OHL Alumni Central

Mike Duco played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08, although he played just five games in 2003-04. Duco played his entire OHL career with the Kitchener Rangers and ended his time in junior with a Robertson Cup as OHL playoff champions and a trip to the Memorial Cup.

The 2007-08 Kitchener Rangers hosted the 2008 Memorial Cup and made it to the final game. Unfortunately, the Spokane Chiefs won the final, 4-1. The tournament capped a fine season for Mike, scoring 32 goals during the regular season and totalling 22 points in 20 playoff games.

Duco went undrafted by an NHL club but signed with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League. Despite a ten game stint with the NHL’s Florida Panthers in 2009-10 and two games in 2010-11, Mike has spent all his pro career with Rochester.

2011-12 will bring a change in scenery for Duco. Mike has become property of the Vancouver Canucks and will most likely play the upcoming season with their brand new AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Prior to the upcoming season, the Manitoba Moose had been the AHL affiliate for the Canucks but with the rebirth of NHL hockey in Winnipeg, things have changed.

A few days ago, we featured a graduate of the North Bay Centennials, Vitaly Yachmenev. Vitaly’s younger brother, Denis, is also a graduate of the Ontario Hockey League and the same team as his older brother.

Denis played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2001-02 and 2002-03. He was the 26th pick in the 2001 CHL import draft. His first season was with the Centennials. He moved with the team for his second season and played with the Saginaw Spirit. Although Denis didn’t put up the amazing numbers his brother did in the OHL, he did score 17 goals in each season on weak Centennials/Spirit teams.

After his first season, Yachmenev was taken in the seventh round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, 200th overall. Denis has never played professional hockey in North America. Instead, he chose to return immediately to Russia after his two year stint in the Ontario Hockey League.

Although he has played parts of three seasons in the RSL/KHL in Russia, for the most part, Yachmenev has played in the country’s tier 2 professional league, now called the VHL. For the 2010-11 season, Denis played for HK Rubin, averaging about a point ever second game.

It’s only available in Russian but check out Denis Yachmenev’s profile page on the HK Rubin official website.

Check out the recent post on Vitaly Yachmenev at OHL Alumni Central.

Chris Eade as a member of EC Bad Nauheim in Germany.

Former Ontario Hockey League defenseman Chris Eade was a last minute pickup by the Rapid City Rush at the Central Hockey League’s transaction deadline. Rapid City is in a dogfight with the Colorado Eagles for first place in the Turner Conference of the CHL. Eade should help to bolster the blue line.

Chris Eade played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2002-03. He began his OHL career with the North Bay Centennials and played with the club until five games into the 2001-02 season when he was shipped to the Erie Otters. His destiny was to end up in the United States as staying with North Bay would have meant his final season in the OHL would have been played in Saginaw.

In the 2001-02 season, Eade contributed 40 points in 59 games from the blue line for the Otters. He contributed another 12 in 21 playoff games as Erie knocked off the Barrie Colts in the Robertson Cup finals to become playoff champions of the Ontario Hockey League.

Chris Eade was taken in the fourth round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, 115th overall. Instead of turning pro right away, Eade took the Canadian university route and played four seasons with the Western Mustangs from 2003-04 to 2006-07.

Eade played one full season with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL in 2007-08 before heading to Europe and Germany’s Oberliga. Chris played two seasons, 2008-09 and 2009-10 with EC Bad Nauheim, sharing time with Ontario Hockey League and Western Mustang grads, Ryan Hare and Kyle Piwowarczyk. In his first season with Bad Nauheim, Eade was fifth on the team in points (52) and second in assists (47) in 54 games. He led the team’s defensemen in scoring.

Chris started out the 2010-11 season in Hungary with Ferencváros and had 21 points in 25 games with the team before heading back to North America and the Rapid City Rush.

Check out Chris Eade’s profile page at the Rapid City Rush official website.

Chris Eade also appears in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring OHL grads playing for EC Bad Nauheim.

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Updated June 10, 2011: Eric Beaudoin has resigned with Biel for the 2011-12 season.

Eric Beaudoin played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 1999-00, all with the Guelph Storm. In his first season, the Storm won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the league’s regular season champion and the Robertson Cup as the OHL’s playoff champion with a series win over the Ottawa 67′s.

Check out Vintage Hockey Cards Report!

Eric provided the Storm steady offense with 71 and 72 points in his final two seasons. His final season saw him notch 38 goals which was the most on the team.

Beaudoin was a fourth round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 92nd overall. However, it was with cross-state Florida Panthers where Eric played all his 53 NHL games.

For the 2005-06 season, Beaudoin left for Europe. During that season, he played for the Newcastle Vipers of Great Britain’s EIHL, two teams in Finland’s SM-Liiga and finally ended up with Mora of Sweden’s Elitserien. He spent the following two seasons with Mora before switching to Linköping for 2008-09 and Rögle in 2009-10. He wore the ‘C’ for Rögle and produced his highest point total since coming to Europe with 34 points.

Left without a home for the first half of this season, Beaudoin was finally picked up by Biel of Switzerland’s National League A this past week.

Eric Beaudoin’s profile can be found at Biel’s official website roster page.

Eric Beaudoin is among the over 700 Ontario Hockey League grads on the OHL Alumni Big List.

In 2008, he was one of PETA’s 16 finalists for the Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door contest. At 6’3″ and 245 lbs., Kingston Frontenacs grad Chris Allen is not exactly the image people think of when the word vegetarian is brought up and he is proof that meat is not a necessary part of a professional athlete’s diet.

Chris played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1994-95 to 1997-98, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. In his second season, he competed in the first ever CHL Top Prospects Game and scored the first goal (assisted by Daniel Briere) in what has become an annual tradition. In his final season with the Frontenacs, Allen was both a CHL and OHL First Team All-Star. His 38 goals and 94 points led the league’s defensemen and he was awarded the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL’s top defenseman.

Allen was drafted by the Florida Panthers in the third round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, 60th overall. He played one game for the Florida Panthers in 1997-98 and 1998-99. The rest of his time in North America was spent bouncing around teams in the AHL, ECHL and UHL.

Chris has put his passport to good use since 2004-05. He has played in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Korea, England and now Italy. After starting the season with Telford of Great Britain’s EIHL, he switched to Peterborough in the same league. He has now signed on with Merano of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio Serie 2.

Chris Allen’s profile with Merano can be viewed by clicking his name on their roster page.

Check out this article on Chris Allen at the Animal Liberation Front website.