OHL Alumni Central

Sweden’s Division 1 is two steps below the country’s top league, the Elitserien (a sort of Swedish ECHL). Currently, in 2011-12, there are five Ontario-born OHL grads playing in the league.

Russ Moyer is in his first season with Bjorkloven, averaging just over a point per game with the club. Moyer played four years on the point with the Ottawa 67′s from 1999-00 to 2002-03. Moyer followed up his Ontario Hockey League career with four years in the CIS with Acadia. This is his third year in Europe after two seasons in Denmark with AaB.

Jared Cipparone moved up to Division 1 this season after playing Division 2 in 2010-11. He is currently playing for Jarfalla. Cipparone played three seasons with the Windsor Spitfires from 2003-04 to 2005-06. Like Russ Moyer, Jared went the route of higher learning and played three years in the CIS at Carleton before heading to Europe.

Branden Eden played a handful of games with the Brampton Battalion in 2008-09 and most of the 2009-10 season with the Belleville Bulls. After playing in the QMJHL in 2010-11, Eden is in Sweden this year on the roster of Kalix.

Shawn Snider played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2001-02. He began his OHL career with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and was traded to the Owen Sound Attack (Platers) during his second season. In his final season, Snider was moved to the Sudbury Wolves after eleven games in Owen Sound. Shawn spent three years in the CIS with St. FX after leaving the OHL. He has spent four of the past five seasons in Europe. He played in France’s Ligue Magnus in 2010-11. This season started in Austria/Hungary for Snider. He then moved to Sweden  to play for Vimmerby but has recently moved to Nykopings.

Andrew Fournier played parts of five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08, all with the Plymouth Whalers. In 2006-07, he wore the ‘A’ and in his final season, he was team captain. After toiling in the ECHL, a member of the Kalamazoo Wings for the past two seasons, Fournier became a member of Olofstroms this season. Andrew is currently bombing along at well over a point per game pace.

Ontario Hockey League grad Kent McDonell has started his fifth season in Sweden’s Elitserien and his second with AIK. In an odd twist of European hockey, McDonell was loaned to Rapperswil of Switzerland’s National League ‘A’ for ten games but is back with his Swedish club.

Check out the surprising number of Kent McDonell hockey cards on eBay!

Kent played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Guelph Storm. In 60 games during the 1998-99 season, McDonell scored 31 goals. He helped Team Canada to a Silver Medal at the IIHF World Junior Tournament in 1999. In his final season with Guelph, he scored 35 and assisted on 35 others for 70 points in just 56 games.

McDonell was taken in the ninth round of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes, 225th overall. He was put back into the draft in 1999 and was a sixth round pick by the Detroit Red Wings, 181st overall. To date, Kent has played in 32 National Hockey League games, all with the Columbus Blue Jackets during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

During the 2004-05 NHL lockout season, McDonell got his first taste of the European game, splitting the season between Norway’s Get-Ligaen and Germany’s 2.Bundesliga. He returned to North America for 2005-06, playing for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and putting up decent numbers with 21 goals and 58 points.

After a season in Finland’s SM-Liiga, Kent found his niche in Sweden. AIK is his third team in five years and he currently wears the ‘A’ on his jersey. He is under contract by AIK until the end of the 2011-12 season.

For Ontario Hockey League grad Rob Schremp, 2010-11 seemed looked like the year he’d finally crossed the mountain and became a full-fledged National Hockey League regular. However, Schremp has left the NHL and North America behind to play for MODO of Sweden’s Elitserien for the 2011-12 season.

Rob Schremp as a member of the AHL's Springfield Falcons.

Schremp played four season in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his career with the Mississauga IceDogs and won the Emms Family Award as OHL rookie of the year in his first season, playing along side fellow American born player, Patrick O’Sullivan.

In 2003-04, after just three games with the IceDogs in which he average two points per game, Rob was traded to the London Knights. He scored 28 goals and totalled 90 points with London that season. The following year, he increased his point total to 90 on 41 goals and added another 29 points in the playoffs as the Knights won the Robertson Cup and Memorial Cup.

