OHL Alumni Central

The Barrie Flyers took it all in 1952-53, they were first place in league play, won the Robertson Cup over the St. Michael’s Majors and took the Memorial Cup with a victory over the St. Boniface Canadiens. The franchise would also achieve Mem Cup success as the Niagara Falls Flyers but, so far, not as the Sudbury Wolves. One of the major factors in Barrie’s success was the play of centre Don McKenney.

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1954-55 Topps #35 - Don McKenney rookie card.

A little bit of an unsung hero in the hockey world, McKenney is not enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame but does have a pretty impressive list of achievements. He played two seasons with the Flyers, 1951-52 and 1952-53, scoring over 30 goals each season. In the days before the draft, Barrie was sponsored by the NHL’s Boston Bruins. After a year with the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears, McKenney found his way to Boston.

In his first season with the Bruins, McKenney was the runner-up for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year after leading Boston in points with 42 in 69 games. Each season he played with Boston, Don was typically first or second in team scoring. He led the team in 1956-57 and 1958-59.

Overall, he was in the top ten NHL point-getters four times, all between 1956-57 and 1959-60. His only major individual award was the Lady Byng Trophy in 1959-60.

He was an integral part of the 1963-64 Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup victory. A late season pickup from the New York Rangers, McKenney contributed 12 points in 12 games on the way to the Cup. Previously, with Boston, he reached the finals after the Bruins finished fourth in the six team league and upset the Rangers in the first round before losing to the Montreal Canadiens in the finals. That playoff season, McKenney scored nine and added eight assists for 17 points in just 12 games.

McKenney played in the NHL from 1954-55 to 1965-66 with the Bruins, Rangers, Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. He made it back in 1967-68 with 39 games in a St. Louis Blues uniform. He continued to play in the American Hockey League until the end of the 1969-70 season. With the Pittsburgh Hornets in 1966-67, he won another championship in yet another league as the Hornets took the Calder Cup in their final year of existence. His swan song, of sorts, came in 1968-69 with the Providence Reds, putting up 74 points and finishing eighth in AHL scoring.

Don McKenney’s rookie hockey card appears in the 1954-55 Topps series, the first hockey set produced by Topps. Although Gordie Howe’s card is valued at $1800, McKenney’s is the highest valued rookie card at $80, according to Beckett Hockey Monthly.

Don went on to coach several years at Northeastern University in the U.S., last coaching in 1990-91.

The Niagara Falls Flyers were the kings of the castle in the mid 1960′s and Derek Sanderson was their centrepiece. Sanderson played with the Flyers for four years from 1963-64 to 1966-67. The team was sponsored by the Boston Bruins at the time and Derek was a Bruins prospect right from the word go.

Derek Sanderson with the Boston Bruins.

In 1964-65, the Flyers won the Robertson Cup as OHA playoff champions. The team moved on to win the Memorial Cup as Canada’s top major junior team.

In 1965-66, Sanderson showed how multi-faceted he could be. In 48 games with Niagara Falls, Derek scored 33 goals and totalled 76 points. He also found the time to sit out 238 minutes in the penalty box. In his final season in the OHA, Sanderson won the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the league’s top scorer. Derek totalled 101 points in just 47 games and still was able to spend 193 minutes in the sin bin.

In his first year with the Bruins, 1967-68, Derek was the National Hockey League’s top rookie, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy. He played in the NHL from 1967-68 to 1977-78 with the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins. Sanderson was to be the star of the newly formed World Hockey Association in their 1972-73 inaugural season. He played a total of eight games with the Philadelphia Blazers, tallying six points and 69 PIM. He was back with the Bruins before the season was over.

Sanderson was a member of two Stanley Cup winning teams with the 1970 and 1972 Boston Bruins. In 1970-71, he achieved his highest goal total in the NHL with 29. His best season for total points came with the St. Louis Blues in 1975-76 with 67.

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.

Fifteen years after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League, Sean Brown is still a major defensive force in professional hockey. Brown is in his third season with Klagenfurter of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). After missing most of the 2009-10 season, he has come back strong in 2010-11 to help the team to first place in the regular season and a playoff finals berth against Red Bull Salzburg.

Sean Brown on the left in red (#77).

Sean Brown played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96. He played his first two full seasons with the Belleville Bulls and was traded to the Sarnia Sting at the deadline during his final season. In that final season, Brown was selected to the Second All-Star Team.

Sean was a first round pick of the Boston Bruins in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, going 21st overall. Sean eventually did play for the Bruins but after parts of five seasons with the Edmonton Oilers. Along with those teams, Brown also played for the New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks between 1996-97 and 2005-06.

2006-07 marked Brown’s first season in Europe. He played two seasons in Germany’s DEL before moving to Austria for the 2008-09 season. Klagenfurter was the league champion in Sean’s first season with the team.

Check out Sean Brown’s profile page on the EC-KAC official website.

Peter Hamerlik played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. In all three seasons, the netminder played the bulk of Kingston’s games.

In 2002, Hamerlik played for Slovakia at the IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships. The team finished on top of Group A during the preliminary round but were upset by Switzerland in the first game of the playoff round by losing 3-2 in a shootout. Hamerlik previously played for Slovakia’s squad at the Under-18 tournament in 1999 and 2000. In 1999, the team won bronze.

Peter twice entered the NHL Entry Draft. In 2000, before playing a game in the Ontario Hockey League, Hamerlik was taken by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third round, 84th overall. In 2002, he was picked by the Boston Bruins in the fifth round, 153rd overall. Peter hasn’t appeared in the NHL but played for four different teams from the AHL and ECHL in 2003-04, his only full season of North American pro hockey.

Hamerlik returned to Slovakia midway through the 2004-05 season after things failed to work out with the Providence Bruins of the AHL. Since, he has played in Slovakia, Belarus, Russia and the Czech Republic. Peter was on the Slovakia team at the 201o World Hockey Championships, although he didn’t get into any games.

Over the past two seasons, Hamerlik has been the number one goaltender for HC Trinec of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga. Currently, the team has just finished up the regular season in first place and move towards a long playoff run. Peter played 34 of the team’s 52 regular season games and put up great numbers with a 2.33 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.

Check out Peter Hamerlik’s profile page at the HC Trinec official website.