also in Korea, playing with the High1 Ice team out of Soeul. A small picture and profile can be found at the league website here , just scroll down. The team’s website is still under construction and is only in Korean.