OHL Alumni Central

Jeremy Van Hoof played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2000-01, all with the Ottawa 67′s. In his first and last seasons in the OHL, Ottawa made a trip to the Memorial Cup and was successful in one attempt.

In his first season, despite the Belleville Bulls beating the London Knights for the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League champions, the 67′s were the Memorial Cup host and won the Cup on home ice. In Van Hoof’s final season, Ottawa won the Robertson with a victory over the Plymouth Whalers but was unsuccessful at the Memorial Cup.

Jeremy entered the NHL Entry Draft twice. In 1999, he was taken by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, 57th overall. Pittsburgh didn’t give him the love and he re-entered to the draft for 2001 and was picked by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the seventh round, 222nd overall.

Van Hoof played in nine games in the American Hockey League over two seasons but mostly spent his time in the East Coast Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2005-06. His first European experience came in 2006-07 with HC Fassa of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio. After a season in the Central Hockey League in 2007-08, Jeremy returned to HC Fassa the following year.

This past season, 2009-10, in what was his best season to date as far as straight numbers, Van Hoof played for High1 of the ALIH (Asia League). High1 plays out of South Korea. Jeremy contributed 36 points from the blue line in 35 games.

Van Hoof started this season in the Federal Hockey League with the Akwesasne Warriors and appeared in eleven games. He has just recently signed with the Guildford Flames of Great Britain’s EPIHL, the second division to the EIHL.

Check out Jeremy Van Hoof’s profile page at the Guildford Flames official website.

This is the article on the Guildford Flames official website announcing Van Hoof’s arrival.

Read this previous article on Jeremy Van Hoof’s teammate with the Akwesasne Warriors.

Jeff Heerema with Medvescak Zagred of Austria's EBEL during the 2009-10 season.

The Nottingham Panthers sit in second place in the ten team Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) of Great Britain. The Panthers are three points  back of the Belfast Giants but have three games in hand. The Panthers have brought in a dangerous weapon to subdue the Giants and push into first place.

Ontario Hockey League grad Jeff Heerema has finally found a home for the 2010-11 season. He was not invited back to Medvescak Zagreb of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) after a successful regular season but less than stellar playoff run in 2009-10.

Heerema played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 1999-00, all with the Sarnia Sting. Jeff was a picture of consistency with the Sting with seasons of 32, 31 and 36 goals and 72, 70 and 77 points. He led the Sting in all offensive categories in his final season with 36 goals, 41 assists and 77 points.

Heerema was thought of quite highly by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 1998 NHL draft. Jeff went in the first round, eleventh overall. He saw action with the Hurricanes in the 2002-03 season, a year before cousin Eric Staal made his debut in Carolina. Heerema played ten games with the Hurricanes that season and 22 with the St. Louis Blues the following year to round out his NHL career.

Jeff twice led his American Hockey League team in points. in his first season in the AHL, 2001-02, he led the Lowell Lock Monsters in goals (33), assists (37) and points (70). In his last season in North America, 2006-07, Heerema led the Binghamton Senators in goals with 36 and points with 67.

The greatest playoff success Jeff achieved in North America was during the 2004-05 season. Playing for the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, the team made it to the Western Conference finals before being swept by the Chicago Wolves.

In 2007-08, it was off to Germany for Heerema. For two seasons, he played for the Frankfurt Lions of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).

Jeff joins two other OHL grads on the Nottingham Panthers, Alex Penner (click here for a previous post on Alex) and Jonathan Zion (click here for a previous post on Jonathan). The Belfast Giants have brought in artillery in the form of OHL grads as well with the aquisition of Brad Smyth (click here for previous post on Brad) and Michael Jacobsen (click here for previous post on Michael). The Panthers lost OHL great Cameron Mann to retirement after the 2009-10 season (click here for previous post on Cameron).

Andre Payette played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1996-97. He began his career with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, playing three full seasons there. In his final season in the OHL, Payette was shipped to the Kingston Frontenacs after just four games.

Known throughout his hockey career for his toughness, Andre amassed 694 minutes in penalties during 180 regular season games in the Ontario Hockey League. Payette wasn’t all knuckles, he was able to provide a bit of offense as well, topping out with 20 goals over 57 games in 1995-96.