2005-06 was by far Schremp’s most productive in the Ontario Hockey League. His 57 goals, 88 assists and 145 points in just 57 games were all league highs. He won the Eddie Powers Trophy as the league’s top point-getter but was denied the Red Tilson Trophy as MVP which went to Wojtek Wolski of the Brampton Battalion.

In both his final two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, Schremp played for Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. In both years, USA was denied the podium, taking fourth place in both tournaments.

Rob was taken by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 25th overall. In his first pro season, he played just one regular season with the Oilers while spending the rest of his time in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. The following season, he doubled his total of NHL games with two. He was the ninth leading point-getter during the 2007-08 season, contributing 67 for the Springfield Falcons.

2008-09 saw him double his NHL games from the previous season again. He played four games for the Edmonton Oilers, registering his first NHL points with three assists. A trade to the New York Islanders organization in saw him finally play a significant amount of games with 44. He produced 25 points for the Islanders, including seven goals in those 44 games.

This past season, Schremp started out with the Islanders, playing 45 games. He finished the season with the Atlanta Thrashers, playing 18 more games.

Ontario Hockey League European imports are typically limited to players from the Czech Republic and Russia. However, every once in a while, a Swede finds his way to the OHL. Anton Hedman played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2005-06 and 2006-07. In his first year, he played 60 games with the Sudbury Wolves, scoring 18 goals and totaling 34 points. He was the 37th overall pick by the Wolves in the 2005 CHL Import Draft. The following season, he split his time between the Owen Sound Attack and Guelph Storm.

The Stockholm, Sweden native came to the Ontario Hockey League already a prospect of the NHL’s Boston Bruins. Hedman was taken by Boston in the eighth round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 255th overall. Anton played a season in Sweden’s under 20 SuperElit league with Djurgarden before coming to Canada.

Things didn’t pan out in North America and Hedman returned to Sweden for the 2007-08 season. He played three years with various teams in the Allsvenskan (Sweden’s tier 2 professional league) before stepping up to the Elitserien with MODO this past season, 2010-11.

In his first season at the elite level, Hedman played 48 of MODO’s 55 regular season games, scoring five goals and contributed a total of twelve points. The team finished dead last in the twelve team Elitserien and narrowly escaped relegation. MODO is just a few years removed from winning the league championship, having won in 2007.

Many familiar names have played for MODO through the years before their big breaks in the NHL, including: Anders Hedberg, Tomas Gradin, Anders Kallur, Bo Berglund, Lars Lindgren, Tomas Jonsson, Lars Molin, Markus Näslund, Peter Forsberg, Niklas Sundström, Anders Eriksson, Mattias Timander, Per Svartvadet, Hans Jonsson, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Samuel Påhlsson and Mattias Karlin.

Check out Anton Hedman’s profile page at the MODO official website.

After five years of trying to become a full-time fixture in the Edmonton Oilers dressing room, Ontario Hockey League grad Liam Reddox is taking his sticks and skates to Sweden to push his hockey career in a different direction. Reddox has signed with Växjö Lakers of Sweden’s elite league, the Elitserien.

Liam played four games for the Peterborough Petes during the 2002-03 season then was a regular for the next three seasons. In his first full year, 2003-04, Reddox led the Petes in goals (31), assists (33) and points (64). He played for Canada at the IIHF World Under-18 Championships that season and contributed six goals in seven games as Canada finished out of the medal standings.

The following season, Reddox finished second to Jamie Tardif on the team for most goals with 36. His 82 points tied him for the team lead with Daniel Ryder.

In his final season in the Ontario Hockey League, Reddox wore the A for Peterborough as the team captured the Robertson Cup as the OHL’s playoff champion with a victory over the London Knights.

Liam was taken by the Edmonton Oilers in the fourth round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 112th overall. In all, Reddox has played in 100 NHL games with the Oilers since the 2007-08 season. This past season, he played 44 games with the NHL club and 37 with their American Hockey League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons.