OHL Alumni Central

Aaron Power has signed with the Las Vegas Wranglers of the East Coast Hockey League for the 2010-11 season. The Ontario Hockey League grad returns to the team he played for in 2006-07 and 2007-08 before a two year stint in Europe.

Power played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03. His first three years were spent with the Barrie Colts and his final season was played with the Sarnia Sting. Aaron progressively became more of an offensive defenseman throughout his OHL career with 17, 23, 39 and 57 points.

In 2001-02, he helped the Barrie Colts get to the Robertson Cup finals before losing to the Erie Otters for the Ontario Hockey League playoff crown.

With the Las Vegas Wranglers in 2007-08, Power helped the team to a first place finish in the National Conference. The team had a great playoff run and made it to the Kelly Cup finals before losing to Cincinnati.

Over the past two seasons, Aaron has played in Europe. Last season, Power played for HC Fassa of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio (LIHG). The season before, Aaron played in Germany’s Bundesliga with Heilbronner Falken.

Previous to his first go-around with the Las Vegas Wranglers, Aaron spent three seasons with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL as well as AHL call-ups to the Hamilton Bulldogs and Bridgeport Sound Tigers as well as an extended stay with the Cleveland Barons for 50 games in 2005-06.

Michael with Wolfsburg of Germany's DEL.

It’s all in the family this upcoming season in Italy as Adam Henrich joins older

Adam with Wilkes-Barre Scranton of AHL.

 brother Michael on HC Asiago of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio.

Michael Henrich played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Barrie Colts. Henrich led the team in goals in his second season with 41, was second on the team to Daniel Tkaczuk in goals his third season and finished eleventh overall in the Ontario Hockey League for total points in his final season.

In his senior year, the Colts won the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League playoff champion. Michael’s 28 points in 25 games during those playoffs was good enough for team lead.

Michael was drafted in the first round of the 1998 NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers, 13th overall. He spent two full seasons with Edmonton’s American League affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs. It wasn’t until 2004-05, playing in Austria’s Second Tier that Henrich regained his goal scoring touch, netting 42 in just 34 games.

Between 2005-06 and 2007-08, Henrich spent three seasons in Germany playing in the DEL and the Bundesliga. He made the move to Italy for this past season and found great success. His 60 points in 39 regular season games with HC Asiago placed him first on the team. The 60 points placed him sixth in league scoring behind fellow Ontario Hockey League alumni, Luciano Aquino, Daniel Sisca and Dan Tudin. Michael added another 18 points in 15 playoff games for Asiago.

Adam Henrich spent four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2003-04, all with the Brampton Battalion. Although not quite as prolific, Adam shared his brother’s abilities around the net during his OHL career with 33, 31 and 29 goals seasons in his final three.

Adam was also drafted, going in the second round of the 2002 NHL draft to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 60th overall. Henrich has spent time on eight different teams over the past six seasons. Last season alone he appeared in games for four different teams: Springfield Falcons – AHL; Ontario Reign – ECHL, Cincinnati Cyclones – ECHL; Hamburg Freezers – DEL.

Adam has just signed with HC Asiago for the 2010-11 season and should feel quite at home in a league that is packed full of Ontario Hockey League grads.

Check out the article about Adam’s arrival with HC Asiago at the team’s official website. The article is in Italian so use Google Translate to cut and paste the article.

Michal Birner played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. His first season in the OHL was split between the Barrie Colts and the Saginaw Spirit. His final season in the Ontario Hockey League was played exclusively with Saginaw. While with Saginaw, he set the team’s mark for the fastest three goals scored.

Over the 2005-06 season, Birner was second on Saginaw Spirit scoring during the regular season, three points behind team leader Ryan McDonough. However, Michal played eight less games during the season. The missed games were in part due to Birner representing his native Czech Republic at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships (under-20) that were played in Canada. The Czechs left the tournament without a medal.

Birner also represented the Czech Republic on the international stage earlier on in his hockey career when he was on the roster for the 2004 IIHF World Under-18 Championships. Michal contributed five points in seven games as the Czech’s won bronze with a win over Canada in Belarus.

Birner was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round of the 2004 NHL draft, 116th overall. He spent his first full season after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League with the Blues’ AHL farm team, the Peoria Rivermen. The following season, he started with Peoria and ended with the Portland Pirates. In 2008-09, he played two games with the AHL’s Iowa Chops before being demoted to the ECHL. Birner chose not to report and instead signed with Pelicans of Finland’s SM-Liiga.

Michal’s season with Pelicans lasted only six games and he was sidelined for the rest of the season with a broken hand. This past season, he remained in the SM-Liiga but with TPS, a storied team that has been around since 1929 (as a sports club, TPS has been around since 1922). His 45 regular season points with TPS was good enough for third on the team in scoring, only four points from the leader. More importantly, TPS won the league championship.

Birner is signed on with TPS for the upcoming 2010-11 season.

Check out Michal Birner’s profile page on the TPS official website.

Check out this recent post on Michal’s teammate with the Spirit, Patrick Asselin.

Frantisek Bakrlik played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2000-01 and 2001-02. The native of the Czech Republic began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts and during his second season in the Ontario Hockey League was dealt to the Sarnia Sting midway through the season.

Bakrlik represented the Czech Republic at the 2001 World Under-18 championships played in Finland. The Czech Republic was held out of the medals that year, placing fourth. Infamously known during his career in the Ontario Hockey League as the Barrie Colt who was acused of hurling a racial slur at Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds goalie, Ray Emery, during the 2000-01 season.

After junior, Bakrlik went back to the Czech Republic and played a season in the second tier of the Czech Extraliga. He returned to North American for the better part of three seasons to play in the United Hockey League.

Although he has made a few other attempts to catch on in his native country, Poland has become his second home. Frantisek has played three of the past four seasons for Wojas Podhale of the Polska Liga Hokejowa and is signed on for another season with the club. The team plays out of Nowy Targ, Poland.

This past season, 2009-10, he was a major part of the team winning the Polish championship. His 51 points on 21 goals and 30 assists over 40 regular season games placed him tied for first on the team. Bakrlik’s additional 17 points on 9 goals and 8 assists over 14 playoff games placed him first on the team and also in the league. His accumulative 68 points placed him fourth in the league.

The PLH is not the NHL by any means. The 19 team league plays just 40 regular season games. Those games are played in front of an average of 950 spectators each night. Podhale plays out of a 3,500 seat arena that was built almost 60 years ago (1952). Regardless, the important thing is that hockey is being played there.

Check out Frantisek Bakrlik’s profile page on the Wojas Podhale official website.

Andrew Perugini played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2005-06 to 2007-08. His first two seasons were spent with the Barrie Colts and his final season in the OHL was split between the Colts and the Sarnia Sting.

In 2006-07, Barrie finished first in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Conference and Perugini led the way with a 2.83 Goals Against Average and a .917 Save Percentage. The 2.83 GAA was good for fifth in the OHL. The Colts did not live up to expectations in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs, being swept by the sixth seed Sudbury Wolves in the Conference semi-finals. Despite losing one more game than they won in the regular season, Sudbury went on to the Robertson Cup finals before succumbing to the Plymouth Whalers.

For the past two seasons, Perugini has been a member of the Stockton Thunder of the East Coast Hockey League. In both seasons, he finished with a .908 save percentage while maintaining a goals against average below 3.00. This past season, 2009-10, Andrew was called up to the American Hockey League’s Springfield Falcons for four games.

For the upcoming 2010-11 season, Perugini is off to Italy to play for HC Asiago of the Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio (LIHG). Asiago is home to a number of Ontario Hockey League graduates who should help make Andrew feel right at home.

Andrew Perugini has yet to appear on the HC Asiago official website but the site can be found here.

Perugini has appeared in these previous posts at OHL Alumni Central:

Sarnia Sting Alumni

Barrie Colts Alumni

OHL Alumni on Stockton Thunder

The first ever post on OHL Alumni Central was about Ontario Hockey League graduates playing for HC Asiago. Check it out here.