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.

Alex Penner in black for the Nottingham Panthers.

Over the past week and a half, the Nottingham Panthers of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League have lost an Ontario Hockey League grad and gained another. Alex Penner, or as he was known in England ‘Weapon X’, returned to North America to play for his 2009-10 club, the Colorado Eagles of the Central Hockey League. Daniel Tkaczuk signed on with the Panthers for the rest of this season after playing the first half with EC Dornbirn in Austria’s tier 2.

Penner was on his way to beating the best single season goal production in his professional hockey career with the Panthers. Weapon X has notched four in 30 games. His previous best was five with Colorado last season. In that 30 games, Alex amassed 291 minutes in penalties, which is his highest single season total.

Alex Penner played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. His first season in the OHL consisted of just eleven games with the Guelph Storm. In his second season, he put in 55 games with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Check out this previous post at OHL Alumni Central on Alex Penner.

Daniel Tkaczuk on the left with ERC Ingolstadt during the 2006-07 DEL season.

Daniel Tkaczuk will definitely be an offensive threat with the Panthers. The team currently sits fourth in the ten team league. Between fourth and fifth is the line between the have and have-nots of the EIHL. Nottingham is just six points behind Belfast and Sheffield. The Panthers sit nine points behind the first place Cardiff Devils. There is a twelve point difference between Nottingham and the fifth place Braehead Clan (a first year team).

Tkaczuk played four stellar seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1998-99, all with the Barrie Colts. Daniel was team captain in the final three of the four seasons and went to the world juniors for Team Canada in 1998 and 1999. He was a sixth overall draft pick in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, going to the Calgary Flames. He appeared in 19 games with the Flames in 2000-01.

After six seasons in Europe from 2003-04 to 2008-09, Tkaczuk returned to North America last season and was bounced around from four different teams, inlcuding: Charlotte Checkers (ECHL), Syracuse Crunch (AHL), Rochester Americans (AHL) and Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL). His European tour has taken him to Finland, Italy, Germany, Austria and now England. Check out this previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring Daniel Tkaczuk.

Of course, both players appear on the OHL Alumni Big List.

A few weeks ago, we put up two posts about two different Ontario Hockey League alumni that had played on six different teams during their OHL careers. We thought we’d found another, but it wasn’t so – sort of.

Colt King indeed played on 6 different teams during his OHL career but two of them were technically the same franchise. Colt was a North Bay Centennial that moved along with the team to Saginaw for the 2002-03 season when they became the Spirit.

Colt is currently playing for the Rapid City Rush of the Central Hockey League. Originally drafted by the Colorado Avalanche, his 2 games with the Rochester Americans of the AHL this season constitutes the highest level of hockey he has achieved.

King’s OHL career spanned from 1999-00 to 2003-04. His first two full seasons were played with the Guelph Storm but then the travelling began. He split 2001-02 between Guelph and North Bay. 2002-03 was split between Saginaw and the Oshawa Generals. 2003-04 was split between the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and the Sarnia Sting.

Colt’s best season in professional hockey came in 2008-09 with the Rocky Mountain Rage of the CHL when he put in 68 points on 28 goals and 40 assists in 61 games. He also brought toughness to the Rage that season with 168 minutes in the penalty box.

Visit Colt King’s profile page on the Rapid City Rush’s official website.

Check out Colt’s career stats, provided by HockeyDB.com:

To see the previous posts on 6-team OHL grads, click on Brian McGratton or Sean McMorrow.