OHL Alumni Central

Ontario Hockey League graduate Arvids Rekis is leaving Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) after seven seasons. Rekis has moved to Russia’s KHL and will play for Dinamo Riga in his home country of Latvia.

Arvids played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Erie Otters. During his third season in the Ontario Hockey League, Rekis played for Latvia at the IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships B Division.

Arvids has since represented Latvia in international competitions eight times. He has been on the blue line for six IIHF World Championships and two Olympic Games – 2006 in Turin, Italy and 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Rekis spent three years with the Peoria Rivermen of the ECHL after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. In 2003-04, he left for Europe and the DEL. Arvids spent his first five seasons in Germany with the Augsburger Panther and his last two with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg.

Check out Arvids Rekis’ profile page on the Dinamo Riga official website. The site is actually in English, which is rare for individual KHL sites.

Arvids is featured in two previous posts at OHL Alumni Central: OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 Olympics and OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 World Championships.

The following video is from a qualifying game for the 2010 Olympics with Latvia taking Hungary by a 7-3 score. It’s just a short highlight video showing all the goals. Rekis scores the third goal to make it 2-1 for Latvia. Fellow Ontario Hockey League grad Herberts Vasiljevs scores the eighth goal that makes it 5-3.

David Ling played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1992-93 to 1994-95, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Although he had three great seasons with Kingston, Ling is mostly known for his final season in the OHL. After point productions of 63 and 77 in his first two seasons, David exploded for 61 goals and 74 assists for 135 points in 62 games in his final season in the Ontario Hockey League.

That 135 point performance left him just four points behind Marc Savard of the Oshawa Generals for the OHL lead. It should be noted that David played four less regular season games than Savard. The interesting thing about Ling is that he led the Frontenacs in penalty minutes in his first two seasons with a whopping 275 and 254. In his final season, he still put his time in at the sin bin but his 136 PIM obviously signified a major role change.

In 1994-95, Ling was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as Ontario Hockey League MVP, the Jim Mahon Trophy as the highest scoring right winger in the OHL and was also named the Canadian Hockey League’s player of the year.

Ling was drafted deep down in the seventh round of the 1993 NHL entry draft by the Quebec Nordiques. Of course, this was before his outstanding senior year. Despite being tough and feisty, his 5’9″ and 185 lb. (175-197, depending on the source) build maybe didn’t fit into the 1990′s NHL template of 6’4″, 200+ lb. players. Over his professional career to date, David has played just 93 NHL games, mostly with the Columbus Blue Jackets in addition to three games with the Montreal Canadiens.

David spent most of his days of North American hockey in the AHL and the old IHL. He last played in North America in the 2007-08 season with the Toronto Marlies. In 2004-05, with the Marlies’ predecessor in St. John’s, he finished third in league scoring behind Jason Spezza and Mike Cammalleri with 28 goals and 60 assists for 88 points in 80 games. While in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, David wore either the ‘A’ or ‘C’ throughout his days with their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.

In 2005-06, Ling tested the European market and played his first of two seasons in the Russia Super League. In 2008-09, he returned to Europe and split his season between Biel of Switzerland’s National League-A and Jokerit of Finland’s SM-Liiga.

This past season, David played for Amur Khabarovsk of Russia’s KHL. Khabarovsk finished tenth in the twelve team Eastern Conference and out of playoff contention. Ling played 46 of the team’s 56 regular season games, contributing 8 goals and 24 assists for 32 points. He is signed on to play for Amur Khabarovsk for the 2010-11 season.

Check out David Ling’s profile page on the Amur Khabarovsk official website (in Russian).

Geoff Platt played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He began his OHL career with the North Bay Centennials and moved with the team to Saginaw for the 2002-03 season. During that season, Platt was a member of Team Canada at the under-18 world championships. Platt split the 2003-04 season between the Saginaw Spirit and the Erie Otters. He finished off his career in 2004-05 with the Otters.

Undrafted, Geoff appeared in 15 NHL games with the Columbus Blue Jackets in his first season out of the OHL. In total, Platt would appear in 46 NHL games over three seasons with the Blue Jackets and the Anaheim Ducks. The rest of his time in North America was spent in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Syracuse Crunch and the Portland Pirates.

In 2008-09, Geoff Platt played for Dynamo Minsk of the KHL and Ilves of Finland’s SM-Liiga. 2009-10 was Geoff’s first full season with Minsk. His 26 goals and 44 points in 56 games earned him a spot at the KHL all-star game. Geoff is signed on to play for Dynamo Minsk for the 2010-11 season.

Check out Geoff Platt’s profile page at the Dynamo Minsk official website. The site is in Russian.

Kevin Dallman of the KHL's Barys Astana dumps his opponent.

The offence that Kevin Dallman provided the Guelph Storm in his Ontario Hockey League days is what the fans of Barys Astana of Russia’s KHL have been witnessing for the past two seasons and will witness again for the 2010-11 season. The blueliner led OHL defenseman in points for both the 2000-01 and 2001-02 season. He has done the same in the KHL with Barys Astana for the past two seasons.

Kevin Dallman played a total of four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2001-02, all with the Guelph Storm. In those four seasons, Dallman missed only four regular season games. The offensive defenceman contributed 260 points in 268 regular season games for the Storm. In 2001-02, Kevin was an OHL all-star.

Not drafted, Kevin still went on to a 154 game National Hockey League career with three teams: Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings. He spent the rest of his time in the North American pros with the Providence Bruins and Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League.

Since arriving in the KHL for the 2008-09 season, Dallman has been the captain of Barys Astana. In both of his first two seasons in the league, he has been an all-star defenseman. As well as most points by a defenseman in each of his first two seasons, Kevin also led the league’s defence in goals scored in both campaigns.

Check out Kevin Dallman’s profile page on the Barys Astana official website (site is only in Russian).

Martin Skoula with the Minnesota Wild.

Martin Skoula played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1997-98 and 1998-99, both with the Barrie Colts. The big blueliner from the Czech Republic provided the Colts with plenty of offence, contributing 44 points in 66 games in his first year and 59 points in 67 games in his second.

Skoula wasn’t offence only for the Colts. He led the Ontario Hockey League with a +58 plus/minus in his senior season. In his rookie season, he was selected to the CHL’s All-Rookie Team.

Martin was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the 1998 NHL draft, 17th overall. He played with the Avalanche for five seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the team in 2001.

Throughout his NHL career, Skoula has played for the Avalanche, Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils for a combined total of 776 games. He has represented the Czech Republic on the world scene as a junior, in the 2002 Winter Olympics and at several other international tournaments.

Martin has just signed on with Avangard Omsk in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) after a season split between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils where he only appeared in a combined total of 52 regular season games and four in the play-offs with the Devils.

Skoula will join fellow Ontario Hockey League alumnus Brendan Bell in Omsk for 2010-11. Brendan was featured in a recent post here at OHL Alumni Central. Avangard Omsk is better known as the team that former NHL legend Jaromir Jagr plays for.

To see the article on Avangard Omsk’s official website announcing the arrival of Martin Skoula, you can check it out here. The website is only in Russian.