OHL Alumni Central

Drew Bannister, as mentioned yesterday, is one of four players from the 1993 Memorial Cup winning Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds that are still playing in professional hockey today.

Bannister played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1990-91 to 1993-94, all with the Greyhounds. His first and second year, the Greyhounds were the Robertson Cup champions. In 1993, the team won the Memorial Cup, despite not winning the Robertson. They earned a berth in the Mem as the host city. In both 1992 and 1993, Drew Bannister was named to the Memorial Cup All-Star team.

In his final season in the Ontario Hockey League, Drew played for Team Canada at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. The tournament was held in the Czech Republic and Canada won gold. Oddly enough, not a single Canada player made the tournament All-Star team.

Bannister was taken by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, 26th overall. Drew has seen a total of 164 NHL games with the Lightning, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers. The last NHL game Drew played was during the 2001-02 season. Bannister has been in Europe since the 2002-03 season, with exception of 2009-10 when he returned to the American Hockey League to play for the Binghamton Senators.

Not just a champion in the OHL, Bannister was also part of the AHL’s Calder Cup winning team in 2000, the Hartford Wolf Pack. In 2007-08, he was named the top defenseman in Germany’s 2.Bundesliga as he led the Kassel Huskies to a playoff championship. This allowed Kassel to move up to the elite DEL for the next season.

This season, 2010-11, Bannister has been playing for the Hull Stingrays of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL). Drew has worn an ‘A’ on his jersey for Hull and is currently trying to help the team through the playoffs.

Check out Drew Bannister’s profile page at the Hull Stingrays official website.

Corey Neilson played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1996-97. He began his career with the North Bay Centennials then moved to the Detroit Junior Whalers midway through the 1995-96 season. In his final season in the OHL, Neilson played for the Barrie Colts.

In his first season with North Bay, the team won the Hamilton Spectator as the Ontario Hockey League’s regular season champion and went on to defeat Detroit to win the Robertson Cup as the league’s playoff champion. Corey was selected to the OHL’s First All-Rookie Team.

After his first season, Neilson was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the third round of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, 53rd overall. For the most part, from 1999-00 to 2005-06, Corey spent his time in the ECHL with exception of the 2002-03 season which he played in the UHL and AHL. Neilson was twice and ECHL All-Star and was Defenseman of the year in 2003-04.

Since 2006-07, Corey has been a member of the Nottingham Panthers in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League. Neilson has led the league’s defensemen twice in scoring and currently leads the EIHL’s defensemen this season with 45 points in 42 games. The team is sitting in fourth place in the league with the possibility of going up a position and realistically no chance of going down. Corey has achieved his personal numbers and has led the team as head coach for the past three seasons.

His influence as head coach has brought in some very talented Ontario Hockey League grads for the stretch run, such as Daniel Tkaczuk and Jeff Heerema (click on names to view previous posts featuring those players).

Check out Corey Neilson’s profile page at the Nottingham Panthers official website.

Alex Penner in black for the Nottingham Panthers.

Over the past week and a half, the Nottingham Panthers of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League have lost an Ontario Hockey League grad and gained another. Alex Penner, or as he was known in England ‘Weapon X’, returned to North America to play for his 2009-10 club, the Colorado Eagles of the Central Hockey League. Daniel Tkaczuk signed on with the Panthers for the rest of this season after playing the first half with EC Dornbirn in Austria’s tier 2.

Penner was on his way to beating the best single season goal production in his professional hockey career with the Panthers. Weapon X has notched four in 30 games. His previous best was five with Colorado last season. In that 30 games, Alex amassed 291 minutes in penalties, which is his highest single season total.

Alex Penner played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. His first season in the OHL consisted of just eleven games with the Guelph Storm. In his second season, he put in 55 games with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Check out this previous post at OHL Alumni Central on Alex Penner.

Daniel Tkaczuk on the left with ERC Ingolstadt during the 2006-07 DEL season.

Daniel Tkaczuk will definitely be an offensive threat with the Panthers. The team currently sits fourth in the ten team league. Between fourth and fifth is the line between the have and have-nots of the EIHL. Nottingham is just six points behind Belfast and Sheffield. The Panthers sit nine points behind the first place Cardiff Devils. There is a twelve point difference between Nottingham and the fifth place Braehead Clan (a first year team).

