OHL Alumni Central

In the wee hours of the morning, the Calgary Flames and New York Rangers completed a trade that sent Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust to the Rangers for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik.

Prust played three seasons for his hometown London Knights from 2002-03 to 2004-05. Despite his 5’11″, 195lbs size, Brandon is currently second in the NHL in fighting majors. In his second season with London, he racked up 269 PIM in 64 games but he also put 19 pucks in the net while adding up 52 points. Not as flashy as Corey Perry, David Bolland or Rob Schremp, Brandon was still an integral part of the Knights Memorial Cup victory in 2005.

In Omaha of the AHL, his tough guy status would continue with two seasons of 294 and 211 PIM’s. In 2006-07, Brandon was called up to the Flames for 10 games. In 2007-08, he spent the whole season with Quad Cities of the AHL where his 37 points were overshadowed by his 248 PIM.

2008-09 saw him start the season with Calgary before being traded to the Phoenix Coyotes. Interestingly, he was shipped to Phoenix in a deal that brought Olli Jokinen to Calgary. He was traded back to Calgary in the off-season and has played his role well to this point.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames were involved in a blockbuster trade involving 7 players, one an OHL grad. The trade has Dion Phaneuf, Fredfrik Sjostrom and Keith Aulie heading to Toronto in exchange for Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and Ian White.

Matt Stajan played with the Belleville Bulls from 2000-01 to 2002-03 and has been in the Leafs’ organization since.

His stats, as graciously provided by HockeyDB.com, are as follows: