OHL Alumni Central

It’s been a turbulent summer for Guelph Storm graduate, Sylvain Cloutier. As player/coach with the Hull Stingrays, things seemed all set heading into the 2010-11 season when the bottom fell out. The owners couldn’t carry the team and the Stingrays were no more.

But wait! All was not lost. New ownership jumped in almost immediately and Hull will field a team for the upcoming season. Some players were lost in the shuffle but Sylvain remains and has his work cut out for him.

Sylvain Cloutier played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1991-92 to 1993-94, all with the Guelph Storm. His 35 goals in his rookie season stands as a Storm record for first year players. His 71 assists and 116 points in his final season when he captained the Storm are team single season records for a left winger. Cloutier is seventh on Guelph’s all-time list for goals scored and assists. He is tied for sixth when it comes to Storm all-time points. In his final season in the Ontario Hockey League, Cloutier finished tied for ninth in league scoring.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1992 NHL draft, 70th overall by the Detroit Red Wings. Sylvain played four seasons in the American Hockey League with Detroit’s affiliate, the Adirondack Red Wings. It wasn’t until 1998-99, after shifting to the Chicago Black Hawks system, that Cloutier got a taste of the NHL, appearing in seven games with the Hawks. This would prove to be the extent of his NHL career.

Cloutier split his time between the AHL and the United Hockey League until the start of the 2006-07 season. He made the jump to European hockey, playing for the Coventry Blaze of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League. He played two seasons with the Blaze and was better than a point per game player. In each of his two seasons with Coventry, the team won the EIHL championship.

He took time off from playing the game during the 2008-09 season to coach. His stint behind the bench with the Corpus Christi IceRayz of the Central Hockey League lasted 50 games and ended in February of 2009.

Sylvain returned to the EIHL this past season, this time as a player and a coach for the Hull Stingrays. The team finished last among the eight teams in the league with just 43 points in 56 regular season games.

Because of the ownership change, the Hull Stingrays official website is still a work in progress. It can be found here.

However, a better source of all things Hull Stingrays is the F Block Blog.

Check out the following video of highlights from a game between Hull and the Belfast Giants. For North American fans, it’s a great intro to the EIHL game. OHL fans will notice a few familiar names other than Sylvain Cloutier, including Sean McMorrow, George Halkidis and Jeff Szwez. At 1:08 of the video, Cloutier walks away from a fight with ‘The Sheriff’ McMorrow – which is probably a very good idea. At 3:40, he leaves with an injury as a result of a high stick. Cloutier is #83 for the dark jerseys.

Other than what looks to be a small ice surface and a smaller seating area than the Ontario Hockey League, the game itself looks to be pretty fast and exciting. The game is decided in a shootout – you’ll have to watch to see who wins…

Joe Talbot on left after Sheffield wins the EIHL championship (notice the beer bottles in hand - were the Canadian women really that badass at the Olympics??).

Ontario Hockey League grad Joe Talbot is entering his fourth season with the Sheffield Steelers. This is almost unheard of for an import in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL). For imports, the EIHL, or any other European elite league for that matter, can be pretty transient with stops of just one season before moving on to the next team, league or country.

Joe Talbot played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 2000-01, all with the Ottawa 67′s. In his final season, his 39 goals and 40 assists for 79 points in a full 68 games helped Ottawa to a third seed ranking in the Eastern Conference. His 28 points in 20 playoff games helped the 67′s win the Robertson Cup as the Ontario Hockey League’s playoff champion. The team was unsuccessful at the Memorial Cup tournament in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Joe went undrafted by any NHL club and decided on the university route, playing two seasons with the University of Western Ontario in London.

From 2003-04 to 2006-07, Talbot played in the East Coast Hockey League with the Alaska Aces. Over the four seasons, Joe consistently averaged 25 goals per season.

For the start of the 2007-08 season, Joe travelled to England to play with the Sheffield Steelers. In each of his first three seasons with the club, his point totals have increased from 59 to 62 to 67 points. The team was EIHL playoff champion in his first two seasons.

Talbot is not alone on the team as an OHL alumus. Ontario Hockey League grads Kevin Bolibruck and Derek Campbell will also be Sheffield Steelers this season.

Check out Joe Talbot’s profile page on the Sheffield Steelers official website.

Talbot is featured in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central listing OHL grads playing for Sheffield during the 2009-10 season.

Changes are abound for Sundays at OHL Alumni Central. Out is Sensational Sunday Search For Sites and in is OHL Alumni Classics. SSSFS was a good idea but didn’t focus on what this site is all about, OHL Alumni. Classics will once a week bring you great articles on graduates of the Ontario Hockey League that have retired from active hockey and whose stories are great but not readily known.

Kevin Conway

Kevin Conway played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1980-81 to 1983-84. His first season consisted of only nine games with the Oshawa Generals. His second and third were played with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and his final season started with two games with the Sault before finishing the season with the Kingston Canadians.