Tkaczuk played four stellar seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1998-99, all with the Barrie Colts. Daniel was team captain in the final three of the four seasons and went to the world juniors for Team Canada in 1998 and 1999. He was a sixth overall draft pick in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, going to the Calgary Flames. He appeared in 19 games with the Flames in 2000-01.

After six seasons in Europe from 2003-04 to 2008-09, Tkaczuk returned to North America last season and was bounced around from four different teams, inlcuding: Charlotte Checkers (ECHL), Syracuse Crunch (AHL), Rochester Americans (AHL) and Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL). His European tour has taken him to Finland, Italy, Germany, Austria and now England. Check out this previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring Daniel Tkaczuk.

Of course, both players appear on the OHL Alumni Big List.

Jeremy Van Hoof played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2000-01, all with the Ottawa 67′s. In his first and last seasons in the OHL, Ottawa made a trip to the Memorial Cup and was successful in one attempt.

In his first season, despite the Belleville Bulls beating the London Knights for the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League champions, the 67′s were the Memorial Cup host and won the Cup on home ice. In Van Hoof’s final season, Ottawa won the Robertson with a victory over the Plymouth Whalers but was unsuccessful at the Memorial Cup.

Jeremy entered the NHL Entry Draft twice. In 1999, he was taken by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, 57th overall. Pittsburgh didn’t give him the love and he re-entered to the draft for 2001 and was picked by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the seventh round, 222nd overall.

Van Hoof played in nine games in the American Hockey League over two seasons but mostly spent his time in the East Coast Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2005-06. His first European experience came in 2006-07 with HC Fassa of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio. After a season in the Central Hockey League in 2007-08, Jeremy returned to HC Fassa the following year.

This past season, 2009-10, in what was his best season to date as far as straight numbers, Van Hoof played for High1 of the ALIH (Asia League). High1 plays out of South Korea. Jeremy contributed 36 points from the blue line in 35 games.

Van Hoof started this season in the Federal Hockey League with the Akwesasne Warriors and appeared in eleven games. He has just recently signed with the Guildford Flames of Great Britain’s EPIHL, the second division to the EIHL.

Check out Jeremy Van Hoof’s profile page at the Guildford Flames official website.

This is the article on the Guildford Flames official website announcing Van Hoof’s arrival.

Read this previous article on Jeremy Van Hoof’s teammate with the Akwesasne Warriors.

Jeff Heerema with Medvescak Zagred of Austria's EBEL during the 2009-10 season.

The Nottingham Panthers sit in second place in the ten team Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) of Great Britain. The Panthers are three points  back of the Belfast Giants but have three games in hand. The Panthers have brought in a dangerous weapon to subdue the Giants and push into first place.

Ontario Hockey League grad Jeff Heerema has finally found a home for the 2010-11 season. He was not invited back to Medvescak Zagreb of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) after a successful regular season but less than stellar playoff run in 2009-10.

Heerema played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 1999-00, all with the Sarnia Sting. Jeff was a picture of consistency with the Sting with seasons of 32, 31 and 36 goals and 72, 70 and 77 points. He led the Sting in all offensive categories in his final season with 36 goals, 41 assists and 77 points.

Heerema was thought of quite highly by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 1998 NHL draft. Jeff went in the first round, eleventh overall. He saw action with the Hurricanes in the 2002-03 season, a year before cousin Eric Staal made his debut in Carolina. Heerema played ten games with the Hurricanes that season and 22 with the St. Louis Blues the following year to round out his NHL career.

Jeff twice led his American Hockey League team in points. in his first season in the AHL, 2001-02, he led the Lowell Lock Monsters in goals (33), assists (37) and points (70). In his last season in North America, 2006-07, Heerema led the Binghamton Senators in goals with 36 and points with 67.

The greatest playoff success Jeff achieved in North America was during the 2004-05 season. Playing for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, the team made it to the Western Conference finals before being swept by the Chicago Wolves.

In 2007-08, it was off to Germany for Heerema. For two seasons, he played for the Frankfurt Lions of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).

Jeff joins two other OHL grads on the Nottingham Panthers, Alex Penner (click here for a previous post on Alex) and Jonathan Zion (click here for a previous post on Jonathan). The Belfast Giants have brought in artillery in the form of OHL grads as well with the aquisition of Brad Smyth (click here for previous post on Brad) and Michael Jacobsen (click here for previous post on Michael). The Panthers lost OHL great Cameron Mann to retirement after the 2009-10 season (click here for previous post on Cameron).