OHL Alumni Central

The Plymouth Whalers franchise dates back to the 1990-91 Ontario Hockey League season. The began as the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors, transforming to the Junior Red Wings before becoming the Whalers. The team really is ‘America’s Team’ in the OHL, having gone to the Robertson Cup finals three times since 2000 and winning once. The Whalers went to the 2007 Memorial Cup, losing to the host Vancouver Giants in the semi-finals. The Giants went on to be crowned Memorial Cup champions.

Currently, there are 77 Plymouth Whalers alumni known to us to be still actively playing in the hockey world. There are former Whalers in 23 different leagues in 14 countries throughout the world. Fourteen Plymouth grads are currently playing in the National Hockey League, including Tyler Seguin of the Boston Bruins, Stephen Weiss of the Florida Panthers, David Legwand of the Nashville Predators and Michal Neuvirth of the Washington Capitals.

What follows is a list, current to December 21, 2011. Any player that has played at least one game with the Whalers, Junior Red Wings or Ambassadors is considered an alumnus.

Only three times since their inaugural Ontario Hockey League season in 1981-82 have the Belleville Bulls finished out of the Robertson Cup playoffs. One of those three was their first year in the league. This is a club that consistently produces competitive teams and professional hockey players. The team is off to a playoff bound start in 2011-12, playing just over .500 hockey.

82 players that have played at least one game with the Belleville Bulls are currently still actively playing in the hockey world. This number includes those playing in the Canadian university system. This number does not include a handful of players that will be most likely find their way onto a roster before the season is to old.

Belleville Bulls are playing in eleven different countries throughout the world: U.S.A., Canada, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Great Britain (England and Scotland), Russia, Italy, Slovakia and Sweden. These grads can be found in 20 different leagues with 13 playing the top level (NHL). The 20 players on Canadian university teams says so much about the CHL’s scholarship program.

Richard Park started with the Bulls in 1992 and played through 1996. He is currently playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League. I believe he is the oldest active Belleville Bull actively playing pro.

The Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League have had a string of five sub .500 seasons since winning the Robertson Cup in 2005-06. Since 2005-06, the team has won just one playoff game, a lone victory in a their first round loss to the Belleville Bulls in 2007-08. This past season, the Petes won just 20 games and totalled 43 points while missing the post season. With the cyclical nature of the OHL, there are fairly good odds that Peterborough will climb the standings in 2011-12.

In 2010-11, there were 73 players that had played at least one game with the Peterborough Petes still actively playing hockey, either professionally or in the Canadian university system. The Peterborough Alumni appeared in 20 different leagues around the world in 12 different countries. An outstanding 16 players were in the National Hockey League. 14 players were in the CIS, taking advantage of the Ontario Hockey League’s amazing scholarship program.

The following list captures what we believe to be all the Peterborough Petes grads playing at a competitive level in 2010-11. The team and league give are for the last team the player played with during the 2010-11 season. Below the list is a glossary of league acronyms. If you know of someone that is missing, please let us know in the comments below!

AHL – American Hockey League (USA, Canada)

AIHL – Australian Ice Hockey League

SM-Liiga – Finland Elite League

CIS – Canadian University

NHL – National Hockey League (USA, Canada)

EIHL – Elite Ice Hockey League (England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland)

LIHG – Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio (Italy)

SPHL – Southern Professional Hockey League (USA)

CHL – Central Hockey League (USA)

2. Bundesliga – German Tier 2 (Germany)

Swiss-A – National League A (Switzerland)

ECHL – East Coast Hockey League (USA, Canada)

DEL – Deutsche Eishockey Liga (Germany)

KHL – Kontinental Hockey League (Russia)

VHL – Russian Tier 2

Czech Extraliga – Czech Republic Tier 1

SWE Div 1 – Sweden Division 1 (Tier 2 to Elitserien)

WOAA – Western Ontario Athletic Association

EBEL – Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary)

ALH – Asia League Hockey (Japan, China, Korea)

This week’s edition of SSSFS is dedicated to shameless self-promotion. I’m going to link you up with some of the hockey related articles I have at online zines. They’re not all based on the Ontario Hockey League but they are about hockey. Some may even be interesting!

1976-77 Montreal Canadiens: The Best NHL Team Of All-Time?

We’re calling this the ‘Early Bird’ version of the OHL Alumni in Europe for 2010-11 E-book. It’s a list of the OHL Alumni in a handy profile format that have committed and signed on with elite teams in Europe for the 2010-11 season.

The download is in PDF and is completely free to use and distribute.

Stay tuned in September for a much more complete version as more and more players figure out where they’ll play in the upcoming season. Also, a North American version is also on the way.

Just click the button below to download.