OHL Alumni Central

John Hecimovic played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2004-05. His first four full seasons were spent with the Sarnia Sting and after 12 games of his fifth season, Hecimovic was shipped to the Mississauga IceDogs where he finished out his OHL career.

John was a fine example of consistency around the net scoring exactly 30 goals in his second, third and fourth seasons. In his final season, that number dropped to a combined total of 26 goals between Sarnia and Mississauga but that feat was accomplished in just 51 games.

Hecimovic was picked by the Florida Panthers in the ninth round of the 2003 NHL draft, 264th overall. The highest level John played at in North America was three partial seasons in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL). He played 24 games with the South Carolina Stingrays in 2005-06 before jetting off to Germany to play for Straubing Tigers of the German Bundesliga. He spent 2006-07 with the Pensacola Ice Pilots, averaging more than a point per game with 55 points in 44 games.

After playing just 5 games with Pensacola in 2007-08, it was off to Europe again for Hecimovic. This time the destination was the Netherlands. In just 25 games with HYS The Hague, John scored 23 goals and added 23 assists for 46 points. The following season, despite playing just 16 regular season games, Hecimovic produced 16 points in 10 playoff games and led The Hague to the Dutch championship.

This past season, John followed his ancestral roots and landed in Zagreb, Croatia. Hecimovic played for KHL Medvescak Zagreb (the “Bears”), a Croatian team that plays in Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. John produced 39 regular season and 10 playoff points for a combined 49 which placed him 29th in the league.

Zagreb finished fourth in the regular season during the 2009-10 season and made it to the semi-finals in the playoffs, losing out to eventual EBEL champions, EC Salzburg Red Bulls.

Medvescak Zagreb’s roster page on their official website can be found here.

Check out John Hecimovic’s profile page on the EBEL official website.

The following video features John Hecimovic putting the final touches on a great turnover and break by Zagreb. John is number 8 in blue.

Ontario Hockey League grad Marcel Rodman has appeared at nine IIHF World Championships playing for his home country, Slovenia. Considering this his tenth season since leaving the OHL, you could call him Mister Slovenia. Rodman also represented Slovenia three times at the junior level.

Marcel Rodman played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1999-00 and 2000-01, both with the Peterborough Petes. In his second season, his 36 goals and 71 points were both team leading numbers.

Rodman was picked in the ninth round of the 2001 NHL draft by the Boston Bruins, 282nd overall. Marcel never played a game in North America after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League and has since played in Germany, Slovenia and Austria.

Rodman is currently playing for the Vienna Capitals of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). 2010-11 will be his third season with the club and second consecutive. He is joined on the team by his brother, David, who is also a product of the Canadian Hockey League. David played two seasons in the QMJHL.

Marcel has twice led his team in scoring in the EBEL. The first time was in 2002-03 with the Graz 99ers when he scored 22 goals and added 25 assists for 47 points in 44 games. the second was 2008-09 with HK Jesenice (his hometown team from Slovenia that plays in the EBEL) when his 21 goals and 36 assists for 57 points in 53 games led the team.

Rodman has maintained better than a point per game pace during his career in the EBEL with 276 points in 263 games as of the end of the 2009-10 season.

Check out Marcel Rodman’s profile page on the Vienna Capitals official website.

This video is a just a short one of Marcel Rodman scoring a goal on a shootout while playing for HK Jesenice.

Jeremy Rebek played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96 with the Owen Sound Platers. Rebek’s history as an offensive defenseman took root in his final season with the Platers when he contributed 69 points in 64 games with an additional 10 points in 6 playoff games. That season, Jeremy finished third in points on the Platers.

Four times in his professional hockey career, Jeremy produced over a point a game as a blueliner, twice with the Missouri River Otters of the United Hockey League and twice with Klagenfurt of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga.

After graduating from the Ontario Hockey League, Rebek spent a mixed year between Laurentian University and teams in the German Oberliga and Austrian Bundesliga. 1997-98 found him back in North America playing in the ECHL with the Toledo Storm. Until the end of 2002-03, Jeremy spent time on several North American teams in the ECHL, UHL, IHL and AHL.

