OHL Alumni Central

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.

Still sitting in 10th on the Central Hockey League’s point list for the 2010-11 season, Ontario Hockey League grad Jack Combs has been given a shot with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. In 50 games with the Tulsa Oilers, Combs has 63 points. His 29 goals with Tulsa still have him tied for sixth in the CHL.

Jack Combs played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2004-05 to 2008-09. His first season was played with the Kitchener Rangers and the rest of his OHL career was spent in a Saginaw Spirit jersey. His best season in the OHL was 2007-08 when his 100 points on 42 goals and 58 assists put him tied for seventh in the league. His 100 points hold as a Saginaw Spirit record.

In 2009-10, his first year of professional hockey, Jack played mostly with the Trenton Devils of the ECHL with stops with the Alaska Aces of the ECHL and the Peoria Rivermen of the AHL.

Check out Jack Combs’ profile page at the Chicago Wolves official website.

Check out Jack Combs’ profile page at the Tulsa Oilers official website.

Recently we featured a teammate of Jack’s with the Saginaw Spirit. Check out this previous article on Tomas Zaborsky who is now playing in Finland.

Chris Eade as a member of EC Bad Nauheim in Germany.

Former Ontario Hockey League defenseman Chris Eade was a last minute pickup by the Rapid City Rush at the Central Hockey League’s transaction deadline. Rapid City is in a dogfight with the Colorado Eagles for first place in the Turner Conference of the CHL. Eade should help to bolster the blue line.

Chris Eade played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2002-03. He began his OHL career with the North Bay Centennials and played with the club until five games into the 2001-02 season when he was shipped to the Erie Otters. His destiny was to end up in the United States as staying with North Bay would have meant his final season in the OHL would have been played in Saginaw.

In the 2001-02 season, Eade contributed 40 points in 59 games from the blue line for the Otters. He contributed another 12 in 21 playoff games as Erie knocked off the Barrie Colts in the Robertson Cup finals to become playoff champions of the Ontario Hockey League.

Chris Eade was taken in the fourth round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, 115th overall. Instead of turning pro right away, Eade took the Canadian university route and played four seasons with the Western Mustangs from 2003-04 to 2006-07.

Eade played one full season with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL in 2007-08 before heading to Europe and Germany’s Oberliga. Chris played two seasons, 2008-09 and 2009-10 with EC Bad Nauheim, sharing time with Ontario Hockey League and Western Mustang grads, Ryan Hare and Kyle Piwowarczyk. In his first season with Bad Nauheim, Eade was fifth on the team in points (52) and second in assists (47) in 54 games. He led the team’s defensemen in scoring.

Chris started out the 2010-11 season in Hungary with Ferencváros and had 21 points in 25 games with the team before heading back to North America and the Rapid City Rush.

Check out Chris Eade’s profile page at the Rapid City Rush official website.

Chris Eade also appears in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring OHL grads playing for EC Bad Nauheim.

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After a year and a half off, Ontario Hockey League grad Darryl McArthur is back in action. McArthur signed with the Texas Brahmas of the Central Hockey League on January 6.

McArthur played a game for the Guelph Storm in 1995-96 then played three more full seasons with the Ontario Hockey League club after that. McArthur was a part of the Robertson Cup winning Storm team of 1997-98. Guelph went to the Memorial Cup and lost in the final to the Portland Winter Hawks in overtime, 4-3.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Darryl played the better part of two seasons in the Canadian university system with University of New Brunswick.

For the most part, McArthur has spent his career in the CHL, IHL and UHL. He got into two games with the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros in 2002-03 and played a season in Germany’s Oberliga in 2004-05 with the Leipzig Ice Lions. He played five seasons with the CHL’s Austin Ice Bats before their extinction after the 2007-08 season. Darryl was the last captain of the ill-fated franchise.

Texas currently sits in the middle of the Berry Conference of the CHL. The conference is tight and the Brahmas have four to five games in hand on most of the other teams. Potentially, the team could soon be in second place and gunning for first.

Check out Darryl McArthur’s profile page on the Texas Brahmas official website.

The other day, we featured another member of the 1997-98 Guelph Storm Robertson Cup winning team, Eric Beaudoin.

 We did a post last year on the members of the 1997-98 Guelph Storm team that were still active in pro hockey for the 2009-10 season. Since Darryl took a timeout last season, he was not included in the article.