OHL Alumni Central

Jon Sim was an original Sarnia Sting, playing in their first season after relocating from Newmarket. Sim was the man when it came to goal scoring until Steve Stamkos came along. Jon played four seasons with the Sting from 1994-95 to 1997-98. His first season consisted of just 25 games after starting the season in the QMJHL with the Laval Titan.

Jon Sim hockey card with the Dallas Stars.

Sim started the 2011-12 season with HC Pardubice of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga. He played 20 games with the club before being loaned to CH Slavia Prague and has now played four games for that club. This is Jon’s first full season in Europe after ending up in Switzerland at the end of the 2010-11 season and playing seven games for Gotteron, plus three in the National League A playoffs.

Jon broke out offensively in his second season with Sarnia. His 56 goals were second in the Ontario Hockey League and his 101 points were good for seventh. The following season, 1996-97, he once again scored 56 goals, this time tying him for first in the OHL with Alyn McCauley of the Ottawa 67′s. His point total dropped to 95 but still tied him for ninth in the league with Matt Cooke of the Windsor Spitfires. In his final season in the OHL, his goal total dropped to 44. He was still in the top ten, tied for fifth with Scott Barney of the Peterborough Petes. His 94 points tied him for eighth in the league.

Sim was drafted after his first 56 goal outburst. The Dallas Stars picked Jon in the third round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, 70th overall. He has played in 469 regular season NHL games with Dallas, the Nashville Predators, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers and New York Islanders. In 1998-99, despite only playing seven games for the Dallas Stars during the regular season, he played in four during the playoffs as the Stars captured the Stanley Cup.

Perhaps, Sim’s best season in pro hockey came in 2004-05. He played ten games with the AHL’s Utah Grizzlies then finished off the season with 63 games for the Philadelphia Phantoms. His combined 37 goals placed him tied for sixth in the American Hockey League. He played 21 playoff games for the Phantoms, contributing 17 points as the team marched on to win the Calder Cup.

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.

Find Don McKenney rookie cards on eBay, right now!

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.

Bryan Helmer wrote his name into more American Hockey League history last week as he made his return to the league with the Oklahoma City Barons. Helmer eclipsed fellow Ontario Hockey League grad John Slaney’s  AHL record for the most career points by a defenseman. Slaney’s mark had stood at 519 points.

Bryan Helmer was not very well known around Ontario Hockey League rinks. Helmer played just six games with the Belleville Bulls during the 1989-90 season. For the most part, his junior hockey career was played with the Wellington Dukes of the OJHL. Yet, at the age of 40, Helmer has put in a very admirable hockey career.

Bryan already owned the all-time AHL mark for most assists and games by a defenseman. Helmer is seventh all-time among all players for total games played. He also owns the AHL record for most playoff games in a career. The past three seasons, he’s captained his club. In 2007-08, it was the San Antonio Rampage. The past two seasons, Helmer was the captain of the Calder Cup champions, the Hershey Bears. The Calder Cup victories with Hershey were his second and third after winning one with the Albany River Rats in 1994-95.

Despite playing at a lower level of junior hockey and not being drafted to a NHL club, Helmer has managed 146 games in the NHL as recent as this past season, 2009-10, with the Washington Capitals. He appeared in 12 games with the Caps. He has also played for the Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks.

After just six games with the Barons after signing on over Christmas, Helmer has ten points. It would seem there’s a lot of life in this quality d-man yet. Bryan should serve as inspiration to all young (and not so young) hockey players. He’s definitely proof that persistance is king.

Check out Bryan Helmer’s profile page at the Oklahoma City Barons official website.

He was in line to be featured as a Sunday OHL Alumni Classic, but Ontario Hockey League grad Andy Delmore’s career is not dead yet. Delmore has signed on with Lørenskog of Norway’s Get Ligaen.

Andy played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1996-97. He began his career with the North Bay Centennials and was fortunate to be part of a Robertson Cup winning team in his rookie season. North Bay won the OHL Championship by taking out the Detroit Junior Red Wings four games to three. The Centennials went winless at the Memorial Cup played in Laval, Quebec that year. The team also won the Hamilton Spectator as OHL regular season champion.

