OHL Alumni Central

Plymouth Whalers fans will undoubtedly remember Tomas Kurka. The Ontario Hockey League grad played two seasons in the OHL, 1999-00 and 2000-01, both with the Whalers.

Both season Kurka played in the OHL, Plymouth went to the Robertson Cup finals. In his first year, the Whalers lost to the Barrie Colts in seven games. In his second, they were on the losing end of a six game series with the Ottawa 67′s. In his rookie season, Tomas led the Ontario Hockey League’s first year players with 36 goals. He was named to the OHL’s and CHL’s All-Rookie Teams.

After his first season with Plymouth, Kurka was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 32nd overall. Tomas spent his first three years of pro hockey in Carolina’s system, mostly with their AHL affiliate, the Lowell Lock Monsters. However, in 2002-03 he dressed for 14 games with the NHL squad and played an additional three with the Hurricanes the following season.

After starting the 2004-05 season in his native Czech Republic then returning the the AHL’s Providence Bruins to finish out the season, Kurka was back in Europe to stay for the 2005-06 season. Tomas has spent time in Finland’s SM-Liiga, Switzerland’s National League A and Sweden’s Allsvenskan. He has been in the Czech Extraliga since the 2007-08 season.

Kurka started the 2010-11 season with HC Sparta Praha (Prague) and was recently loaned to HC Pardubice.

Check out Tomas Kurka’s profile page at the HC Pardubice official website.

Tomas Kurka was featured in these two previous posts at OHL Alumni Central:

OHL Grads Competing Against Canada at the Spengler Cup

HC Slavia Praha Home to 5 Ontario Hockey League Grads in 2009-10

PSG Zlin is currently sitting in fifth place in the fourteen team Czech Extraliga. Although, combined, they’ve played just 152 games in the Ontario Hockey League, there are four players currently on PSG Zlin that are grads of the league. Three of these players are defensemen and only two played what can be considered a full season in the OHL.

Martin Lucka played 56 games on the blue line for the Peterborough Petes in 2003-04. Lucka has been part of the PSG Zlin organization since 1999-00, with exception of his one year in the Ontario Hockey League. For four years before and one year after the Petes, Martin was a member of Zlin’s junior program. He has been on the Extraliga club since 2006-07.

Tomas Linhart played 55 games for the London Knights during the 2002-03 season. Linhart was taken by the Montreal Canadiens in the second round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, 45th overall. The following season, back in the Czech Republic, Tomas played on the Czech Under-20 team at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. He has played in the Extraliga since his year with London and is in his third season with PSG Zlin.

Martin Hamrlik played 26 games with the Ottawa 67′s during the 1992-93 season. He was a second round pick of the Hartford Whalers in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, 31st overall. Hamrlik played four years of North American minor pro hockey in the AHL and IHL before returning to his home city, Zlin, for the 1997-98 season. This is Hamrlik’s fourteenth season with PSG Zlin. He led the league’s defensemen in goals and points in the 2008-09 season.

Ivan Rachunek played just fifteen games with the Windsor Spitfires in 1999-00. He returned to play for PSG Zlin that same season and, with exception to 2003-04 and 2004-05, has been with the team since. Rachunek was a seventh round pick for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, 187th overall. Ivan played in the 2001 IIHF Under-20 World Junior Hockey Championships for the Czech Republic when the team won gold. Ivan’s brother, Tomas, played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for two seasons, 2008-09 and 2009-10.

Visit the PSG official website

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

They played in the Ontario Hockey League eleven years apart from each other. Jan Snopek played from 1993-94 to 1996-97. Jakub Kovar played for just one season, 2007-08. They both find themselves limiting the goals against for HC Mountsfield Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga.

Snopek played all his four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Oshawa Generals. In his final season with the club, he contributed 42 points in 57 games from the blue line and helped the Generals to a Robertson Cup victory as OHL playoff champion. The team went on to an unsuccessful attempt at winning the Memorial Cup but Snopek was named to the tournament All-Star Team.

