OHL Alumni Central

Going into this weekend’s action in Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio, Ontario Hockey League alumni held the numbers one and two spots in the scoring race. At nearly the halfway point of the 40 game 2011-12 LIHG season, David Ling and Rob Hennigar are knotted at 34 points apiece. Ling holds a one goal edge in goals but has played one more game than Hennigar. Both are four points ahead of third place. OHL grads Dan Tudin and Adam Henrich also find themselves in the league’s top 20.

David Ling, who will turn 37 in January, is in his first season in Italy, playing with Val Pusteria. Ling played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1992-93 to 1994-95, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. In his final season with Kingston, he scored 61 and assisted on 74 for 135 points. He was the OHL’s top scoring right winger and was named league MVP. He was also named CHL Player of the Year.

David, a seventh round pick of the Quebec Nordiques in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, played a total of 93 games in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets. He was third overall in the AHL in 2004-05, contributing 88 points with the St. John’s Maple Leafs. He started the 2010-11 season with Amur Khabarovsk and ended up back in the AHL with the Providence Bruins.

Rob Hennigar is enjoying his first experience east of the Atlantic. He was a member of the Windsor Spitfires from 2000-01 to 2003-04. Hennigar followed that up with four years with the University of New Brunswick. After spending three years from 2008-09 to 2010-11 mostly in the ECHL, he finds himself with Cortina. Rob may just be the difference that has taken Cortina from last place in the nine team LIHG last season to a tie with two other teams, including Ling’s Val Pusteria, nineteen games into 2011-12.

David Ling played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1992-93 to 1994-95, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Although he had three great seasons with Kingston, Ling is mostly known for his final season in the OHL. After point productions of 63 and 77 in his first two seasons, David exploded for 61 goals and 74 assists for 135 points in 62 games in his final season in the Ontario Hockey League.

That 135 point performance left him just four points behind Marc Savard of the Oshawa Generals for the OHL lead. It should be noted that David played four less regular season games than Savard. The interesting thing about Ling is that he led the Frontenacs in penalty minutes in his first two seasons with a whopping 275 and 254. In his final season, he still put his time in at the sin bin but his 136 PIM obviously signified a major role change.

In 1994-95, Ling was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as Ontario Hockey League MVP, the Jim Mahon Trophy as the highest scoring right winger in the OHL and was also named the Canadian Hockey League’s player of the year.

Ling was drafted deep down in the seventh round of the 1993 NHL entry draft by the Quebec Nordiques. Of course, this was before his outstanding senior year. Despite being tough and feisty, his 5’9″ and 185 lb. (175-197, depending on the source) build maybe didn’t fit into the 1990′s NHL template of 6’4″, 200+ lb. players. Over his professional career to date, David has played just 93 NHL games, mostly with the Columbus Blue Jackets in addition to three games with the Montreal Canadiens.

David spent most of his days of North American hockey in the AHL and the old IHL. He last played in North America in the 2007-08 season with the Toronto Marlies. In 2004-05, with the Marlies’ predecessor in St. John’s, he finished third in league scoring behind Jason Spezza and Mike Cammalleri with 28 goals and 60 assists for 88 points in 80 games. While in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, David wore either the ‘A’ or ‘C’ throughout his days with their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.

In 2005-06, Ling tested the European market and played his first of two seasons in the Russia Super League. In 2008-09, he returned to Europe and split his season between Biel of Switzerland’s National League-A and Jokerit of Finland’s SM-Liiga.

This past season, David played for Amur Khabarovsk of Russia’s KHL. Khabarovsk finished tenth in the twelve team Eastern Conference and out of playoff contention. Ling played 46 of the team’s 56 regular season games, contributing 8 goals and 24 assists for 32 points. He is signed on to play for Amur Khabarovsk for the 2010-11 season.

Check out David Ling’s profile page on the Amur Khabarovsk official website (in Russian).