Midway through his second season in the Ontario Hockey League, Delmore was dealt to the Sarnia Sting. Andy spent the rest of his OHL career with Sarnia. In his final season in Sarnia, he put up great offensive numbers from the blueline with 18 goals and 60 assists for 78 points in 63 games.

Undrafted, Delmore perservered and has played 283 NHL games to date with the Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators, Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets. He experienced a long playoff run with the Flyers in 1999-00 as the Flyers took the New Jersey Devils to the seventh game of the Eastern Conference finals. However, it was in the American Hockey League where he found the most success while playing in North America.

In his first season in the AHL, he was a big part of the Philadelphia Phantoms run to the Calder Cup championship. In 2005-06, he won the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL’s Defenseman of the Year with the Syracuse Crunch. That season, he led the AHL’s defensemen in goals (17), assists (55) and points (72). Great numbers but off the AHL’s single season defenseman records set by fellow OHL Alumni, John Slaney.

Delmore’s first taste of European hockey came during the 2004-05 NHL strike season. Andy played for Adler Mannheim in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The team finished a respectable 6th then turned it on in the playoffs to make it to the league final before bowing out. He also spent two more seasons in the DEL, 2007-08 and 2008-09, with the Hamburg Freezers.

This past season, 2009-10, Delmore returned to the AHL and split the season between the Grand Rapids Griffins and the Abbotsford Heat.

Lörenskog does not have a profile of Andy on their official website yet, but the team’s site can be found here.

There are few that have achieved as much as Andre Benoit over their Ontario Hockey League careers. Despite the lack of love the NHL has given Andre, he still manages to be a major factor wherever he plays.

Benoit played in the Ontario Hockey League for five seasons from 2000-01 to 2004-05, all with the Kitchener Rangers. With the Rangers, he won a Robertson Cup and Memorial Cup in 2002-03. Twice he was the highest point-getting Ontario Hockey League defenseman, 2002-03 and 2004-05. Despite his 67 minutes in penalties, he was awarded the William Hanley Trophy as the OHL’s most sportsmanlike player in 2003-04. In his final season, he was honoured with the Leo Lalonde Trophy as the OHL’s overage player of the year.

During his second season, Benoit was selected to represent Canada at the IIHF World Under 18 Championships held in Slovakia. It was a bit of a disaster for Canada as they went 0-5 in the final round. USA won the gold and a young Alex Ovechkin was the tournament’s scoring leader.

Benoit’s Ontario Hockey League career totals were astounding for a defenseman. In 324 regular season games, Andre netted 99 goals and helped on 200 others for 299 total points. He added another 38 points in 45 playoff games. This, of course, made him an OHL all-star in 2004 and 2005.

Yet, Andre was never drafted by an NHL club. He was signed by the Montreal Canadiens organization as a free agent and has spent three seasons with the Canadiens AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs. In his second season with the Bulldogs, Andre led all AHL defenseman in assists during the playoffs as Hamilton won the Calder Cup as AHL playoff champion. This past season, after returning from a two year stint in Europe, Andre once again led all playoff defensemen in assists but his strongly favoured Bulldogs went down in the conference finals to Texas.

In 2007-08, Andre played in Finland’s SM-Liiga with Tappara. He found himself in familiar territory, leading the league’s defensemen in total assists. Tappara finished third in the league that season. Andre was part of Team Canada at the annual Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland. The team, made up of Canadians playing in European leagues, won the Gold medal.

The following season, Benoit shifted over to Sweden and played for Södertälje of the Elitserien, Sweden’s highest league.

Andre has become property of the Ottawa Senators for the 2010-11 season and will most likely start with their AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.

Check out Andre Benoit’s profile page on the AHL official website.

Andre is also featured in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central detailing the players from Kitchener’s 2002-03 Memorial Cup winning season that are still active in professional hockey today.