OHL Alumni Central

Georgi Misharin played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2003-04, with the Saginaw Spirit. Misharin was certainly one of the bright spots on a Saginaw team that shared the league’s basement with the Belleville Bulls, both with just 39 points.

Misharin came to the Ontario Hockey League already drafted by an National Hockey League club. Georgi was taken in the seventh round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild, 207th overall. With 2004-05 being the NHL lockout year, Misharin went home to Russia to play in the RSL and has been there since.

Georgi has worn the Russia jersey on the world stage on three occasions. He helped Team Russia to a Bronze Medal at the 2003 Under-18 championships and stepped it up to a Silver two years later in the Under-20 tournament. Just turning 21, Misharin played for Russia at the World Hockey Championships in 2006 with Russia finishing in fifth place.

2010-11 is Georgi’s fourth season with CSKA Moscow. After 46 games, he was traded to Metallurg Magnitogorsk who needed to bolster the blue line for a promising playoff run. CSKA Moscow currently sits in tenth place in the KHL’s Western Conference and twelve points out of a playoff spot. Magnitogorsk is comfortably in fourth place in the East, twelve points up on fifth position.

Check out Georgi Misharin’s profile page at the KHL official website. 

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Igor Radulov played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League. As a rookie with the Mississauga IceDogs in 2001-02, Radulov put in 33 goals and added 30 assists for 63 points in 62 games. Igor was second to Patrick O’Sullivan on the team in every offensive category.

Before he came to the Ontario Hockey League, Radulov was drafted into the National Hockey League. Igor went in the third round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 74th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks. Radulov got into seven games with Chicago in his first year of professional hockey and 36 in 2003-04 while splitting time with the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League.

Then came the lockout season… Radulov left for Russia in 2004-05 when there was no NHL hockey to be played. He has been in the RSL/KHL since. After starting the season with Severstal Cherepovets, his sixth team in Russia since 2004-05, he has moved to Vityaz Chekhov, a team he played parts of three seasons with from 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Vityaz sits in last place in the KHL’s West Conference and third from the bottom overall. Just recently, we featured a former member of Vityaz Chekhov, Nathan Perrott.

Check out Igor Radulov’s profile page on the KHL official website.

Evgeny Korolev played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1997-98. Korolev played his first two and half years with the Peterborough Petes before moving to the London Knights for the last half of his final season in the OHL. He was brought in at the trade deadline to help the West Division winning Knights, only two seasons removed from their CHL record breaking season of futility, make a run at the Robertson Cup. London made it to the OHL semi-finals before being swept by the Ottawa 67′s.

Evgeny was drafted by the New York Islanders in the NHL Entry Draft not once but twice. He was selected in the eighth round of the 1996 draft, 192nd overall and again in the seventh round of the 1998 draft, 182nd overall. Over three seasons with the Islanders, from 1999-00 to 2001-02, Korolev played a total of 42 games with New York while spending most of his time in the American Hockey League.

For the 2002-03 season, the Moscow native returned to Russia to play in the Russian Super League. The RSL/KHL has been Korolev’s home ever since. He began this season with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, a team he played with last season as well, but has been picked up by Dynamo Moscow. He played a season for Dynamo in 2005-06, as well.

Check out Evgeny Korolev’s profile page on the KHL official website.

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I think it’s a fair comparison to say that Robert Esche is the American version of Sean Burke. Burke was always available to wear the Team Canada Jersey, representing his country in nine different tournaments and actually playing full-time for the national team for parts of four seasons. Esche has appeared in eight tournaments for Team USA and is still quite active in professional hockey. The two even played for the same NHL teams, at different times.

Robert Esche played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1997-98. His first two seasons were with the Detroit Junior Red Wings and he switched with the franchise in his final season as they became the Plymouth Whalers. In his final season, he was selected Second Team All-Star goaltender. Twice during his junior career, Robert tended goal for Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championships.

Esche was selected in the sixth round of the 1996 NHL Entry draft by the Phoenix Coyotes, 139th overall. He played three games with the Coyotes the first season while spending most of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons. In that first season, Esche was named to the AHL All-Rookie Team.

Robert played parts of eight seasons in the NHL with the Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers. At his pinnacle, 2003-04 with the Flyers, he was named the winner of the Jennings Trophy with a 2.04 GAA and .915 save percentage over 40 regular season games. He led the Flyers deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs before losing in the Eastern Conference finals to eventual Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

In 2007-08, Esche made a drastic change of scenery, jumping to Russia’s KHL (then called the RSL). He was an instant star between the pipes in Russia, posting a 1.86 GAA with AK Bars Kazan in his first season then a 1.87 with nine shutouts in 38 games for SKA St. Petersburg the following season. He also played in the All-Star game that season. Esche played last season with St. Petersburg and once again posted stellar numbers.

This season, Esche has signed on with Dynamo Minsk and is helping the team stay on top of the KHL’s Western Conference.

Check out Robert Esche’s profile at the KHL official website.

Joining Esche on Dynamo Minsk are these two former Ontario Hockey League players (click names to go to previous post at OHL Alumni Central):

Max Spiridonov

Geoff Platt

Maxim Rybin is now in his tenth season of play in Russia’s RSL/KHL since graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. Add that to the three partial season that Rybin played in the RSL before playing in the OHL and you have a 29 year old veteran of professional hockey with twelve seasons under his belt. Before coming to the OHL, Rybin was named the RSL Rookie Forward of the Year for the 1998-99 season.

Rybin played two seasons with the Sarnia Sting, 1999-00 and 2000-01. In his first season with Sarnia, Maxim was second on the team in points and goals to Jeff Heerema with 56 points and 29 goals. In his final season, he led the Sting in goals with 34 and was second to Eric Himelfarb in points with 70.

Maxim was taken by the Anaheim Ducks in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, 141st overall. He never played a single game of professional hockey in North America, instead returning immediately to Russia.

Rybin is teammates with another Ontario Hockey League grad, Alexei Semenov. Semenov played three seasons with the Sudbury Wolves from 1998-99 to 2000-01. The two players were featured in yesterday’s post at OHL Alumni Central, naming the eleven players that will be playing for the five teams competing against Team Canada at the 2010 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.

St. Petersburg has competed in the Spengler on several occasions in the past and were champions three times. The team is home to former NHL stars Maxim Afinogenov and Alexei Yashin. The team currently sits third in their conference in the KHL standings.

Check out Maxim Rybin’s profile page at the SKA St. Petersburg official website.