OHL Alumni Central

The New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers will face off in the first round of the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs. Appearing in the series will be 12 Ontario Hockey League alumni, 6 from the Devils and 6 from the Flyers. The Devils feature 4 OHL grads that played at least part of their careers with the Kitchener Rangers. The Flyers are represented best by graduates of the Peterborough Petes system with 2.

Here are the 12 OHL grads playing in this series. As always, click on each player’s name to view their profile page on their current team’s official website.

New Jersey Devils

Martin Skoula played two seasons with the Barrie Colts, 1997-98 and 1998-99. A first round pick of the Colorado Avalanche, Martin played 5 seasons with the Avs before moving on to Anaheim, Dallas, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and the Devils. He came over from the Penguins at the trade deadline this season.

David Clarkson began his OHL career in 2001-02 with the Belleville Bulls. In 2002-03, David was traded to the Kitchener Rangers. He was a Ranger until the end of the 2004-05 season when his OHL career came to an end. Clarkson is now in his 4th season with the Devils.

Mark Fraser was a solid, stay at home, defenseman for the Kitchener Rangers in 2004-05 and 2005-06. Mark is in his first full season with the Devils, after appearing in 7 games with the big club in 2006-07.

Patrick Davis played in the OHL from 2003-04 to 2005-06. He played for the Kitchener Rangers until midway through his final season when he was traded to the Windsor Spitfires. Patrick has appeared in 9 regular season games with the Devils over the past two seasons but is on the roster going into the playoffs.

Andrew Peters played in the OHL from 1997-98 to 1999-00. His first two seasons were with the Oshawa Generals and his last was with the Kitchener Rangers. Andrew is in his first season with the Devils after 5 with the Buffalo Sabres.

Jamie Langenbrunner played two seasons with the Peterborough Petes in 1993-94 and 1994-95. Jamie came over from the Dallas Stars during the 2001-02 season and is now the captain of the Devils.

Philadelphia Flyers

Ryan Parent played for the Guelph Storm from 2003-04 to 2006-07. A first round draft pick of the Nashville Predators, Ryan has been in the Flyers organization since graduating from the OHL.

Mike Richards was a Kitchener Ranger from 2001-02 to 2004-05. A first round pick of the Flyers, Mike is in his 5th season with the team and wears the captain’s ‘C’.

Chris Pronger played two seasons with the Peterborough Petes way back in 1991-92 and 1992-93. His NHL career has taken him from Hartford to St. Louis to Edmonton to Anaheim to Philadelphia. This is his first season with the team.

Lukas Krajicek was a Peterborough Pete for three seasons from 2000-01 to 2002-03. Originally a first round pick of the Florida Panthers, Lukas has played in Florida, Vancouver and Tampa Bay before being traded to Philadelphia during the 2009-10 season.

Daniel Carcillo was a tough customer right from the start when he began his OHL career with the Sarnia Sting in 2002-03. He played with the Sting until midway through the 2004-05 season when he was traded midway through the season to the Mississauga IceDogs. 2004-05 was his final season in the OHL. A Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick, Daniel would see his first NHL action with the Phoenix Coyotes before becoming a Flyer during the 2008-09 season.

Jeff Carter played four seasons in the OHL with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds from 2001-02 to 2004-05. A first round pick of the Flyers, Jeff has been a powerhouse for the team from the moment he graduated from the OHL.

Since so much about OHL Alumni Central focuses on Ontario Hockey League grads that are playing minor pro are not necessarily bringing in the big bucks, we thought we’d pass this article on. It’s about what happens when the hockey career ends and how players need to prepare themselves for the inevitable.

Check out the article here.

On February 16, the 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament begins. OHL Alumni Central will update the stats of all OHL graduates throughout the tournament.

Currently, here is the full list of OHL alumni filling roster spots:

Belarus

Sergei Kostitsyn

Canada

Drew Doughty

Chris Pronger

Rick Nash

Corey Perry

Mike Richards

Eric Staal

Joe Thornton

Czech Republic

Josef Vasicek

Finland

Currently no OHL grads on rosters.

Germany

John Tripp

Latvia

Arvids Rekis

Kaspars Daugavins

Herberts Vasiljevs

Norway

Mathis Olimb

Russia

Fedor Tyutin

Slovakia

Peter Budaj

Andrej Sekera

Branko Radivojevic

Sweden

Currently no OHL grads on roster.

Switzerland

Yannick Weber

USA

Dustin Brown

Ryan Callahan

Patrick Kane

Jamie Langenbrunner

Bobby Ryan

Tim Gleason

Olimb playing in Germany for Augsburg of the DEL

Mathis Olimb spent only one season in the OHL, split between the London Knights and Sarnia Sting, missing out on the Knights’ Memorial Cup win.

Onward to the DEL in Germany, Mathis did go. He spent two seasons with Augsburg Panthers before switching Vastra Frolunda HC Goteborg of the Swedish Elite League this season.

Mathis finds himself as the only representative of the OHL on Norway’s Olympic Hockey team that will play at the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. At 5’9″ and 165 lbs., he will surely not even be close to the biggest skater on the ice.

Bolzano is currently in 4th place in the 9 team Italian Serie A1. The city is in northern Italy near the border with Austria. The population is just over 100,000 and German is spoken as much as Italian due to the close proximity to their German speaking neighnours.

There are four graduates of the Ontario Hockey League currently playing for Bolzano. What is different from many other Italian teams is that none of these players are of Italian descent. Often the players that go from Canada to play in Italy are sons or grandsons of Italian immigrants.

The four players are listed below. By clicking on their names, their page on the official Bolzano HC website will open up in a new window. The page is in Italian but is easily understandable as hockey is a universal language. Current stats are updated there.

Shawn Mather, Windsor Spitfires, 1999-00 and 2000-01.

Fraser Clair, Barrie Colts, 1998-99, 2000-01 and 2001-02. Mississauga Ice Dogs, 1998-99 to 2000-01.

Kenny Corupe, Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, 1997-98 to 1999-00. Kenny Corupe, Owen Sound Platers 1999-00.

Ryan Jardine, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 1997-98 to 1999-00.

Italia team location map

Other posts on OHL Alumni Central that might interest you:

Asiago HC of the Italian League

HC Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Republic

Barrie Colts Alumni in Professional Hockey