After two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, Conway had played just 45 regular season games while scoring seven goals and adding nine assists for 16 points. In his third and fourth season, Kevin’s offense exploded with seasons of 122 and 130 points.

In 1982-83, his 122 points placed him ninth in Ontario Hockey League scoring. The Greyhounds lost out to the Oshawa Generals in Robertson Cup finals. As a side note, that season was the first for the Guelph Platers and was also the first for the North Bay Centennials after moving from Niagara Falls where they were known as the Flyers.

In 1983-84, Conway was traded to the Kingston Canadians after just two games with the Greyhounds, despite contributing three goals in those two games. Despite the Canadians finishing last in the Leyden Division, Kevin’s 130 total points was good enough for sixth in the league. His 20 penalty minutes helped him win the William Hanley Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s Most Sportsmanlike Player.

Despite the numbers, Conway went undrafted by an NHL club. Kevin played one season in the old IHL, split between the Toledo Goaldiggers and the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, before moving to Great Britain and finding his calling as a hockey legend.

Conway put up rediculous numbers playing in the BNL. In his first season, he popped in 129 goals and added 98 assists for 227 points in just 35 games! These numbers would be topped in 1987-88 when he scored 151 goals in addition to 112 assists for a combined total of 263 points. This feat was done in just 31 games, 2 with the Durham Wasps and 29 with the Telford Tigers. He still found time to spend 108 minutes in the penalty box.

In all, Conway reached the 100 goal plateau four times in the BNL and the 100 point mark nine times. He played at various levels of British ice hockey until the end of the 2007-08 season.

Kevin represented Great Britain at the World Championships five different times. His 66 points as a member of the national team is second on the all-time list. His contribution to hockey in Great Britain had him elected to the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005.

In this week’s installment of SSSFS, we’re going to focus solely on what I believe is one of the major emerging markets for professional hockey. All the Don Cherry lovers out there who long for the good old days when fighting and toughness were a part of the game might want to take a look at the Elite Ice Hockey League in Great Britain. Excitement is already mounting for a game in October when a couple of OHL Alumni, Sean McMorrow of the Dundee Stars and Alex Penner of the Nottingham Panthers, will surely drop the gloves when the ice is likely still quite fresh.

British Ice Hockey – This is a site covering not just the EIHL but all of pro and semi-pro hockey in Great Britain, including the national team. This is a great source for news and stats.

Ice Fans – British Ice Hockey News And Views – A blog on the Elite Ice Hockey League (and the rest of the Great Britain hockey scene as well) run by a fan of the Manchester Phoenix. And yes, you readers from North America, the ‘ice’ in ice hockey is a necessity because hockey outside of our confines is played on a grass field with a goofy looking stick!

Blaze and Borsch – A Brit’s Ramblings About All Things Hockey – This is a personal blog by a British hockey fan who covers all things in the European world of hockey. Updates are somewhat infrequent but very detailed.

F Block Blog – This is a blog dedicated to the Hull Stingrays of the Elite Ice Hockey League. If anyone in the know can tell us what the significance of the ‘F Block’ is, let us know! This blog is just proof of the commitment of hockey fans in Great Britain to their teams even in the off season. This blog is updated as often as any Toronto Maple Leafs rag but with much less criticism and negativity!

Five Minute Major – The sub title says it all: “Unofficial, uncensored, uneducated Manchester Phoenix blog”. Manchester is currently in the English Premier League (EPL), which is a second tier to the EIHL. This is a great, entertaining read. You WILL laugh your ass off and learn it a bit about the EPL!

Check out the previous editions of SSSFS at OHL Alumni Central:

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

Greg Chambers as a Basingstoke Bison.

Greg Chambers was a 40 goal scorer in two of his three Ontario Hockey League seasons. The NHL shunned him but Great Britain cherishes him. Greg played three seasons with the Peterborough Petes from 2000-01 to 2002-03. He led the Petes in total points for the 2001-02 season and was just slightly overshadowed by Eric Staal for the team lead in 2002-03.

Chambers played one season in the ECHL with the Pensacola Ice Pilots in 2003-04 before heading to Europe. He played a season in Italy’s LIHG before settling down in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL).

Greg spent his first four seasons with the now defunct Basingstoke Bison of the EIHL. This past season was his first with the Coventry Blaze and he contributed 75 points in 51 games while helping the Blaze to the EIHL title.

For the past three seasons, Chambers has represented Great Britain at the D1 World Championships. In 2007-08, he lead all scorers in the tournament with 11 points. In 2008-09, while helping Great Britain to a bronze medal, Greg led the tournament with six assists. This past world championship, 2009-10, Chambers had the distinction of being the most penalized player in the tournament.

Greg has signed on for the 2010-11 season with the Coventry Blaze. This upcoming season looks to be a fantastic season for the EIHL as more and more imports find their way to Great Britain and mix with some great local talent. The Blaze are looking to be one of the front-runners again. Word is, ice hockey is taking over as the country’s most popular sport.

Check out Greg Chambers’ profile page on the Coventry Blaze official website.

Above photo courtesy of BRLD @ Flickr.