OHL Alumni Central

The Salzburg Red Bulls of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga are playoff champions for the second year in a row. Salzburg has dominated the EBEL with four championships in the past five years.

This year, they had three Ontario Hockey League grads contributing as the Red Bulls took Klagenfurter to seven games in the final. Klagenfurter finished atop the EBEL during the regular season, followed closely by Salzburg and breezed through the playoffs before meeting up with their nemesis. Salzburg beat Ljubljana easily in the first round but was taken to seven by the Vienna Capitals in the semi-final.

Andre Lakos was born in Vienna, Austria and played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1997-98 and 1998-99. In his first season of OHL hockey, Andre played for the Toront St. Michael’s Majors. In his second, he played for the Barrie Colts. After his season in Barrie, the New Jersey Devils selected him in the third round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, 95th overall.

Lakos played three years in the American Hockey League before returning to Europe. Since, he has played in Sweden, Russian and Austria. At 6’8″ and 238 lbs., Andre was the tallest and heaviest player in the EBEL this season.

Danny Bois played four seasons with the London Knights from 2000-01 to 2003-04. The Colorado Avalanche draft pick played several years in the Ottawa Senators system with their AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators. After the 2009-10 season playing with Chicago’s AHL team, the Rockford IceHogs, it was off to Austria for the 2010-11 season.

As usual with Bois, he provided muscle, earning 136 PIM in 48 regular season games while also providing offense with 29 points.

Martin St. Pierre saw the most of Europe this season. He began in Russia’s KHL, switched to Finland’s SM-Liiga after eight games and finished off the season with Salzburg. St. Pierre played in the Ontario Hockey League the same four years as Danny Bois but with the Guelph Storm. He saw some NHL action through the years with the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators. Like Bois, this was Martin’s first year in Europe.

Kelsey Wilson with EC Salzburg Red Bulls

Kelsey Wilson has the rare ability to be the team enforcer and put pucks in the net on a fairly regular basis, a la Bob Probert or Tiger Williams. In his final season with the Guelph Storm in 2005-06, he led the team with 196 penalty minutes while scoring 38 goals, good for second on the team and accumulating 69 points which was good for third on the Storm. In the playoffs that season, Wilson exploded for 12 goals in 15 games. (BTW – Can you name the last OHLer to have a 100 point / 200 PIM season?)

Kelsey Wilson played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2005-06. He began with the Sarnia Sting and switched to the Guelph Storm midway through his second season in the OHL.

Undrafted, Wilson was picked up as a free agent by the Nashville Predators organization. He played three seasons with Nashville’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, from 2006-07 to 2008-09. Each season, he led the Admirals in penalty minutes with 215, 179 and 160.

Last season, 2009-10, Kelsey went in a different direction and played for EC Salzburg Red Bulls of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. With Salzburg, Kelsey scored 19 goals and added 24 assists for 43 points over 64 combined regular season and playoff games. This point total placed him 38th in the league in total points and the goal total tied him for 27th. His 231 regular season penalty minutes over 52 games was tops in the league. He attained an additional 34 PIM in 12 playoff games.

It says something about Kelsey, playing that physical of a game and still playing 52 of the team’s 54 regular season games. His ability to balance toughness and offensive skill was certainly a big part of Salzburg’s championship season.

This upcoming season, Wilson returns to the Nashville Predators organization and will most likely play back in Milwaukee with the Admirals. There is no doubt he will provide the AHL fans with a ton of excitement, in more ways that one.

Kelsey Wilson has yet to have an updated profile page on the Milwaukee Admirals official website. Check out his profile page at the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga official website.

Kelsey Wilson appears in the following previous posts on OHL Alumni Central:

67 Sarnia Sting Alumni Still Active In Professional Hockey

5 OHL Grads In Austria League Top 40 Scorers For 2009-10

With 913 penalty minutes over his four year Ontario Hockey League career with the London Knights, Danny Bois is the Knights all-time leader by 254 minutes. Next in line is Brad Marsh with 659. Despite the penalty numbers, Bois captained the team in the final three of his four seasons and scored 70 regular season goals over his OHL career.

Originally drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the third round of the 2001 NHL draft, 97th overall, Bois was never signed by Colorado and was eventually picked up as a free agent by the Ottawa Senators. Danny spent five seasons with Ottawa’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Senators. He was able to make it up to the NHL for one regular season game in 2006-07 where he had a minor penalty and a fight.

This past season, 2009-10, Bois became property of the Chicago Blackhawks and had hopes of joining fellow London Knights alumni, David Bolland and Patrick Kane on the big club. That didn’t pan out and Danny spent the season with the Rockford Icehogs of the American Hockey League. In six seasons in the AHL, Bois accumulated 1124 minutes in penalties.

Danny has decided to take a new direction and is heading to Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) to play with EC Salzburg Red Bulls for the 2010-11 season.

Danny Bois does not yet have a profile page on the EC Salzburg Red Bulls official website but the site can be accessed by following this link.

Danny Bois also appears in this previous post listing the London Knights alumni still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 season.

Dan LaCosta played between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons, from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He started his OHL career with the Owen Sound Attack and moved to the Barrie Colts midway through the 2004-05 season. He played in the net for 59 games for the Colts in his final season in the Ontario Hockey League.

In that final season with the Barrie Colts, LaCosta was second, only to Dan Turple of the Kitchener Rangers, amongst Ontario Hockey League goalies in wins and goals against average. The Colts lost out in the Eastern Conference finals to the eventual Robertson Cup winning Peterborough Petes.

LaCosta was taken by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round, 93rd overall, in the 2004 NHL draft. Dan appeared in four games with the Blue Jackets, one in 2007-08 and three in 2008-09. In 2007-08, he appeared in relief playing 13 minutes of shutout hockey while making five saves. In 2008-09, LaCosta had his only NHL shutout while maintaining a 1.54 GAA and a .950 save percentage over the three games.

The rest of LaCosta’s professional career has been mostly played with the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch, the affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has also appeared with the Dayton Bombers and the Elmira Jackals of the East Coast Hockey League.

LaCosta has taken a new direction for the upcoming season and has signed on with EC Salzburg Red Bulls of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. After a somewhat disappointing season with Syracuse during the 2009-10 season when Dan had a 3.96 GAA and a save percentage of .882, LaCosta is looking to turn things around in Europe.

Check out Dan LaCosta’s profile page on the EC Salzburg Red Bulls official website by following this link and clicking on Dan’s name on the right hand column.

Dan Lacosta appears in this previous post listing the Barrie Colts alumni still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 seeason.