OHL Alumni Central

Torhüters, of course, being goaltenders…

Four of the top 13 goaltenders for the 2009-10 season in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) were graduates of the Ontario Hockey League. Three of the four are signed on with their 2009-10 teams for the 2010-11 season. The rankings are based on goals against average.

Number three in the league was Travis Scott. Travis played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96, all with the Windsor Spitfires. His 2.49 GAA in 29 regular season games helped the Hannover Scorpions to the league playoff finals.

Rob Zepp played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2000-01, all with the Plymouth Whalers. Zepp was fifth in the DEL with a 2.62 GAA with Eisbaren Berlin over 50 regular season games. Zepp’s five shutouts were tops in the league.

Fred Brathwaite finished ninth in the league with a 2.90 GAA over 47 games with Adler Mannheim. Brathwaite played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1989-90 to 1992-93. Fred played for the Oshawa Generals, London Knights and Detroit Junior Red Wings.

Levente Szuper finished 13th as Travis Scott’s partner with the Hannover Scorpions. His final GAA was 3.08 over 22 regular season games. Szuper played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1998-99 and 1999-00, both with the Ottawa 67′s. Levente is the only one of the four goaltenders not signed on with their 2009-10 club. In fact, as of this date, Szuper is not signed by any club.

Check out Travis Scott’s profile page at the Hannover Scorpions official website.

Check out Rob Zepp’s profile page at the Eisbaren Berlin official website.

Check out Fred Brathwaite’s profile page at the Adler Mannheim official website.

Scott Travis appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central.

Fred Brathwaite appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central.

Rob Zepp appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central.

Levente Szuper (and Travis Scott) appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central.

Fred Brathwaite played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1989-90 to 1992-93. He began his OHL career with the Oshawa Generals and played there until the midway point of the 1991-92 season when he shifted to the London Knights. His final season was played with the Detroit Junior Red Wings.

Fred was undrafted but went on to a nine year NHL career. The pinnacle of Brathwaite’s NHL career was 1999-00 and 2000-01 when he was the primary goalie with the Calgary Flames playing 61 and 49 regular season games. Throughout his NHL days, Fred also played for the Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

During the 2004-05 NHL strike season, Brathwaite ventured out into the European hockey scene and played with Kazan Ak-Bars of the Russian Super League. He returned the following season and Ak-Bars won the RSL championship.

Fred made an attempt at a return to the North American game, playing for the Chicago Wolves of the AHL for the 2006-07 season and part of the 2007-08 season. The Wolves are the AHL affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers but Fred didn’t get a call-up to the NHL club.

Since 2008-09, Brathwaite has been a member of Adler Mannheim of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). In his first season with the club, Fred was named the DEL Player Of The Year. The numbers that season included six shutouts, a goals against average of 2.37 and a save percentage of .925 in 49 regular season games.

Brathwaite returned to Adler Mannheim for the 2010-11 season. This will be his 18th season in professional hockey and his 21st since winning the Robertson Cup and Memorial Cup with the Oshawa Generals in his first season of Ontario Hockey League play.

Check out Fred Brathwaite’s profile page on the Adler Mannheim official website.

Twenty seasons ago, in 1989-90, the Oshawa Generals took the Memorial Cup against the Kitchener Rangers at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. It was historical in that the host of the Memorial Cup tournament up to and including that season had been decided at the start of the season. The Hamilton Dukes had such an incredibly dismal season with only 11 wins that they denied their automatic entry into the tournament and the Kitchener Rangers took their spot. This brought changes to the host selection process to ensure that it would never happen again.

This was also the Eric Lindros era in Oshawa and ‘The Next One’ was an integral part of the Generals Memorial Cup victory. However, what’s amazing about that team is that twenty years later two players are not only still playing professional hockey but are still top players on their teams.

Mike Craig and Fred Brathwaite are bothing playing in Europe after decent NHL careers. Craig is with Klagenfurt AC in Austria and Brathwaite is in his second season with Adler Mannheim (Eagles) of the DEL in Europe.

Mike Craig of Klagenfurt AC

Mike Craig’s info page on Klagenfurt’s official site can be found here. Mike is third in team scoring on a team that is in 8th place in the 10 team Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. Klagenfurt is a city of 90,000 in the south of Austria near the borders of Italy and Slovenia.

Fred Brathwaite remains the starting goaltender for Mannheim of Germany’s DEL. Mannheim sits 9th in the 15 team league and Brathwaite is one of the top goaltenders in the league.