OHL Alumni Central

Michal Dvorak played in the Ontario Hockey League for the Kitchener Rangers for three seasons from 1996-97 to 1998-99. The Czech born player arrived part way through his rookie season after starting the year in the Czech Extraliga. That year, the Rangers won the Central Division title and fell to the eventual Robertson Cup champions, the Oshawa Generals, in the semi-finals.

Dvorak went undrafted and returned to Europe for the 1999-00 season. After one year in Germany’s DEL with Moskitos Essen, Michal returned to his homeland. Since 2000-01, he has played in the Czech Extraliga, mostly with HC Plzen. Dvorak had a three year stint with HC Karlovy Vary from 2004-05 to 2006-07 but has been with Plzen since. In a league with a 52 game regular season schedule, topping the 650 game mark and still ticking is quite an accomplishment.

With Plzen, Michal has reached the league semi-finals twice, in 2003-04 and 2008-09. The team is poised to go far in 2011-12. Currently, at nearly the 3/4 mark of the season, Plzen is neck and neck with HC Sparta Praha for the overall lead in the 14 team Extraliga. Both are head and shoulders over the next competitor.

Dvorak is currently the only Ontario Hockey League grad on the Plzen roster. However, North American hockey fans would be interested to know that not only is Martin Straka the team’s star player, he is also 70% owner and general manager! Straka was the nineteenth overall pick at the 1992 NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Between 1992-93 and 2007-08, Straka played for the Penguins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers. He played in 954 regular season NHL games and contributed 717 points. He topped out offensively in 2000-01, finished tied for fourth in the race for the Art Ross Trophy with 95 points.

Another familiar name on HC Plzen is Frantisek Kaberle, brother of current Montreal Canadiens defenseman, Tomas Kaberle. Frantisek played 523 NHL regular season games between 1999-00 and 2008-09 with the Los Angeles Kings, Atlanta Thrashers and Carolina Hurricanes.

 

 

Jon Sim was an original Sarnia Sting, playing in their first season after relocating from Newmarket. Sim was the man when it came to goal scoring until Steve Stamkos came along. Jon played four seasons with the Sting from 1994-95 to 1997-98. His first season consisted of just 25 games after starting the season in the QMJHL with the Laval Titan.

Sim started the 2011-12 season with HC Pardubice of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga. He played 20 games with the club before being loaned to CH Slavia Prague and has now played four games for that club. This is Jon’s first full season in Europe after ending up in Switzerland at the end of the 2010-11 season and playing seven games for Gotteron, plus three in the National League A playoffs.

Jon broke out offensively in his second season with Sarnia. His 56 goals were second in the Ontario Hockey League and his 101 points were good for seventh. The following season, 1996-97, he once again scored 56 goals, this time tying him for first in the OHL with Alyn McCauley of the Ottawa 67′s. His point total dropped to 95 but still tied him for ninth in the league with Matt Cooke of the Windsor Spitfires. In his final season in the OHL, his goal total dropped to 44. He was still in the top ten, tied for fifth with Scott Barney of the Peterborough Petes. His 94 points tied him for eighth in the league.

Sim was drafted after his first 56 goal outburst. The Dallas Stars picked Jon in the third round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, 70th overall. He has played in 469 regular season NHL games with Dallas, the Nashville Predators, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers and New York Islanders. In 1998-99, despite only playing seven games for the Dallas Stars during the regular season, he played in four during the playoffs as the Stars captured the Stanley Cup.

Perhaps, Sim’s best season in pro hockey came in 2004-05. He played ten games with the AHL’s Utah Grizzlies then finished off the season with 63 games for the Philadelphia Phantoms. His combined 37 goals placed him tied for sixth in the American Hockey League. He played 21 playoff games for the Phantoms, contributing 17 points as the team marched on to win the Calder Cup.

 

***Update***(Feb. 4, 12)

Missed one! Not sure how Jakub Svoboda got missed. Jakub played the 2008-09 season with the Saginaw Spirit. Thank you to Miroslava Svoboda for the reminder! Here is Jakub’s career stats, courtesy of eliteprospects.com:

 

HC Kometa Brno was promoted back to the top division of the Czech Republic Extraliga for the 2009-10 season. Brno won the Czechoslovakia championship eleven of twelve years between 1954-55 and 1965-66. The one season in that span when they didn’t win, 1958-59, they finished second. The team fell on hard times, dealing with relegation over the past few decades.

Your email:

 

HC Kometa currently sits tenth in the fourteen team league, playing out of the 7,200 seat Kajot Arena in Brno. Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, next to Prague, and has a metro population of 810,000. The hockey team has three Ontario Hockey League grads helping the cause, all natives of the Czech Republic.

Radim Bicanek played two years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Belleville Bulls, 1993-94 and 1994-95. The solid D-man came to Belleville already a prospect of the Ottawa Senators. Bicanek was taken in the second round of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, 27th overall. Radim’s NHL career consisted of 122 games with the Senators, Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets. He has been in the Czech Extraliga since the 2004-05 season and is in his third year with Brno. Bicanek has been an assistant captain with HC Kometa since coming from HC Znojemsti Orli where he served as team captain for two seasons.

