OHL Alumni Central

Kurt MacSweyn was an original Brampton Battalion. He began his Ontario Hockey League career in the Bunker in 1998-99, the Battalion’s first OHL season. MacSweyn went on to a four year career with Brampton before three years in the Canadian university system with St. Mary’s.

Kurt has just signed on as yet another OHL grad playing in Australia’s AIHL. He joins fellow OHL alumnus, Matt Armstrong, on the Melbourne Ice. After just four games, Kurt was ripping it up with 13 points in four games for the second place team.

During the 2009-10 winter season, Kurt played in Hungary with Dunaujvaros. His professional career began in 2005-06 with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL. That would be his only season in North America. He has since played in Germany, Austria and Italy as well as Hungary.

Here’s Kurt MacSweyn’s profile page on the Dunaujvaros official website.

Here’s Kurt MacSweyn’s profile page on the Melbourne Ice official website.

Matt Armstrong played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League and was a member of four different OHL teams. His OHL career began in 1999-00 with the Kitchener Rangers. In 2000-01, Matt was moved midway through the season to the Peterborough Petes. After a full season with the Petes in 2001-02, Matt played just 6 games in 2002-03, 4 with the Plymouth Whalers and 2 with the Barrie Colts.

Armstrong has signed on down under with the Melbourne Ice of Australia’s AIHL. Matt is yet another OHL grad that is bringing quality to the summer league. The team plays out of the brand new state of the art Melbourne Icehouse in Melbourne, Australia. The rink has seating for 1000.

After leaving junior, Matt spent two seasons with Concordia University of the CIS. After university, he found his way to Holland for a few seasons. This past season, 2009-10, he played a small number of games with three different teams: Knoxville Ice Bears  – SPHL (Southern Professional Hockey League), Quad City Mallards – IHL and Deggendorf Fire of Germany’s Oberliga.

Check out Matt Armstrong’s profile page on the Melbourne Ice official website. Usually pro hockey teams have a plain-jane profile for each of their players. The Ice do a great job and the profile has a pretty lengthy Q&A with each player.

Check out these related articles:

OHL Grad, Derek Campbell playing for Australia’s Sydney IceDogs

OHL Alumni playing in Australia’s AIHL (2009)

Derek Campbell with the Coventy Blaze of the EIHL.

Derek Campbell played in the Ontario Hockey League for four years from 1997-98 to 2000-01. His first two seasons were spent in Belleville with the Bulls, his third with the Owen Sound Platers and his fourth with the Kingston Frontenacs. He was part of a Belleville Bull team that would win the Robertson Cup in 1998-99 and make an appearance at the Memorial Cup.

Derek went the university route after his OHL career was over, playing three seasons with St. Thomas University. He played sparingly with 5 different teams in three different North American leagues in 2004-05 and 2005-06. He found his place in Great Britain’s EIHL in 2006-07 and has been in the league since.

His first season in the EIHL was played with Manchester Phoenix followed by two seasons with the Newcastle Vipers. This past season was spent with the Coventry Blaze. Derek has brought a great deal of offence to the league as well as a high degree of toughness. He was a big part of the Blaze being league champions this season.

Derek has signed on to play out our summer in Australia with the Sydney Ice Dogs of the AIHL. Derek puts the Ice Dogs into instant contender status and is potentially the man who can crack the scoring records set last season by fellow OHL alumnus, Brad Smulders.

What Derek also brings to the AIHL in general, is another piece in the credibility puzzle. The teams in the AIHL are only allowed to dress four imports per game. With the quality of those imports getting better and better each season, it will help to bring up the quality of the local talent.

The official website of the Sydney Ice Dogs can be found here.

Derek is also featured in this previous post: 1998-99 Belleville Bulls

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At the start of March, we did a post on Ontario Hockey League alumni playing in the Australian Ice Hockey League (click here to view post). One of the players was Brad Smulders and we’d just like to add an update on this former Sarnia Sting.

Brad is signed on for the 2010 season with the Gold Coast Blue Tongues of the AIHL. The season starts in about 4 weeks, in time for the Australian winter. Last season, Brad was the league’s scoring champion with a remarkable 3.5 points per game. Expectations are no less for the upcoming season.

Brad has just finished up the winter season in the Netherlands with Romijnders Devils Nijmegen. Not the leading scorer in this league. In fact, Brad was 5th in team scoring but still was slightly over a point a game in a higher calibre league with more than twice the number of games on the schedule.

The team was the best during the regular season and just recently won the playoff championships with a sweep over Destil Trapper Tilburg.

As mentioned in the previous post, Brad only played 17 games over his OHL career. This still makes him a product of the league and a true measure of how far reaching the OHL is in the hockey world.

To view Brad Smulders profile page on the Devils official website, click here.

To check out the Gold Coast Blue Tongues roster page, click here.

Not entirely up to date. See AIHL website for new team list.

It is most likely the farthest from the epicentre of professional hockey (Orangeville, Ontario, Canada) that you will find Ontario Hockey League graduates showing off their talents. The Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) consists of 7 teams that play during the Australian winter from April to August.

The league boasts the distinction of being the ‘biggest ice hockey league in the southern hemisphere’. Although not a true professional league, as the players do not get paid a salary, it is hockey of an elite status and is constantly improving. The AIHL is focused on developing talent from within Australia and allows only 6 import players per team and only 4 of those imports to play in any single game. Players do receive ‘assistance’ from the teams to cover living expenses.

In 2009, two OHL alumni played in the AIHL, both for the Gold Coast Blue Tongues. At this point, the final rosters for 2010 have not been finalized and it is not known if any former OHLers will be playing in 2010.

Brad Smulders played just 17 games with the Sarnia Sting in 2001-02. Brad’s previous professional experience before heading to the ‘Land Down Under’ was 5 years in Holland between 2004-05 and 2008-09, playing on 4 different teams. The Sarnia native ripped up the league last season, scoring 33 goals and adding 43 assists for 76 points in just 22 games – that’s a 3.5 points per game pace! Those numbers were good enough to lead the league.

Chris Martin played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 2000-01 and the Erie Otters in 2001-02. 2009 was the Guelph native’s 2nd season in the AIHL. Besides a few games with University of Waterloo in 2002-03, Martin’s pro hockey record up until he joined the Blue Tongues is drawing a blank. If anyone knows of any hockey Chris played between 2002-03 and 2008, let us know by e-mail or commenting on this post.

We’ll be having a follow-up post on the AIHL once the season starts in April. In the meantime, check out the league’s official website here.

View Brad Smulders’ profile at the Blue Tongue’s official website.

View Chris Martin’s profile at the Blue Tongue’s official website.