OHL Alumni Central

After two years in Italy, Ontario Hockey League grad Gerome Giudice returns to North America for the 2011-12 season.  Giudice will start the season with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League. As per Tulsa Oilers coach Bruce Ramsay, Gerome is ‘the type of player you go to war with’.

Giudice (in blue) with OHL grad Marco Insam (in white).

Gerome played four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Sudbury Wolves from 2005-06 to 2008-09. In his final two seasons with the Wolves, Giudice was team captain. More a provider of grit and leadership, he topped out offensively in 2007-08 with 15 goals and 44 points. After Sudbury failed to qualify for the Robertson Cup playoffs in 2008-09, Gerome finished out the year with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the IHL.

For the past two seasons, Giudice has played for HC Fassa of the Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio. The Fassa region, located in the Alps of Northern Italy, has to be a hard place to leave. The team plays out of the nearly 2,000 seat HSC Fassa Levoni in the town of Canazei. The finished seventh overall in 2010-11 and made a quick exit from the playoffs. HC Fassa has reloaded with a new crop of Ontario Hockey League grads for the 2011-12 season – stay tuned to OHL Alumni Central in the coming days to find out more.

Gerome should provide leadership and skill to a Tulsa team that has qualified for the playoffs just twice in the past ten years. This past year, they finished third in the Berry Conference and lost in the Conference Semi-Finals. The team is an affiliate of the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.

Read more about what coach Bruce Ramsay has to say about Gerome in this article from the Tulsa Oilers official website.

Ontario Hockey League grad Joe Grimaldi is currently at camp with the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League. If the Falcons don’t take the tough defenseman, he has a roster spot locked up with the Rapid City Rush of the Central Hockey League.

Grimaldi played two seasons with the Ottawa 67′s of the Ontario Hockey League, 2005-06 and 1006-07. The American born player started the 2005-06 season with the University of Nebraska – Omaha before heading Northeast to Ottawa to finish off the season.

Professional hockey has come with a well-used suitcase for Joe. In four years, Grimaldi has dressed for nine different teams in three leagues. Springfield and Rapid City are two teams he has yet to play for. Joe’s portfolio of teams is as follows:

• Elmira Jackals – ECHL
• Rochester Americans – AHL
• Peoria Rivermen – AHL
• Albany River Rats – AHL
• Fresno Falcons – ECHL
• Gwinnett Gladiators – ECHL
• Cincinnati Cyclones – ECHL
• Evansville Icemen – CHL
• Colorado Eagles – CHL

This past season, 2010-11, Grimaldi played 45 regular seasons games for the Eagles after coming over from Evansville. He sat 171 minutes in penalties and formed a pretty deadly duo with Alex ‘Weapon X’ Penner. Through 21 playoff games, Joe sat another 83 minutes.

Colorado finished the regular season tied for first with Rapid City in the Turner Conference. The Eagles made it to the finals before losing to Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.

Ontario Hockey League grad David Pszenyczny helped the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs to their first ever Ray Miron President’s Trophy in the Central Hockey League in 2010-11. The Mudbugs reached the finals in 2003-04 and 2005-06, losing both times to the Laredo Bucks. After winning the championship, the team celebrated by folding.

Pszenyczny was picked up by the Missouri Mavericks of the CHL in July. The Mavericks have four other Ontario Hockey League alumni on the roster for the 2011-12 season, including Brad Good (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 03-04 to 06-07), Matt Dias (Sudbury Wolves 05-06 to 08-09), John-Scott Dickson (Windsor Spitfires 00-01 to 04-05) and Nathan O’Nabigon (Plymouth, Mississauga, Kitchener 00-01 to 03-04).

David played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2005-06. His first season consisted of just five games with the Sarnia Sting after starting the season in the NAHL. Early in his fourth season with Sarnia, he was shipped to the Mississauga IceDogs along with John Hecimovic and Daniel Carcillo for Chad Painchaud, Brad Efthimiou and Chris Chimienti.

Pszenyczny’s final season in the OHL saw him moved to the Barrie Colts midway through the season as the club beefed up for the Robertson Cup playoff run. David contributed 14 points in 14 games from the point in the playoffs as Barrie came up short against eventual Robertson Cup winner, Peterborough Petes.

David was with Bossier-Shreveport for three seasons. In his first two, he made his goals count. Seven of his eighteen goals during 2008-09 and 2009-10 were game winners.

The Missouri Mavericks are primed to do what the Mudbugs did in 2010-11. The team is coming off a fourth place finish in the Turner Conference with just four points seperating the Mavericks and the first place Rapid City Rush.

Mike Mole played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03. A starting goaltender right from his rookie season with the horrendous Mississauga IceDogs, Mole played in 54 of the Belleville Bulls 68 games in his final season. Mole played with the IceDogs until a mid-season trade during the 2001-02 season.

In his final year in the Ontario Hockey League, Mike was honoured as the OHL Humanitarian of the Year. The trophy was renamed the Dan Snyder Trophy the following season after the tragic death of the former Owen Sound Platers forward.

Undrafted, Mike Mole played two seasons with St. Francis Xavier University in CIS hockey. In his first season, 2003-04, STFX won the CIS championship and Mike was named University Cup tournament MVP.

His professional hockey career began in 2005-06 in the East Coast Hockey League. He played the bulk of his first season in the ECHL with the Phoenix Roadrunners, appearing in 48 games. He finished the season off with the San Diego Gulls.

Mole was able to get as high as the AHL with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2006-07, playing 15 games with the New York Islanders farm club.

This past season, Mike was called up to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose for a few days in February but didn’t dress for any games. He played ten games in the Central Hockey League with the Odessa Jackalopes. Odessa has left the CHL for the 2011-12 season, choosing instead to house a junior NAHL team. Mole’s future in pro hockey is yet to be determined.

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2010-11 was simply a great year for Ontario Hockey League grad Kevin Young. The former Brampton Battalion was honoured as the top defenseman in the Netherlands, contributing 65 points in 40 games. Late in the season, he joined the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League and helped them win the Presidents Cup as playoff champions.

Kevin Young played one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2002-03, after four years in the Western Hockey League. Young played 47 regular season games with the Battalion and contributed 43 points, earning him a nomination for the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL’s top defenseman.

The following season, as a member of the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds, Young was selected as the CIS rookie of the year and honoured with the Clare Drake Award. He was also a CIS First Team All-Star. He posted 29 points in 28 games from the blue line for UNB. He would play one more season with UNB before heading to Europe.

In his first season in Europe, 2005-06, Kevin was a big factor in the Nijmegen Devils winning the Dutch championship. Once again, Young contributed at more than a point per game pace throughout the regular season and playoffs.

He would go on to play a year in Great Britain’s EIHL and three in Germany’s 2.Bundesliga before returned to the Netherlands this past season with Eindhoven Kemphanen. As mentioned above, his 17 goals and 48 assists for 65 points in just 40 games earned him the league’s best defenseman award. In 2008-09, another OHL grad, Duncan Dalmao won the same award. Dalmao played three years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1997-98 with the London Knights and Peterborough Petes.

Young’s 65 points was good enough for 10th position in the league. In high scoring Netherlands, there were two players with more than 100 points in 2010-11. American Phil Aucoin had 125 in just 44 games and Canadian T.J. Caig had 108 in 41 games.