Jakub Koreis came to Brno during the 2010-11 season from HC Sparta Prague and finished off the season with six games in a HC Kometa uniform. Koreis played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2003-04 with the Guelph Storm. In 48 regular season games, Jakub contributed 38 points to Guelph’s cause. In the Storm’s run to a Robertson Cup championship, Koreis totalled 18 points in 22 games. He played for Guelph at the Memorial Cup and the Czech Republic at the 2004 IIHF World Juniors.

Koreis was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes at the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, over a year before even playing a game in the Ontario Hockey League. Jakub was a first round pick, going nineteenth overall. After three years in the American Hockey League, Koreis returned to Europe, playing one year in Finland’s SM-Liiga before heading to the Czech Republic.

Tomas Pospisil played two years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Sarnia Sting, 2005-06 and 2006-07. Like Jakub Koreis and Radim Bicanek, Pospisil came to the OHL already drafted to an NHL club. Tomas was a fifth round pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 135th overall. He was twice a member of the Czech Republic’s team at the IIHF World Juniors. After two years in the AHL, Pospisil returned to the Czech Republic for the 2009-10 season.

 

Well, that was probably the longest article title in the history of OHL Alumni Central…

The reigning champions of the Czech Republic Extraligy, HC Ocelari Trinec, are looking for a repeat with the help of four Ontario Hockey League alumni. Three were members of the team in 2010-11 and one is a new arrival from the Albany Devils of the American Hockey League. Two of the four are products of Stan Butler’s Brampton Battalion.

Lukas Havel is an original Brampton Battalion, playing three years with the club from 1998-99 to 2000-01. Havel averaged 20 goals per season with the Battalion, scoring 19 in the inaugural season when goals were hard to come by. In his final season of OHL play, Lukas played for the Czech Republic at the IIHF World Juniors, earning a gold medal.

Undrafted, Havel returned to his native Czech Republic and has been there since, with exception of a two year stint in the Slovak Extraligy. In 2010-11, his first with Trinec, Have played just five games after being a regular with HC Slavia Praha (Prague) the year before.

Martin Lojek also played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Brampton Battalion. Lojek played from 2002-03 to 2004-05. Like Lukas Havel, Lojek also played for the Czech Republic at the World Juniors. In 2005, Martin earned a bronze medal.

After his first season with Brampton, Lojek was taken by the Florida Panthers in the fourth round of the 2003 OHL Entry Draft, 105th overall. He played in Florida’s system until the end of the 2007-08 season, mostly with the Rochester Americans of the AHL but he did get into five NHL games during that time. In 2008-09, Martin made the return to his native Czech Republic. He has been with Trinec ever since.

Peter Hamerlik spent three seasons between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Hamerlik played the bulk of the games in net for the Frontenacs over the three years and backstopped Slovakia at the 2002 World Juniors.

Peter came to Kingston already a prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins, having been drafted in the third round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 84th overall. He re-entered the draft in 2002 and was taken by the Boston Bruins in the fifth round, 153rd overall. Hamerlik played for a handful of ECHL teams between 2003 and 2005 while reaching his highest level in North American hockey with the Providence Bruins of the AHL.

Hamerlik returned to Slovakia for the end of the 2004-05 season. He has been with Trinec since the start of the 2009-10 season, playing in Russia and Belarus along the way.

Rob Davison is the new guy and the only Ontario Hockey League grad playing for Trinec that is Canadian. Davison played three seasons in the OHL with the North Bay Centennials from 1997-98 to 1999-00.

Rob was drafted after his first OHL season by the San Jose Sharks in the fourth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 98th overall. He has appeared in 225 total NHL games with the San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils. He spent the past season solely in the American Hockey League with the Albany Devils where he wore the ‘A’.

This is not Davison’s first tour of duty overseas. In the lockout season of 2004-05, Rob played for the Cardiff Devils in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League.

 

Ontario Hockey League grad David Kuchejda will return for his fifth season with HC Ceske Budejovice in 2011-12. HC Ceske Budejovice finished the 2010-11 season sixth place in the 14 team Czech Republic Extraliga. The team made a quick exit from the playoffs, losing in the quarter-finals.

Kuchejda came to the Ontario Hockey League already a prospect of the Chicago Blackhawks. David was taken by Chicago in the seventh round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 202nd overall. He made his first appearance in the OHL in 2005-06 after being a 13th overall pick by Sault Ste. Marie in the 2005 CHL Import Draft.

Kuchejda played two seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 2005-06 and 2006-07. In his rookie season, he scored 19 and totalled 40 points in a year when the Greyhounds were the third lowest scoring team in the OHL. The following season, playing just 59 games, he scored 25 and added 28 assists in the Greyhounds first season in their new arena, the Steelback Centre.

David played for the Czech Republic at the 2007 IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships, held in Leksand, Sweden. The team went 2-2 in the round robin and made a quick exit from the playoffs with a loss to Sweden in the Quarter-Finals. Kuchejda played in all the team’s games but didn’t register a point.

Kuchejda immediately returned to the Czech Republic upon graduation from the Ontario Hockey League. He has played with HC Ceske Budejovice (Mountfield) since, with some trips down to the tier 2 league. The team plays out of Budvar Arena which holds 6,421 for hockey. The team was founded in 1928 but has won only one league championship, all the way back in 1951.

Although in Czech, you can check out David Kuchejda’s profile page at the HC Ceske Budejovice official website.

Three other Ontario Hockey League grads are playing on HC Ceske Budejovice:

Dustin Wood

Michael Kolarz

Jakub Kovar