OHL Alumni Central

After two years in Italy, Ontario Hockey League grad Gerome Giudice returns to North America for the 2011-12 season.  Giudice will start the season with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League. As per Tulsa Oilers coach Bruce Ramsay, Gerome is ‘the type of player you go to war with’.

Giudice (in blue) with OHL grad Marco Insam (in white).

Gerome played four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Sudbury Wolves from 2005-06 to 2008-09. In his final two seasons with the Wolves, Giudice was team captain. More a provider of grit and leadership, he topped out offensively in 2007-08 with 15 goals and 44 points. After Sudbury failed to qualify for the Robertson Cup playoffs in 2008-09, Gerome finished out the year with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the IHL.

For the past two seasons, Giudice has played for HC Fassa of the Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio. The Fassa region, located in the Alps of Northern Italy, has to be a hard place to leave. The team plays out of the nearly 2,000 seat HSC Fassa Levoni in the town of Canazei. The finished seventh overall in 2010-11 and made a quick exit from the playoffs. HC Fassa has reloaded with a new crop of Ontario Hockey League grads for the 2011-12 season – stay tuned to OHL Alumni Central in the coming days to find out more.

Gerome should provide leadership and skill to a Tulsa team that has qualified for the playoffs just twice in the past ten years. This past year, they finished third in the Berry Conference and lost in the Conference Semi-Finals. The team is an affiliate of the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.

Read more about what coach Bruce Ramsay has to say about Gerome in this article from the Tulsa Oilers official website.

Ontario Hockey League grad Joe Grimaldi is currently at camp with the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League. If the Falcons don’t take the tough defenseman, he has a roster spot locked up with the Rapid City Rush of the Central Hockey League.

Grimaldi played two seasons with the Ottawa 67′s of the Ontario Hockey League, 2005-06 and 1006-07. The American born player started the 2005-06 season with the University of Nebraska – Omaha before heading Northeast to Ottawa to finish off the season.

Professional hockey has come with a well-used suitcase for Joe. In four years, Grimaldi has dressed for nine different teams in three leagues. Springfield and Rapid City are two teams he has yet to play for. Joe’s portfolio of teams is as follows:

• Elmira Jackals – ECHL
• Rochester Americans – AHL
• Peoria Rivermen – AHL
• Albany River Rats – AHL
• Fresno Falcons – ECHL
• Gwinnett Gladiators – ECHL
• Cincinnati Cyclones – ECHL
• Evansville Icemen – CHL
• Colorado Eagles – CHL

This past season, 2010-11, Grimaldi played 45 regular seasons games for the Eagles after coming over from Evansville. He sat 171 minutes in penalties and formed a pretty deadly duo with Alex ‘Weapon X’ Penner. Through 21 playoff games, Joe sat another 83 minutes.

Colorado finished the regular season tied for first with Rapid City in the Turner Conference. The Eagles made it to the finals before losing to Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.

Ontario Hockey League grad David Pszenyczny helped the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs to their first ever Ray Miron President’s Trophy in the Central Hockey League in 2010-11. The Mudbugs reached the finals in 2003-04 and 2005-06, losing both times to the Laredo Bucks. After winning the championship, the team celebrated by folding.

Pszenyczny was picked up by the Missouri Mavericks of the CHL in July. The Mavericks have four other Ontario Hockey League alumni on the roster for the 2011-12 season, including Brad Good (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 03-04 to 06-07), Matt Dias (Sudbury Wolves 05-06 to 08-09), John-Scott Dickson (Windsor Spitfires 00-01 to 04-05) and Nathan O’Nabigon (Plymouth, Mississauga, Kitchener 00-01 to 03-04).

David played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2005-06. His first season consisted of just five games with the Sarnia Sting after starting the season in the NAHL. Early in his fourth season with Sarnia, he was shipped to the Mississauga IceDogs along with John Hecimovic and Daniel Carcillo for Chad Painchaud, Brad Efthimiou and Chris Chimienti.

Pszenyczny’s final season in the OHL saw him moved to the Barrie Colts midway through the season as the club beefed up for the Robertson Cup playoff run. David contributed 14 points in 14 games from the point in the playoffs as Barrie came up short against eventual Robertson Cup winner, Peterborough Petes.

David was with Bossier-Shreveport for three seasons. In his first two, he made his goals count. Seven of his eighteen goals during 2008-09 and 2009-10 were game winners.

The Missouri Mavericks are primed to do what the Mudbugs did in 2010-11. The team is coming off a fourth place finish in the Turner Conference with just four points seperating the Mavericks and the first place Rapid City Rush.

After a great season in the Central Hockey League with the Quad City Mallards, Ontario Hockey League grad Mike McLean is off to Great Britain to play in the EIHL with the Coventry Blaze.

Mike McLean with the ECHL's Dayton Bombers in 2008-09.

Mike McLean played in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2006-07. His first year consisted of just two games with his hometown Oshawa Generals. His second season started with the Generals and saw him end up with the Guelph Storm after eleven games. McLean was a mainstay with the Storm until the end of the 2006-07 season.

Undrafted by an NHL club, McLean has spent the past four seasons playing for eight different clubs in three different leagues. He was a point per game man with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL in 2008-09 with 46 points in 47 games. This past season, Mike was tied for the points lead on the Quad City Mallards of the Central Hockey League with 51 in 55 games. The player he was tied with played eleven more games. McLean played in the CHL All-Star game in 2010-11. The Mallards finished seventh out of nine teams in the Turner Conference and made a quick exit from the first round of the playoffs.

McLean’s arrival in Coventry is highly anticipated. The Blaze finished sixth in the ten team Elite Ice Hockey League this past season and lost to the Belfast Giants in the first round of the playoffs. The team plays out of the Skydome Arena in Coventry which seats just 3,000 for hockey. Since 2002-03, the Coventry Blaze have been regular season champions five times and have been playoff champs twice.

The Allen Americans finished first atop the Central Hockey League during the 2010-11 regular season. In the first round of the CHL’s Ray Miron Presidents Cup playoffs, Allen steamrolled the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees. Allen took out the Bees in three games in the best of five series.

With the addition of two players that were members of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for the 2010-11 season, the total of OHL grads on the Americans roster has climbed to seven. Click on the names in blue to view previous articles on those players.

Jonathan Zion – Zion played played five seasons with the Ottawa 67′s from 1997-98 to 2001-02. Jonathan split this season between the Nottingham Panthers of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League and the Americans.

Tobias Whelan – Tobias played four seasons with the Oshawa Generals from 2000-01 to 2003-04.

Dylan King – Dylan is one of two players up from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds after their OHL playoff hopes were dashed. King has played four seasons with the Greyhounds, starting in 2007-08.

Justin DaCosta – Justin played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2005-06. DaCosta suited up for the Barrie Colts, Owen Sound Attack and Mississauga IceDogs over that period.

Kip Brennan – Kip played in the OHL for five seasons from 1996-97 to 2000-01. Brennan started out his OHL career with the Windsor Spitfires and ended with the Sudbury Wolves.

Carson Dubchak – Carson is the other player brought up from the 2010-11 Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Dubchak has played in the Ontario Hockey League with the Greyhounds since 2008-09.

Chris Whitley – Chris played in one OHL game during the 2000-01 season with the Oshawa Generals.