OHL Alumni Central

The Lahden Pelicans of Finland’s SM-Liiga are treading in rare territory. Three quarters of the way through the 2011-12 season, Pelicans find themselves in second place in the fourteen team Finnish elite league. The team has never never won a championship and has really never enjoyed any great playoff success. 2011-12 might just be the year of the Pelicans.

Pelicans are led by an Ontario Hockey League grad and the team has recently picked up two more OHL alumni for the playoff run. Justin Hodgman is tied for tenth in league scoring. Czech natives Jan Platil and Radek Smolenak are recent pickups from other SM-Liiga teams.

Justin Hodgman played four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Erie Otters from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Undrafted, Hodgman spent the past two years bouncing around between the IHL, ECHL and AHL. In 2010-11, Justin played mostly with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL with a few games down in the ECHL with the Reading Royals. This is his first season in Finland.

Jan Platil played for the Barrie Colts for three seasons from 2000-01 to 2002-03. A seventh round pick of the Ottawa Senators at the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, Platil spent three years in Ottawa’s farm system with the AHL’s Binghamton Senators before heading to Europe for the 2006-07 season. Jan has since played in Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Austria. He began the season with Orli Znojmo in Austria’s EBEL before moving to Tappara in the SM-Liiga.

Radek Smolenak played two seasons with the Kingston Frontenacs, 2004-05 and 2005-06. Drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning after his first year in the OHL, Radek excelled in his second season with Kingston, scoring 42 and assisting on another 42 for 84 points in 65 games. Smolenak did get into seven NHL games after turning pro, six with Tampa Bay in 2008-09 and one with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2009-10.

Smolenak has been in Europe for the past two seasons. in 2010-11, he played for his hometown HC Sparta Prague. He began the current season in Finland with Assat.

Tomi Karhunen played one year in the Ontario Hockey League, 2007-08. Karhunen had a great start between the pipes for the Sarnia Sting that season, winning OHL Player of the Week honours in November. Tomi finished the season playing in 39 games with a 3.59 goals against average and two shutouts.

Karhunen was a 35th overall pick of the Sting at the CHL Import Draft in 2007. He continued on at the junior level back in Finland for two seasons following his year in Sarnia.

In 2010-11, Tomi played 13 games for Kärpät Oulu of Finland’s elite SM-Liiga. He also spent some time down in the tier 2 Mestis. Karhunen is under contract with Kärpät until the end of the 2012-13 season. He will go into 2011-12 as the team’s number 2 goalie.

Kärpät finished the 2010-11 season eighth place in the 14 team SM-Liiga and were an early exit from the playoffs. Since being promoted from tier 2 for the 2000-01 season, they have won the SM-Liiga championship four times. In a span of seven years from 2002-03 to 2008-09, Kärpät went to the finals six times.

Kärpät plays out of Oulu, Finland. Their home arena is the Oulun Energia-Areena which seats 6,614.

Check out Tomi Karhunen’s profile page at the Kärpät Oulu official website.

Ontario Hockey League grad Oskar Osala has left North America behind and has signed on to play for Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk of Russia’s KHL for the 2011-12 season.

Osala played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Mississauga IceDogs in 2005-06 and 2006-07. In his final season with the IceDogs, Oskar played for Finland at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. His five goals were tops in the tournament.

Oskar was a fourth round pick of the Washington Capitals in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, 97th overall. After a year in Finland’s SM-Liiga in 2007-08, when he was named rookie of the year, Osala found his way onto the Hershey Bears roster. Oskar was a call-up to the Capitals for two games in the 2008-09 season and helped the Bears to a Calder Cup championship in the AHL.

This past season with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL, Oskar contributed 42 points in 59 games for his most productive sesaon in the AHL to date. Osala helped the Checkers make it to the Eastern Conference finals before being swept by eventual Calder Cup winner, the Binghamton Senators. Ironically, in the first round of the playoffs, the Checkers took out Oskars old team, the Hershey Bears, in six games.

After a two year hiatus in Germany, Ontario Hockey League grad Joey Tenute will return to Finland’s SM-Liiga for the 2011-2012 season. Tenute has signed on with Tappara of the league that he played in for the 2008-09 season.

Joey Tenute with the SM-Liiga's Jokerit in 2008-09.

Joey Tenute played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2003-04. He played his first two seasons with the Barrie Colts and his final two with the Sarnia Sting.

In his second season with the Colts, the team advanced to the Robertson Cup finals before being doused by the Erie Otters. In Tenute’s third season, he led the Sting with 41 goals and 112 points. The 112 points was good for fourth in the league.

Joey was an eighth round pick by the New Jersey Devils in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, 261st overall. He has played one NHL regular season game to date, with the Washington Capitals during the 2005-06 season.

Tenute entered professional hockey with a bang in 2004-05. He was fifth in the ECHL with 75 points and was named the league’s Rookie of the Year playing for the South Carolina Stingrays.

The following season, Tenute moved up to the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears and he helped the team to a Calder Cup championship.

As mentioned, his first season in Europe was 2008-09 with Jokerit in the SM-Liiga. He has played the past two seasons in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the first year with the Frankfurt Lions and this season with the Hamburg Freezers.

Oskar Osala played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2005-06 and 2006-07, both with the Mississauga IceDogs. After his first season, he was taken by the Washington Capitals in the fourth round of the NHL Entry Draft, 97th overall.

During the second season of Osala’s Ontario Hockey League career, he represented Finland at the Under-20 World Junior Hockey Championships. Although the team lost out in the first game of the playoff round, Oskar tied for the tournament lead in goals (5) and was tied for fifth in points with eight, two points off the leader. Osala had previously played for Finland at the Under-18, Under-17 and Under-16 tournaments.

His first year of professional hockey, 2007-08, saw him return to Finland to play for the Espoo Blues of the elite SM-Liiga. Oskar’s 18 goals and 17 assists for 35 points in 53 regular season games earned him the destinction of being the SM-Liiga’s Rookie of the Year. He played another 17 games in the playoffs as the Blues made it to the finals before losing out.

The Capitals were showing great interest in Osala and he returned to North America for the 2008-09 season. He appeared in two games with the NHL club and enjoyed some pretty good success with the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Oskar was second among AHL rookies with 23 goals. He played 22 games in the playoffs as the Bears captured the Calder Cup as the American Hockey League playoff champions.

Midway through the 2009-10 season, Osala was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes system. He played one game with the Hurricanes and finished the season with the AHL Albay River Rats. With a fairly quick exit from the playoffs, Oskar was off to Germany to represent Finland at the World Hockey Championships.

Oskar has been putting up decent numbers with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers this season (54-13-28-40) and is still looking for an extended stay in the National Hockey League.

Check out Oskar Osala’s profile page at the Charlotte Checkers official website.