OHL Alumni Central

Aaron Power has signed with the Las Vegas Wranglers of the East Coast Hockey League for the 2010-11 season. The Ontario Hockey League grad returns to the team he played for in 2006-07 and 2007-08 before a two year stint in Europe.

Power played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03. His first three years were spent with the Barrie Colts and his final season was played with the Sarnia Sting. Aaron progressively became more of an offensive defenseman throughout his OHL career with 17, 23, 39 and 57 points.

In 2001-02, he helped the Barrie Colts get to the Robertson Cup finals before losing to the Erie Otters for the Ontario Hockey League playoff crown.

With the Las Vegas Wranglers in 2007-08, Power helped the team to a first place finish in the National Conference. The team had a great playoff run and made it to the Kelly Cup finals before losing to Cincinnati.

Over the past two seasons, Aaron has played in Europe. Last season, Power played for HC Fassa of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio (LIHG). The season before, Aaron played in Germany’s Bundesliga with Heilbronner Falken.

Previous to his first go-around with the Las Vegas Wranglers, Aaron spent three seasons with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL as well as AHL call-ups to the Hamilton Bulldogs and Bridgeport Sound Tigers as well as an extended stay with the Cleveland Barons for 50 games in 2005-06.

Jordan Foreman is an illusionist that appears to be 6’4″ and 225 lbs, when he is a slightly smaller 5’9″ and 185 lbs. Foreman played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08. His first four seasons were spent with the London Knights and his final season was spent with the Niagara IceDogs.

Foreman was part of the London Knights magical 2004-05 season when they set multiple Ontario Hockey League records on their way to winning the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as regular season Ontario Hockey League champion, the Robertson Cup as league playoff champion and the Memorial Cup as Canadian Hockey League champion.

Despite his toughness and grit that earned him 594 regular season penalty minutes in his Ontario Hockey League career, Jordan has the ability to put pucks in the net as well. In his third season with the Knights, he put in 29 goals in 65 games and in his overage year with Niagara, he put in 28 goals in 64 games.

In 2008-09, his first year out of junior, Jordan played for the Alaska Aces of the East Coast Hockey League and was invited to the Detroit Red Wings prospect tournament. Last season, Foreman played in the Central Hockey League with the Missouri Mavericks for 30 games. As you will hear if you watch the video below, Jordan was sought after last season by the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL after Alaska let him go. Because of immigration issues and timing, Foreman was left out of a roster spot.

Jordan is a highly anticipated addition to the Stockton Thunder for the upcoming season. He’s tough, he’s a leader, he can provide offense and, as OHL fans will surely know, he is nothing but a fan-favourite wherever he plays.

Check out Jordan Foreman’s profile page on the Stockton Thunder official website.

The Victoria Salmon Kings loss is the Alaska Aces gain in the East Coast Hockey League. Wes Goldie played four seasons with the Salmon Kings and topped the 40-goal mark in each season, while not missing a single regular season game with the team. His top season with Victoria was 2008-09 when he netted 48 goals.

Wes Goldie played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1999-00. His first season in the OHL consisted of just two games with the London Knights, a team that would win just three and tie just three that season to write the books on Canadian Hockey League futility. His final four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League were played with the Owen Sound Platers.

An interesting note about Goldie is that the two game stint with the London Knights is the only time in his career that his assists have outnumbered his goals. That season he had zero goals and one assist. Throughout his hockey career since that season with the Knights, Wes has netted 517 goals to date. His 289 ECHL goals place him eighth on the league’s all-time list.

Goldie’s most productive season came in 2004-05 in his first of two seasons with the Sorel-Tracy Mission of Quebec’s LNAH. Despite the fact the league has a reputation as a goon league, Wes accumulated just 14 penalty minutes while netting 57 goals in 59 games.

With the exception of those two seasons in Quebec and two games played in the AHL in 2003-04 with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Wes has played his entire professional career in the East Coast Hockey League. He began his pro career with the Pee Dee / Florence Pride before his Quebec stint and has been with the Salmon Kings after Quebec and up until the end of the 2009-10 season.

Alaska is not only looking to Wes for his goal scoring ability, they are excited to have his leadership skills. Goldie has been the captain of the Victoria Salmon Kings since 2008.

Check out Wes Goldie’s profile page on the Alaska Aces official website.

Adam Keefe (#24 in blue) doing what he loves to do most.

A few days ago, we posted about London Knight’s alumnus, Danny Bois. Danny’s 913 regular season penalty minutes were by far a London Knights career standard. Adam Keefe, a former Sudbury Wolve and Kitchener Ranger, tops Bois with 975 career Ontario Hockey League regular season penalty minutes.

Adam Keefe played in the Ontario Hockey League for one more season than Danny Bois at five. He played from 2000-01 to 2004-05, beginning with the Sudbury Wolves and switching over to the Kitchener Rangers during the 2001-02 season. In his third season, he was a part of the Kitchener team that won the Hamilton Spectator as the regular season leader in the Ontario Hockey League, the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League playoff champion as well as the being the recipient of the Memorial Cup.

Adam enters the 2010-11 season as a returning member of the Toledo Walleye of the East Coast Hockey League. This past season, Keefe appeared in just 24 regular season games for Toledo due to injury. He played four playoff games for the Walleye and had four goals, mostly from a hat-trick against Charlotte.

Keefe started his professional career in Toledo after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. In 2005-06, he split his season between the Toledo Storm of the ECHL and the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. Adam has since played for the Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL and the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL before returning to Northern Ohio.

Older brother Sheldon was an Ontario Hockey League scoring machine with Toronto St. Michael’s Majors and the Barrie Colts. He was a second round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning but saw only 125 games in the National Hockey League and dropped away from professional hockey after the 2004-05 season.

Check out Adam Keefe’s profile page at the Toledo Walleye official website.

Adam is also featured in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central about the 2002-03 Memorial Cup winning Kitchener Rangers.

Kris Vernarsky played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2001-02, all with the Plymouth Whalers. In his second and third season, the Whalers made it to the Robertson Cup finals. Vernarsky currently stands 12th on the Whalers on the all-time games played list with 238. He is also tied for 11th on the Whalers all-time play-off games played list with 55. During his Ontario Hockey League career, Kris represented the United States at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Tournament twice.

Vernarsky was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round of the 2000 NHL draft, 51st overall. He has appeared in a total of 17 NHL games, all with the Boston Bruins. 14 games were during the 2002-03 season and three were the following year.

Kris spent some time in the AHL with the Providence Bruins but has been a mainstay in the UHL/IHL since 2005-06. In the lifespan of the most recent version of the IHL (2007-2010), Vernarsky is forever placed in the top 20 for IHL career games, goals, assists and points.

With the demise of the IHL and the Port Huron Icehawks, the team Vernarsky has played with for the past three seasons, Kris finds himself starting the 2010-11 season with the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League.

Kris Vernarsky’s profile page has yet to appear on the Wheeling Nailers official website, but the site can be found through this link.

Check out this previous post on Cory Stillman, another OHL Alumnus left without a job by the demise of the Port Huron Icehawks.