OHL Alumni Central

Denis Shvidki has finally found a hockey home for the 2010-11 season. The Ontario Hockey League grad will begin play with Krefeld Pinguine of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Shvidki played two seasons in the OHL, 1998-99 and 1999-00, both with the Barrie Colts.

Denis was well over a point per game player in the OHL. In his first season, he amassed 94 points in 61 games and in his second season he improved to 106 games over an equal 61 games. Both seasons, he was second on the Colts in scoring. The first season, he was behind Daniel Tkaczuk and in the second he was behind Sheldon Keefe. The 106 points in his second season was good enough for fourth in the OHL.

In his senior season, the Colts took the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League playoff champions with a four games to three victory over the Plymouth Whalers. The team lost in the 2000 Memorial Cup final to Rimouski.

Two times during his junior career, Shvidki represented Russia on the international stage, each time taking home a medal. In 1999, the Russians won gold by defeating Canada. In 2000, it was Russia’s turn to bow out in the final, taking the silver medal with a loss to the Czech Republic.

Shvidki was taken very high by the Florida Panthers in the 1999 NHL draft, going in the first round, 12th overall. Denis played parts of four seasons with the Panthers after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. In total, he played 76 games, contributing 25 points. In his final season in North America, 2003-04, he led the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage in assists and points with 39 and 54 over 77 games.

During the NHL lock-out year of 2004-05, Denis headed back to Europe and has never looked back. He played four seasons in Russia’s RSL/KHL. This past season, he began the season in Finland’s SM-Liiga with Kärpät but was back in Russia after just four games, this time playing tier 2.

Check out Denis Shvidki’s profile page on the Krefeld Pinguine official website.

We don’t often feature NHLers on OHL Alumni Central, but since yesterday we featured Cory Stillman the Kingston Frontenacs and Barrie Colts grad, we figured today we better feature Cory Stillman the Windsor Spitfires and Peterborough Petes grad.

Today’s Cory Stillman played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1990-91 to 1992-93. His first two seasons were with the Windsor Spitfires and his final season was spent in his hometown with the Peterborough Petes.

With Windsor, he was awarded the Emms Family Award as the Ontario Hockey League’s best first year player. He earned this by contributing 101 points in 64 regular season games and leading the Spitfires in scoring. He added an additional 9 points in 11 playoff games that season.

With the Peterborough Petes, Stillman was part of a Robertson Cup winning team after the Petes beat out the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the OHL final. Ironically, it was the same Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds that beat the Petes in the Memorial Cup final. The Greyhounds gained a berth in the Memorial Cup that season as the host.

This Cory Stillman was drafted by the Calgary Flames in the first round of the 1992 NHL draft, sixth overall. He played parts of seven seasons with the Flames before moving on the St. Louis Blues, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes, Ottawa Senators and finally the Florida Panthers. He has been on two Stanley Cup winning teams: the 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning and the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes.

Cory will be entering his 16th NHL season in 2010-11 with the Panthers. Sitting at 960 NHL regular season games played and 688 regular season points, Cory is assured of reaching the 1000 game and 700 plateau’s this season.

Check out Cory Stillman’s profile page on the Florida Panthers official website.

To view yesterday’s post on the other Cory Stillman, click here.

Kamil Kreps is saying goodbye to sunny Florida and hello to Oulu, Finland. The Brampton Battalion alumnus was not given an offer to stay on board with the Florida Panthers of the NHL so he has signed on with Oulun Karpat.

Kreps played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2003-04, all with Brampton. Kamil was a second round pick of the Panthers in the 2003 NHL draft, 38th overall. He spent 14 games with the Panthers in 2006-07 and has been a regular with the team for the past three seasons. Unfortunately, he wasn’t developing in the manner the Panthers had hoped. One report stated that Kamil just didn’t have the strength to compete physically with NHL calibre players. However, himself and his new team believe that he is a perfect fit for the European game.

Karpat finished 9th in the 14 team SM-Liiga over the 58 game regular season schedule this past season. Oulu is a city of around 140,000 people located on the west coast of Finland.  The team plays out of the Oulun Energia Areena which fits 6,614 for hockey.

Kamil has yet to be profiled on the Oulu Karpat official website but you can visit it here.

For the time being, Kamil Krep’s profile page at the Florida Panthers official website is still available.

Check out these previous posts on OHL alumni playing in Finland:

Gabriel Spilar of the Finland Blues.

Scott Barney of Saipa in Finland.

Kamil Kreps is also featured in this previous post listing Brampton Battalion alumni playing pro hockey.