OHL Alumni Central

The Allen Americans finished first atop the Central Hockey League during the 2010-11 regular season. In the first round of the CHL’s Ray Miron Presidents Cup playoffs, Allen steamrolled the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. Allen took out the Bees in three games in the best of five series.

With the addition of two players that were members of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for the 2010-11 season, the total of OHL grads on the Americans roster has climbed to seven. Click on the names in blue to view previous articles on those players.

Jonathan Zion – Zion played played five seasons with the Ottawa 67′s from 1997-98 to 2001-02. Jonathan split this season between the Nottingham Panthers of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League and the Americans.

Tobias Whelan – Tobias played four seasons with the Oshawa Generals from 2000-01 to 2003-04.

Dylan King – Dylan is one of two players up from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds after their OHL playoff hopes were dashed. King has played four seasons with the Greyhounds, starting in 2007-08.

Justin DaCosta – Justin played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2005-06. DaCosta suited up for the Barrie Colts, Owen Sound Attack and Mississauga IceDogs over that period.

Kip Brennan – Kip played in the OHL for five seasons from 1996-97 to 2000-01. Brennan started out his OHL career with the Windsor Spitfires and ended with the Sudbury Wolves.

Carson Dubchak – Carson is the other player brought up from the 2010-11 Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Dubchak has played in the Ontario Hockey League with the Greyhounds since 2008-09.

Chris Whitley – Chris played in one OHL game during the 2000-01 season with the Oshawa Generals.

Chris Eade as a member of EC Bad Nauheim in Germany.

Former Ontario Hockey League defenseman Chris Eade was a last minute pickup by the Rapid City Rush at the Central Hockey League’s transaction deadline. Rapid City is in a dogfight with the Colorado Eagles for first place in the Turner Conference of the CHL. Eade should help to bolster the blue line.

Chris Eade played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2002-03. He began his OHL career with the North Bay Centennials and played with the club until five games into the 2001-02 season when he was shipped to the Erie Otters. His destiny was to end up in the United States as staying with North Bay would have meant his final season in the OHL would have been played in Saginaw.

In the 2001-02 season, Eade contributed 40 points in 59 games from the blue line for the Otters. He contributed another 12 in 21 playoff games as Erie knocked off the Barrie Colts in the Robertson Cup finals to become playoff champions of the Ontario Hockey League.

Chris Eade was taken in the fourth round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, 115th overall. Instead of turning pro right away, Eade took the Canadian university route and played four seasons with the Western Mustangs from 2003-04 to 2006-07.

Eade played one full season with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL in 2007-08 before heading to Europe and Germany’s Oberliga. Chris played two seasons, 2008-09 and 2009-10 with EC Bad Nauheim, sharing time with Ontario Hockey League and Western Mustang grads, Ryan Hare and Kyle Piwowarczyk. In his first season with Bad Nauheim, Eade was fifth on the team in points (52) and second in assists (47) in 54 games. He led the team’s defensemen in scoring.

Chris started out the 2010-11 season in Hungary with Ferencváros and had 21 points in 25 games with the team before heading back to North America and the Rapid City Rush.

Check out Chris Eade’s profile page at the Rapid City Rush official website.

Chris Eade also appears in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring OHL grads playing for EC Bad Nauheim.

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After a year and a half off, Ontario Hockey League grad Darryl McArthur is back in action. McArthur signed with the Texas Brahmas of the Central Hockey League on January 6.

McArthur played a game for the Guelph Storm in 1995-96 then played three more full seasons with the Ontario Hockey League club after that. McArthur was a part of the Robertson Cup winning Storm team of 1997-98. Guelph went to the Memorial Cup and lost in the final to the Portland Winter Hawks in overtime, 4-3.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Darryl played the better part of two seasons in the Canadian university system with University of New Brunswick.

For the most part, McArthur has spent his career in the CHL, IHL and UHL. He got into two games with the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros in 2002-03 and played a season in Germany’s Oberliga in 2004-05 with the Leipzig Ice Lions. He played five seasons with the CHL’s Austin Ice Bats before their extinction after the 2007-08 season. Darryl was the last captain of the ill-fated franchise.

Texas currently sits in the middle of the Berry Conference of the CHL. The conference is tight and the Brahmas have four to five games in hand on most of the other teams. Potentially, the team could soon be in second place and gunning for first.

