OHL Alumni Central

Ontario Hockey League grad David Kuchejda will return for his fifth season with HC Ceske Budejovice in 2011-12. HC Ceske Budejovice finished the 2010-11 season sixth place in the 14 team Czech Republic Extraliga. The team made a quick exit from the playoffs, losing in the quarter-finals.

Kuchejda came to the Ontario Hockey League already a prospect of the Chicago Blackhawks. David was taken by Chicago in the seventh round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 202nd overall. He made his first appearance in the OHL in 2005-06 after being a 13th overall pick by Sault Ste. Marie in the 2005 CHL Import Draft.

Kuchejda played two seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 2005-06 and 2006-07. In his rookie season, he scored 19 and totalled 40 points in a year when the Greyhounds were the third lowest scoring team in the OHL. The following season, playing just 59 games, he scored 25 and added 28 assists in the Greyhounds first season in their new arena, the Steelback Centre.

David played for the Czech Republic at the 2007 IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships, held in Leksand, Sweden. The team went 2-2 in the round robin and made a quick exit from the playoffs with a loss to Sweden in the Quarter-Finals. Kuchejda played in all the team’s games but didn’t register a point.

Kuchejda immediately returned to the Czech Republic upon graduation from the Ontario Hockey League. He has played with HC Ceske Budejovice (Mountfield) since, with some trips down to the tier 2 league. The team plays out of Budvar Arena which holds 6,421 for hockey. The team was founded in 1928 but has won only one league championship, all the way back in 1951.

Although in Czech, you can check out David Kuchejda’s profile page at the HC Ceske Budejovice official website.

Three other Ontario Hockey League grads are playing on HC Ceske Budejovice:

Dustin Wood

Michael Kolarz

Jakub Kovar

Igor Radulov played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League. As a rookie with the Mississauga IceDogs in 2001-02, Radulov put in 33 goals and added 30 assists for 63 points in 62 games. Igor was second to Patrick O’Sullivan on the team in every offensive category.

Before he came to the Ontario Hockey League, Radulov was drafted into the National Hockey League. Igor went in the third round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 74th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks. Radulov got into seven games with Chicago in his first year of professional hockey and 36 in 2003-04 while splitting time with the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League.

Then came the lockout season… Radulov left for Russia in 2004-05 when there was no NHL hockey to be played. He has been in the RSL/KHL since. After starting the season with Severstal Cherepovets, his sixth team in Russia since 2004-05, he has moved to Vityaz Chekhov, a team he played parts of three seasons with from 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Vityaz sits in last place in the KHL’s West Conference and third from the bottom overall. Just recently, we featured a former member of Vityaz Chekhov, Nathan Perrott.

Check out Igor Radulov’s profile page on the KHL official website.

Hockey fans know Darren Pang as the hockey analyst from TSN. Pang was destined for a possible long and successful NHL career before it all came to an end with a devastating knee injury during the 1990 NHL pre-season.

Pang played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1981-82 to 1983-84. He began his career in Belleville, it was the inaugural season for the Bulls. During his second season, he was traded to the Ottawa 67′s, where he finished out his OHL career.

His final season in Ottawa earned him several accolades. He was awarded the Dave Pinkney Trophy (which he shared with Scott Coram) and was selected First Team OHL All-Star. The 67′s beat out the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL playoff finals to win the Robertson Cup. Ottawa then went on to win the Memorial Cup with another victory over the Kitchener Rangers, who were the host team. Pang was the Memorial Cup all-star goalie and won the Hap Emms Memorial Trophy as the Memorial Cup tournament’s top goaltender.

Darren wasn’t drafted to an NHL club but after starring in the IHL for a few years after leaving the Ontario Hockey League, he picked up a job with the Chicago Blackhawks and spent 1987-88 and 1988-89 with the NHL team, playing a good portion of the games. In his first season, he was selected to the NHL’s All-Rookie team.

(The tongue twister title was completely unintentional!)

Michael Jacobsen with Alleghe of Italy's Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio.

The Belfast Giants of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League added another piece of the puzzle this week to ensure their continued dominance of the EIHL and provide a great chance at repeating as EIHL playoff champion. The team came to terms with defenseman and Ontario Hockey League grad, Michael Jacobsen.

Michael Jacobsen played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 2001-02. In his first four seasons in the OHL, he called Yardmen Arena home as a member of the Belleville Bulls. In his final season, he started out with the Sudbury Wolves but after just five games was transferred to the Owen Sound Attack where he finished out his OHL career.

Jacobsen knows what it takes to be a champion. He was a big part of Belleville’s 1998-99 Robertson Cup winning team as the Ontario Hockey League’s playoff champion. In his final season with powerhouse Lakehead University in 2005-06, the team was OUA champions. This past season with the Belfast Giants, the team took the EIHL playoff crown.

Michael was picked by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL draft, 134th overall. His North American professional career totals consist of three games with the ECHL’s Pensacola Ice Pilots and three games with the UHL’s Missouri River Otters, all at the tail end of the 2001-02 season.

He spent three seasons with Lakehead in the Canadian university system. Along with winning the Ontario championship in 2005-06, Jacobsen was named to the OUA first team all-star squad for the 2003-04 season.

In the three seasons between Lakehead and Belfast, Michael played in Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio for Alleghe.

Belfast is looking to Jacobsen to once again quarterback their powerplay. Last season, Michael scored 12 of his 14 goals with the man-advantage, good for second on the team.

Vote for Michael Jacobsen at the Belleville Bulls official website. As part of their 30th anniversary celebration, they’ve opened it up to the fans to choose the all-time Bulls team.

Jacobsen is also featured in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central which lists the members of the 1998-99 Bulls Robertson Cup winning team that were still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 season. Among those players is Branko Radivojevic who was featured just yesterday at OHL Alumni Central – click here to read the post.

Michael, Branko and all the other Belleville Bulls grads still active in professional hockey can be found on the OHL Alumni Big List.

Radek Smolenak played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. Smolenak played both seasons with the Kingston Frontenacs. From the start, Radek provided the Frontenacs with plenty of goal-scoring. In his first season, he put in 32 goals and in his second with Kingston, he increased the goal total by ten to 42.

Smolenak’s 42 goals in 2005-06 was best on the Frontenacs. His 84 total points placed him third on the team behind Cory Emmerton (90) and Chris Stewart (87). Kingston placed second in the Ontario Hockey League’s East Division that season and were the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, Kingston fell in the first round of the playoffs to the Sudbury Wolves in six games.

Radek was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third round of the 2005 NHL draft, 73rd overall. In his four years of professional hockey since graduating from the Ontario Hockey League, Smolenak has appeared in seven NHL regular season games, six with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008-09 and one with the Chicago Blackhawks this past season, 2009-10. The majority of the four seasons was spent with the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL.

The Prague, Czech Republic born winger has decided to return to his home country for 2010-11 and play for HC Sparta Praha (Prague) of the Czech Extraliga. Smolenak last represented his country at the 2004 IIHF World Junior Under-18 tournament and helped the Czech’s go home with a bronze medal. Last season, HC Sparta Praha finished fifth in the 14 team Extraliga with 87 points over the 52 game regular season schedule.

Radek joins two fellow Ontario Hockey League grads on HC Sparta Praha. Jakub Koreis played for the Guelph Storm and Lukas Bolf played for the Barrie Colts.

Check out Radek Smolenak’s profile page at the HC Sparta Praha official website.