With the Missouri River Otters, Rebek was a first team all-star in 1999-00 and 2000-01 and was voted Defenseman of the Year in 2000-01. As Defenseman of the Year, Jeremy put in his best offensive season of his career with 89 points on 26 goals and 63 assists in 68 games.

In 2003-04, Rebek shifted continents and began playing in Austria. Jeremy has spent the past seven seasons in the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga and has gained Austrian citizenship enabling him to represent Austria at IIHF international events. Rebek spent his first three seasons with the Graz 99ers, the following two with AC Klagenfurt and the latest two seasons with EC Salzburg Red Bulls. Jeremy enters the 2010-11 season as a member of the Vienna Capitals.

With Klagenfurt in 2007-08, Jeremy was the highest point-getter among defensemen. This past season, he was part of Salzburg’s championship team.

Rebek has represented Austria four times at the IIHF World Championships, 2006 to 2009. Austria competed in the Division I which is a level lower than that which Canada, USA, Russian and Sweden, etc. compete in. In 2006 and 2008, Austria won the gold medal. Both those tournaments saw Jeremy as the player with the best +/- and in 2006 he was voted the tournament’s best defenseman.

Check out Jeremy Rebek’s profile page on the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga’s official website.

With 913 penalty minutes over his four year Ontario Hockey League career with the London Knights, Danny Bois is the Knights all-time leader by 254 minutes. Next in line is Brad Marsh with 659. Despite the penalty numbers, Bois captained the team in the final three of his four seasons and scored 70 regular season goals over his OHL career.

Originally drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the third round of the 2001 NHL draft, 97th overall, Bois was never signed by Colorado and was eventually picked up as a free agent by the Ottawa Senators. Danny spent five seasons with Ottawa’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Senators. He was able to make it up to the NHL for one regular season game in 2006-07 where he had a minor penalty and a fight.

This past season, 2009-10, Bois became property of the Chicago Blackhawks and had hopes of joining fellow London Knights alumni, David Bolland and Patrick Kane on the big club. That didn’t pan out and Danny spent the season with the Rockford Icehogs of the American Hockey League. In six seasons in the AHL, Bois accumulated 1124 minutes in penalties.

Danny has decided to take a new direction and is heading to Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) to play with EC Salzburg Red Bulls for the 2010-11 season.

Danny Bois does not yet have a profile page on the EC Salzburg Red Bulls official website but the site can be accessed by following this link.

Danny Bois also appears in this previous post listing the London Knights alumni still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 season.

Dan LaCosta played between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons, from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He started his OHL career with the Owen Sound Attack and moved to the Barrie Colts midway through the 2004-05 season. He played in the net for 59 games for the Colts in his final season in the Ontario Hockey League.

In that final season with the Barrie Colts, LaCosta was second, only to Dan Turple of the Kitchener Rangers, amongst Ontario Hockey League goalies in wins and goals against average. The Colts lost out in the Eastern Conference finals to the eventual Robertson Cup winning Peterborough Petes.

LaCosta was taken by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round, 93rd overall, in the 2004 NHL draft. Dan appeared in four games with the Blue Jackets, one in 2007-08 and three in 2008-09. In 2007-08, he appeared in relief playing 13 minutes of shutout hockey while making five saves. In 2008-09, LaCosta had his only NHL shutout while maintaining a 1.54 GAA and a .950 save percentage over the three games.

The rest of LaCosta’s professional career has been mostly played with the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch, the affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has also appeared with the Dayton Bombers and the Elmira Jackals of the East Coast Hockey League.

LaCosta has taken a new direction for the upcoming season and has signed on with EC Salzburg Red Bulls of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. After a somewhat disappointing season with Syracuse during the 2009-10 season when Dan had a 3.96 GAA and a save percentage of .882, LaCosta is looking to turn things around in Europe.

Check out Dan LaCosta’s profile page on the EC Salzburg Red Bulls official website by following this link and clicking on Dan’s name on the right hand column.

Dan Lacosta appears in this previous post listing the Barrie Colts alumni still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 seeason.