OHL Alumni Central

I don’t know Kirk Furey, but I can speculate that he heard a great amount from naysayers during the early days of his hockey career. Kirk should be an inspiration to those who don’t want to believe “C’mon, give it up!”, “Your time has passed, stop chasing unrealistic dreams.” or “Time to get a real job and live in reality.” Not too long ago, I heard a coach of a minor bantam team say: “At this point in their lives, we’re teaching them to be good beer league players.” That coach should take a look at Kirk’s career.

Furey played in the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons from 1993-94 to 1995-96, all with the Owen Sound Platers. Over the three seasons, he played a total of 48 games, adding 5 points. He was undrafted by an NHL club. He sat out the two seasons following his exit from the OHL.

In 1998-99, Furey’s hockey career was resurrected in the Canadian university system with Acadia. He played three years on the blueline with the team and upon graduation walked into a job in the East Coast Hockey League.

Kirk played 2001-02 wiht the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies and helped the team to the Northern Conference finals before bowing out.

The hockey world was taking notice and the following season, Furey played 61 games with the Boardwalk Bullies but also played 31 with the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms. Do the math. Kirk played 92 regular season games in 2002-03! He played 17 more in the ECHL playoffs and Atlantic City captured the Kelly Cup as league playoff champions.

In 2003-04, he played just a humanly 80 games but the split was 11 for Atlantic City and 69 with the Phantoms. He contributed 31 points from the blueline in those 69 games and ten in eleven with AC.

Marching to his own beat, he left North America for the European elite leagues at the start of the 2004-05 season. Despite having to compete with striking NHLers for jobs, he settled right in with the Kassel Huskies of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga. He played two more seasons in the DEL with the Iserlohn Roosters then moved to his current home for the 2007-08 season.

Furey is into his fourth season with Klagenfurter AC (EC-KAC) of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. He was a major contributor to the team becoming Austrian Champion in his second season. 14 games into the current season, Kirk is running at a point per game pace. Also, Furey’s going nowhere soon – in a league where contracts typically go year to year, Kirk’s under contract until the end of the 2011-12 season.

Check out Kirk Furey’s profile page on the Klagenfurter official website.

Kirk and close to 600 others are on the OHL Alumni Big List.

Sean Brown played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96. Until midway through his final season, Brown played for the Belleville Bulls. He was traded to the Sarnia Sting to finish off his OHL career.

In 1995, Brown was a first round pick of the Boston Bruins, 21st overall. He did play for the Bruins but not until after being traded back to Boston from the Edmonton Oilers. In all, Sean Brown played 437 games in the National Hockey League with Edmonton, Boston, New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks.

No stranger to the penalty box, the big defenseman sat out 515 minutes in 149 regular season OHL games as well as 122 minutes in 34 OHL playoff games. In the NHL, Brown sat out 909 minutes in the 437 games. In 2007-08, he was the most penalized player in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). He sat 206 minutes in just 53 games for the Nurmberg Ice Tigers. This was a continuation from the season before when in just 3 playoff games with the DEG Metro Stars of the DEL, Brown had 64 minutes in penalties.

The upcoming season will be his fifth in Europe since leaving the NHL. The first two seasons were in the DEL and the past two have been played with Klagenfurter AC (EC-KAC) of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). The team won the Austrian Championship in 2008-09. Sean is signed on for the 2010-11 season with Klagenfurter again.

Check out Sean Brown’s profile page on the Klagenfurter official website.

Andy Chiodo playing in Finland.

Former Toronto St. Michael’s Majors goalie, Andy Chiodo, has joined EC KAC (the KAC

EC KAC logo.

 stands for Klagenfurter Athletiksport-Club) of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga for the 2010-11 season. Chiodo split the 2009-10 season between the AHL’s Binghamton Senators and the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals.

Andy Chiodo played in the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons from 2000-01 to 2002-03, all with the Majors. In 2002-03, Chiodo was honoured as the OHL’s Goaltender of the Year.

Andy had a taste of the NHL in 2003-04 when he played eight games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team that drafted him 199th overall in the 2003 NHL draft.

This will be Chiodo’s second go at the European game. He played in Finland’s SM-Liiga for two seasons, 2006-07 and 2007-08 and he had a season with Dynamo Minsk in 2008-09.

Klagenfurt is located in the south of Austria near the border with Slovenia and has a population of nearly 100,000. The team plays out of the Stadthalle Klagenfurt which seats 5,500 for hockey. EC KAC finished the 2009-10 regular season fifth in the ten team Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL).

Chiodo joins fellow Ontario Hockey League alumni Mike Craig and Sean Brown on EC KAC. 

Check out Andy Chiodo’s profile page on the official EC KAC website.