Jan was taken in the fifth round of the 1995 NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers, 109th overall. In his first pro season, he played two games for the American Hockey League’s Saint John Flames and 34 in Sweden’s Elitserien. The following season he returned to his native Czech Republic and has played in the Extraliga since.

This is Snopek’s second season with Budejovice after a five year stint with HC Pardubice. In his first year with the club, they were Extraliga champions. In his final two seasons with Pardubice, Jan was team captain.

Jakub Kovar played one season between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League, 2007-08. He split his season between the Generals and the Windsor Spitfires. Kovar was selected to Team Czech Republic at the IIHF World Junior Championships that season, as he was the year before.

Jakub came to the OHL already drafted to an NHL club. Kovar was taken by the Philadelphia Flyers in the fourth round of the 2006 NHL draft, 109th overall. He opted to return to his native Czech Republic after his season in the OHL and is now in his third season with Budejovice. Kovar is the team’s main goalie, playing 80% of the games so far this season.

Check out Jan Snopek’s profile at HC Mountfield Ceske Budejovice’s official website.

Check out Jakub Kovar’s profile at the team’s site.

Note: the site is in Czech but the profiles are quite in depth. Use Google Translate to get a good idea about what’s being said.

Tomas Pospisil played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2005-06 and 2006-07, both with the Sarnia Sting. As a rookie on a pretty dismal Sting team that won just 17 games, Tomas was second on the team in goals (25) and points (55). The following season, his numbers improved to 29 goals and 67 points in five fewer games (55).

Twice during his junior career, Tomas played internationally for the Czech Republic. He was a member of the under-18 team in 2005 and a member of the under-20 team in 2007.

Pospisil was taken by the Atlanta Thrashers in the fifth round of the 2005 NHL draft, 135th overall. After graduating from the Ontario Hockey League, Tomas played 42 games over his first two seasons in pro hockey with the Thrashers AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Over those two seasons, Pospisil also played games for the Gwinnett Gladiators of the ECHL and the Albany River Rats of the AHL.

Last season, 2009-10, Tomas returned to the Czech Republic and the organization that had housed him through most of his pre-OHL career, HC Ocelari Trinec. He played 36 games for the team in 2009-10 season, contributing 10 points in 36 games.

This season, 2010-11, Pospisil finds himself still playing in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga but with Brno Kometa.

Check out Tomas Pospisil’s profile page on the official Brno Kometa website.

Tomas Pospisil appears in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central listing the graduates of the Sarnia Sting that were still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 season. Click here to go to the post.

Vladimir Roth played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2007-08 and 2008-09, both with the London Knights. The native of the Czech Republic provided London with solid defence in those two seasons.

Before and after his Ontario Hockey League career, Vlad has been a part of the HC Slavia Praha (Prague) hockey program, playing with the club’s Under-18 team, Under-20 team and now, the elite team. This past season, 2009-10, was Roth’s first season in the Czech Extraliga and he appeared in 36 of the senior team’s 52 regular season games, appearing regularly on the powerplay, as well as 14 in the playoffs. He also made appearances on the Under-20 club and HC Havlickuv Brod of the Czech Extraliga 2.

Roth played for the Czech Republic at the IIHF World Hockey Championships held in Saskatchewan this past season. Vlad added six points in six games from the blue line in a tournament that saw the Czechs tank in the round robin but go undefeated in the relegation round to live to see another year at this level. Roth also represented his country in 2007 at the Under-18 World Tournament.

Vlad hopes to help Slavia improve from their seventh place finish last season in the 14 team league. He is under contract with the club through the 2011-12 season, which is pretty lengthy for a European club.

Check out Vladimir Roth’s profile page on the HC Slavia Praha official website.

Check out this previous post on Ontario Hockey League alumni playing for HC Slavia Praha during the 2009-10 season.

The following video is from the 2010 IIHF World Hockey Championships. Vladimir Roth, #15 in white, assists on the first goal of the game.