OHL Alumni Central

Portuguese and English we would assume would be the languages Ontario Hockey League grad Justin DaCosta would be most familiar with. I wonder how his French is? DaCosta has signed up with Chamonix of France’s Ligue Magnus for the 2011-12 season. Although a few OHL alumni find their way to the Ligue Magnus each year, it is mostly populated with players from the QMJHL, France and Eastern Europe.

Justin spent this past season in the Central Hockey League with the Allen Americans. The Americans were dominant during the regular season but couldn’t make it past the conference finals in the playoffs. DaCosta played in 44 games with Allen during the regular season and an additional 13 in the playoffs. He was a call-up for one game by the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League.

DaCosta played in the Ontario Hockey League for four years from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts, playing 47 games in his rookie season. After just nine games the following season, Justin was shipped off to the Owen Sound Attack. In 2004-05, a mid-season trade sent him to his hometown, Mississauga. He finished out his OHL career with the IceDogs, putting in a career year with 42 points in 57 games in 2005-06.

Undrafted, DaCosta took advantage of the great OHL scholarship program and played two seasons with the University of New Brunswick.

In three years of pro, Justin has played for five teams in four leagues. Other than his game in the AHL this past season, his highest level of hockey was with the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder in 2009-10.

Chamonix will be looking for big things from DaCosta as they try to have their first .500 season since being promoted from tier 2 in 2005-06. The regular schedule of the Ligue Magnus consists of just 26 games. However, a soccer style country-wide playdown is intertwined. The Coupe de France begins with teams of all senior levels playing down (the equivelent of the Boston Bruins playing the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League in some cases). In the end, two teams, most always from the Ligue Magnus, meet in Paris (Bercy) to determine the winner of the Coupe de France in a one game showdown.

Chamonix plays out of the 1700 seat Patinoire Richard Bozon set in the beautiful French Alps.

You can read the article announcing Justin DaCosta’s signing at the Chamonix official website (in French).

Rob Dmytruk played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03. Each season he played in the OHL, he found himself on a different team’s roster.

Dmytruk’s Ontario Hockey League career began with the Belleville Bulls. His second season consisted of only 19 games with the Sudbury Wolves. In his final season, he went west and played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In total, Rob played in 89 regular season games in the OHL as well as six total playoff games.

After his Ontario Hockey League career, Dmytruk went the Canadian university route and played five seasons at Wilfred Laurier University. In his fourth season, 2006-07, he developed into an offensive defenseman scoring 11 goals and adding 21 assists for 32 points in 28 games. In his final two seasons with Laurier, Rob was a first team all-star.

2008-09 was Rob Dmytruk’s only season of professional hockey in North America and he bounced around between three different clubs in two leagues. He began the season with the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL and moved on to the Rapid City Rush and Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League.

This past season, Dmytruk moved to the European hockey scene and played with Eindhoven Kemphanen in the Netherlands. He continued his offensive ways with 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points in 42 games.

This upcoming season, Rob has shifted to France’s Ligue Magnus and the Ducs Dijon. We’ve noted before that not many Ontario Hockey League alumni play in the Ligue Magnus. Hopefully Rob will find great success with Dijon.

Rob Dmytruk’s profile has yet to appear on the Ducs Dijon official website but you can follow this link to the story on the the website announcing the arrival of Rob.

As a Coventry Blaze. Photo courtesy of Mark Tredgold (www.tredders.com)

Former Windsor Spitfire and Mississauga IceDog, Ben O’Connor, is entering into territory few Ontario Hockey League alumni dare to tread. O’Connor has signed on for the 2010-11 season with Les Pingouins de Morzine-Avoriaz in France’s Ligue Magnus.

The England born defenseman played two partial seasons in the OHL, 2005-06 and 2006-07. He began his career with the Windsor Spitfires and in his second season was traded to the Mississauga IceDogs after playing just one game with the Spits.

For the past three seasons, Ben has been playing in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL). This past season, he played for the Edinburgh Capitals, a team that finished the season sixth in the eight team league. O’Connor played in all of the team’s 56 regular season games, helping out with 28 points from the blue line.

His new team, Morzine-Avoriaz, also finished sixth in their league’s regular season but the Ligue Magnus is made up of fourteen teams instead of eight. Morzine is a small mountain community quite near the border of Switzerland.

Although the Ligue Magnus is laced with graduates of the QMJHL, there are very few OHL grads playing in the French league each season. Five Ontario Hockey League alumni played in the league this past season (read more about it in this previous post). In 2008, former Brampton Battalion, Brad Woods, was part of a Coupe de France winning Grenoble team.

Les Pingouins official website hasn’t updated Ben O’Connor’s arrival yet, but you can check out the site here.

For the time being, Ben’s profile page remains on the EIHL official website.

For the news story about the transfer, click here.

Ligue Magnus is the elite hockey league in France. A number of Canadians play in the league, however, most are from Quebec and played their junior hockey in the QMJHL. There are five players currently playing in the league that are Ontario Hockey League Alumni.

Shawn Snider currently plays for the Neuilly Sur Marne Bisons. Shawn played his OHL career from 1998-99 ot 2001-02 on three different teams. He played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 1998-99 and part of 1999-00. He then moved on to the Owen Sound Attack to finish the 1999-00 season and played with them until midway through the 2001-02 season. He finished off the 2001-02 season with the Sudbury Wolves.

Snider’s best season in the OHL was with Owen Sound in 2000-01 when he totalled 76 points in 61 games. He played Canadian University hockey for three years followed by a few years in the North American minors before heading to France in 2008-09. Click here for an interview with Shawn. It’s in French, so you might want to use Google Translate.

Matt Reynolds is Currently with Les Ducs de Dijon. Matt played in the OHL with the Brampton Battalion from 1998-99 to 1999-00.

Stephane Gervais only played 12 games in the OHL over two seasons, but that still qualifies him as an OHL alumnus. In 2000-01, he played 6 games with the Plymouth Whalers. In 2001-02, he played 6 games with the Windsor Spitfires. Stephane went on to play 4 seasons of university hockey in British Columbia before heading to France. He played 2007-08 and 2008-09 with Epinal and is currently playing with Briancon. He can be found on the team’s official website located here.

Tomas Skvaridlo is currently with Les Rapaces de Gap. His profile on the team’s official website is located here. Tomas played in the OHL with the Kingston Frontenacs from 1999-00 to 2000-01. A Pittsburgh Penguin draft pick, he immediately went back to Europe after the OHL and played in the Slovak league until swithing to France this season.

Matthew Puntureri is currently with the Morzine-Avoriaz Pingouins. He played in the OHL from 2001-02 to 2004-05. Matthew started out with the Guelph Storm and played there until being traded to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 2002-03. He split the 2004-05 season between the Greyhounds and the Oshawa Generals. This is his first season in the Ligue Magnus.