Check out Darryl McArthur’s profile page on the Texas Brahmas official website.

The other day, we featured another member of the 1997-98 Guelph Storm Robertson Cup winning team, Eric Beaudoin.

 We did a post last year on the members of the 1997-98 Guelph Storm team that were still active in pro hockey for the 2009-10 season. Since Darryl took a timeout last season, he was not included in the article.

Alex Penner in black for the Nottingham Panthers.

Over the past week and a half, the Nottingham Panthers of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League have lost an Ontario Hockey League grad and gained another. Alex Penner, or as he was known in England ‘Weapon X’, returned to North America to play for his 2009-10 club, the Colorado Eagles of the Central Hockey League. Daniel Tkaczuk signed on with the Panthers for the rest of this season after playing the first half with EC Dornbirn in Austria’s tier 2.

Penner was on his way to beating the best single season goal production in his professional hockey career with the Panthers. Weapon X has notched four in 30 games. His previous best was five with Colorado last season. In that 30 games, Alex amassed 291 minutes in penalties, which is his highest single season total.

Alex Penner played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. His first season in the OHL consisted of just eleven games with the Guelph Storm. In his second season, he put in 55 games with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Check out this previous post at OHL Alumni Central on Alex Penner.

Daniel Tkaczuk on the left with ERC Ingolstadt during the 2006-07 DEL season.

Daniel Tkaczuk will definitely be an offensive threat with the Panthers. The team currently sits fourth in the ten team league. Between fourth and fifth is the line between the have and have-nots of the EIHL. Nottingham is just six points behind Belfast and Sheffield. The Panthers sit nine points behind the first place Cardiff Devils. There is a twelve point difference between Nottingham and the fifth place Braehead Clan (a first year team).

Tkaczuk played four stellar seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1998-99, all with the Barrie Colts. Daniel was team captain in the final three of the four seasons and went to the world juniors for Team Canada in 1998 and 1999. He was a sixth overall draft pick in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, going to the Calgary Flames. He appeared in 19 games with the Flames in 2000-01.

After six seasons in Europe from 2003-04 to 2008-09, Tkaczuk returned to North America last season and was bounced around from four different teams, inlcuding: Charlotte Checkers (ECHL), Syracuse Crunch (AHL), Rochester Americans (AHL) and Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL). His European tour has taken him to Finland, Italy, Germany, Austria and now England. Check out this previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring Daniel Tkaczuk.

Of course, both players appear on the OHL Alumni Big List.

The Central Hockey League played their annual All-Star game on Wednesday night, January 12. The CHL used the old-school NHL format with the 2009-10 Playoff champion Rapid City Rush hosting the rest of the league’s all-stars. The CHL All-Stars beat out the Rush 11-6.

The Ontario Hockey League had it’s mark all over this game with six OHL Alumni on the Rapid City Rush and two on the CHL All-Stars. One OHL grad in particular had an amazing game. Jason Dale was chosen the MVP of the CHL All-Stars as he popped two goals and added five assists.

Here are the Ontario Hockey League grads that played in the game (click on the highlighted names to read a previous post featuring that player at OHL Alumni Central):

CHL All-Stars

Darren McMillan – Darren played three seasons for the Erie Otters from 1998-99 to 2000-01.

Jason Dale – Jason played three seasons with the Brampton Battalion from 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Rapid City Rush

Kevin Harvey – Kevin played for the Kingston Frontenacs in 2001-02 then returned to the Ontario Hockey League for the 2003-04 when he played with the Owen Sound Attack.

Scott Wray – Scott played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00. He split his first season with the Owen Sound Platers and North Bay Centennials. He remained in North Bay until his final season when he split the year between the Centennials and the Plymouth Whalers.

Josh Beaulieu – Josh was a member of the London Knights for four seasons from 2003-04 to 2006-07.

Danny Bottochio – Danny played three seasons with the Ottawa 67′s from 2003-04 to 2005-06.

Colt King – Colt played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League. King is one of the very few to play on six different teams during his OHL career (two were the same franchise that was relocated). Colt played for the Guelph Storm, North Bay Centennials, Saginaw Spirit, Oshawa Generals, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Sarnia Sting.

Andrew Smale – Andrew played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League with the Mississauga IceDogs during the 2001-02 season.

Looking for a good hockey read? Check out the new book review page at OHL Alumni Central.