OHL Alumni Central

Ivan Svarny – ring a bell with you Belleville Bulls fans? Svarny played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2002-03 and 2003-04, both with the Bulls.

The big defenseman from Slovakia played a season with the New Mexico Scorpions of the Central Hockey League in 2004-05 after going undrafted in the NHL Entry Draft.

Svarny returned to Slovakia for the 2005-06 season and played with his hometown HK Nitra in the Slovak Extraliga. The following season with HK Nitra, Ivan set career bests for goals (9) and points (22) in just 47 games. He also spent more time in the penalty box than any other season during his career, including junior. In those 47 games, Svarny sat out 146 minutes, nearly double his highest single season count with the Bulls.

Ivan switched to the Czech Republic for the 2007-08 season and has been in the Czech Extraliga since. He has played the last three full seasons with HC Litvinov. In 2008-09, he joined his countrymen on Team Slovakia at the IIHF World Hockey Championships. Ivan was on the pre-tournament roster for Slovakia for the 2011 tournament but was left off the team for the main tournament. The Worlds this year are being played in his home country of Slovakia.

It has been confirmed that Svarny is looking for a new team for the 2011-12 season after Litvinov released at the end of the 2010-11 season.

Vaclav Meidl played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2006-07. He began his OHL career with the Plymouth Whalers after being drafted 3rd overall in the 2003 CHL import draft and was traded to the Saginaw Spirit midway through the 2005-06 season. Meidl played eight games with the Oshawa Generals during the 2006-07 season before returning to his native Czech Republic.

Vaclav’s most productive season in the Ontario Hockey League was his first with 14 goals and 42 points in 67 games. His numbers dropped each successive season after that. Meidl was a member of Team Czech Republic at the 2006 IIHF World Under-20 Championships. The team lost to the United States in the quarter finals.

After his first season with Plymouth, Meidl was drafted in the third round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Nashville Predators, 81st overall. Vaclav’s professional career since leaving Oshawa in 2006-07 has been a split between the Czech Republic’s Extraliga and Extraliga 2.

This past season, 2010-11, Vaclav played six games with the Extraliga’s HC Kometa Brno and 39 with the Extraliga 2′s HC Havlickuv Brod. With Brod, Meidl contributed 33 points on 15 goals, his best professional output to date. He is set to return to Brod for the 2011-12 season.

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Radim Bicanek played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Belleville Bulls, 1993-94 and 1994-95. He came to the OHL already drafted by an National Hockey League club. Bicanek was taken in the second round of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators, 27th overall.

The season before joining Belleville, Radim played for Czechoslovakia’s Under-18 European Junior Championships Team and Under-20 World Junior Team. Czechoslovakia finished third behind Canada and Sweden at the Under-20 tournament.

Bicanek provided great offense from the blueline for the Bulls with 43 points in his rookie season and 39 in his second season. In the playoffs, Bicanek contributed 21 points over 28 games over the two seasons combined.

Radim played 122 NHL games starting with the Senators. In 2000, he was picked up by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the NHL Expansion Draft. He played parts of two seasons with Columbus before returning to the Czech Republic. Bicanek also appeared in 18 games with the Chicago Black Hawks over his NHL career.

Since 2004-05, Bicanek has been playing in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga. His first five seasons were played with HC Znojemsti where he was team captain for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. He has been a member of HC Kometa Brno since the start of the 2009-10 season. Radim has worn the ‘A’ on his jersey since coming to Brno. He will return for the 2011-12 season.

Check out Radim Bicanek’s profile page on the HC Kometa Brno official website.

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Peter Hamerlik played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. In all three seasons, the netminder played the bulk of Kingston’s games.

In 2002, Hamerlik played for Slovakia at the IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships. The team finished on top of Group A during the preliminary round but were upset by Switzerland in the first game of the playoff round by losing 3-2 in a shootout. Hamerlik previously played for Slovakia’s squad at the Under-18 tournament in 1999 and 2000. In 1999, the team won bronze.

Peter twice entered the NHL Entry Draft. In 2000, before playing a game in the Ontario Hockey League, Hamerlik was taken by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third round, 84th overall. In 2002, he was picked by the Boston Bruins in the fifth round, 153rd overall. Peter hasn’t appeared in the NHL but played for four different teams from the AHL and ECHL in 2003-04, his only full season of North American pro hockey.

Hamerlik returned to Slovakia midway through the 2004-05 season after things failed to work out with the Providence Bruins of the AHL. Since, he has played in Slovakia, Belarus, Russia and the Czech Republic. Peter was on the Slovakia team at the 201o World Hockey Championships, although he didn’t get into any games.

Over the past two seasons, Hamerlik has been the number one goaltender for HC Trinec of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga. Currently, the team has just finished up the regular season in first place and move towards a long playoff run. Peter played 34 of the team’s 52 regular season games and put up great numbers with a 2.33 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.

Check out Peter Hamerlik’s profile page at the HC Trinec official website.

It’ll take a true Kingston Frontenacs fan to remember Zdenek Skorepa. Zdenek played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 1995-96. He appeared in 37 games for the mediocre Frontenacs, coached by Gary Agnew, and responded with 21 goals and 39 points.

Skorepa came to the Ontario Hockey League already an NHL prospect. Zdenek was taken in the fourth round of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils, 103rd overall. The two seasons before playing for Kingston, he was a member of HC Litvinov of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga (the country’s elite league).

Skorepa played two seasons with New Jersey’s affiliate in the American Hockey League, the Albany River Rats. He also appeared in eight games with the IHL’s Detroit Vipers in 1997-98. In 1998-99, it was back to the Czech Republic where, with exception to a 24 game stint in Russia’s RSL in 2003-04, he has been ever since.

Until the start of the 2008-09 season, Zdenek played in the the Czech elite league with Litvinov, Slavia Praha and Trinec. This his third season with KLH Chomutov in the country’s second tier. He is currently third on the team in scoring and Chomutov sits in second place in their division.

Chomutov is a city of 51,000 (80,000 in the metro area) in the northwest corner of the Czech Republic along the border with Germany.

Check out Zdenek Skorepa’s profile page at the KLH Chomutov official website.

Zdenek Skorepa appears on the OHL Alumni Big List with over 700 other Ontario Hockey League grads.

Here is the translation into English (done using Google Translate so it’s a little rough but the idea is there):

Zdenek Skorepa Duchcov was born in Teplice and its first major step was made in hockey Litvinov. After two seasons spent in the black / yellow jersey and the junior world championships, he decided to try a style of hockey overseas. A handy center was drafted in 1994, total New Jersey Devils as the 103rd overall Chance in the first team “Devil” but never received.

Lasted three seasons in the Atlantic and tested to overseas competition such as the OHL, AHL and IHL. After these three years followed by a return back to Litvinov. 1999-1900 season began in northern Bohemia, but finished by Slavia jersey. From there followed the next year to move Trinec, where he played seven long years. You just popped in the 2003/04 season, when tried his luck in the Russian Superleague. Playing for Novokužnězku played 24 games in the regular and managed as three encounters in the playoffs.

Effect of Třinec experienced attacker and earned a nomination to the team, as he played seven games without scoring any success. After a season spent in 2007/08 jersey Steelworkers Zdenek Skorepa decided to move closer to home and signed to Chomutov. After his first season of Chomutov, experienced striker launched next year with the captain’s jersey to the teat. It remained for him this season.

Questionnaire:
How did you get into hockey, who brought you to it?

“The hockey parents brought me and I was about 5 years.”
He played some of the relatives also hockey, you are a “hockey family”?

“Yes, my brother played. When he was about 18 years old and in junior and finished. ”
What was your favorite school subject except physical education?

“I do not remember (laughs). Probably not, maybe Art. ”
They were parents and school performance satisfied?

“Yes, they were.”
Your current greatest hockey experience or success?

“About a preparatory match for New Jersey.”
Who were your mentors in his youth, or who is it now?

“When I was little, so it was definitely the players from the NHL, but strictly that I had one, it’s not.”
If you could, what would you change the rules of hockey?

“Whatever the larger goal (laughs).”
Zdenek get on with the number 55, it is about your favorite number? How did you get it?

“I got him for a long time and I got him so I got to Třinec and there was free.”
Can you imagine that you are number 55 gave up and played with?

“I’m not the superstitious kind. It would probably bother me too much. ”
How did you get to Chomutov?

“Car (laughs). It was through an agent, who was in contact with management, and successfully arranged everything. ”
You are in Chomutov happy?

“That’s me.”
How do you like as Chomutov city?

“I quite like it, because I’m here from the north, so that these cities are almost the same. Is no metropolis, but a normal town. ”
What do you like sports except hockey?

“Golf.”

Blonde, brunette or redhead?

“I’m not picky (laughs).”
Sparta and Slavia (football)

“Slavia”.
Beer or wine?

“Beer.”
Coffee or tea?

“Coffee.”
Car or bike?

“Auto.”
Summer or winter?

“Summer.”
International and Czech cuisine?

“The Czech cuisine, but I love pasta in all ways, so foreign.”