Always on the prowl for rough customers, the Philadelphia Flyers drafted Andre in the tenth round of the 1994 NHL draft, 244th overall. Payette jumped right into action with Philadelphia’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms. In 56 games with the Phantoms in his rookie year, Andre sat out 209 minutes and provided ten points.

Payette never played for the Flyers but did appear in 155 games in the American Hockey League between the Phantoms, Rochester Americans, Lowell Lock Monsters, Manchester Monarchs, Houston Aeros, St. John’s Maple Leafs and Manitoba Moose. Andre also spent parts of three seasons with the Mohawk Valley Prowlers of the UHL, leading the club in PIM during the 2000-01 season with 244 in just 45 games.

Andre has played in Great Britain since the 2004-05 season, leading his team in PIM each season. In 2007-08, he lead the whole Elite Ice Hockey League in penalty minutes with 326. Payette played his first season in the EIHL with the Coventy Blaze and helped the squad become regular season and playoff champions. The following four seasons were spent with the Newcastle Vipers, the team that was EIHL playoff champion the first season Payette suited up with them.

This past season, Payette was the Assistant Captain of the Manchester Phoenix of the EPL (tier 2 to the EIHL). He returns this season to the EPL but this time with the Sheffield Steeldogs. He is lucky to do so. An accident on a four wheeler deep in the Quebec wilderness left Payette with five broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken foot. According to news reports, he crawled nearly eight kilometers before he could find help.

Andre Payette has just signed with the Steeldogs so his profile is not yet on the team’s official website. However, follow this link to check out the news article on the Sheffield site regarding the signing of Payette.

The above photo is borrowed from a Facebook group dedicated to Andre Payette, called Andre Payette… Hockey GOD!!

Andre Payette is on the OHL Alumni Big List.

(The tongue twister title was completely unintentional!)

Michael Jacobsen with Alleghe of Italy's Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio.

The Belfast Giants of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League added another piece of the puzzle this week to ensure their continued dominance of the EIHL and provide a great chance at repeating as EIHL playoff champion. The team came to terms with defenseman and Ontario Hockey League grad, Michael Jacobsen.

Michael Jacobsen played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 2001-02. In his first four seasons in the OHL, he called Yardmen Arena home as a member of the Belleville Bulls. In his final season, he started out with the Sudbury Wolves but after just five games was transferred to the Owen Sound Attack where he finished out his OHL career.

Jacobsen knows what it takes to be a champion. He was a big part of Belleville’s 1998-99 Robertson Cup winning team as the Ontario Hockey League’s playoff champion. In his final season with powerhouse Lakehead University in 2005-06, the team was OUA champions. This past season with the Belfast Giants, the team took the EIHL playoff crown.

Michael was picked by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL draft, 134th overall. His North American professional career totals consist of three games with the ECHL’s Pensacola Ice Pilots and three games with the UHL’s Missouri River Otters, all at the tail end of the 2001-02 season.

He spent three seasons with Lakehead in the Canadian university system. Along with winning the Ontario championship in 2005-06, Jacobsen was named to the OUA first team all-star squad for the 2003-04 season.

In the three seasons between Lakehead and Belfast, Michael played in Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio for Alleghe.

Belfast is looking to Jacobsen to once again quarterback their powerplay. Last season, Michael scored 12 of his 14 goals with the man-advantage, good for second on the team.

Vote for Michael Jacobsen at the Belleville Bulls official website. As part of their 30th anniversary celebration, they’ve opened it up to the fans to choose the all-time Bulls team.

Jacobsen is also featured in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central which lists the members of the 1998-99 Bulls Robertson Cup winning team that were still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 season. Among those players is Branko Radivojevic who was featured just yesterday at OHL Alumni Central – click here to read the post.

Michael, Branko and all the other Belleville Bulls grads still active in professional hockey can be found on the OHL Alumni Big List.

It’s been a turbulent summer for Guelph Storm graduate, Sylvain Cloutier. As player/coach with the Hull Stingrays, things seemed all set heading into the 2010-11 season when the bottom fell out. The owners couldn’t carry the team and the Stingrays were no more.

But wait! All was not lost. New ownership jumped in almost immediately and Hull will field a team for the upcoming season. Some players were lost in the shuffle but Sylvain remains and has his work cut out for him.

Sylvain Cloutier played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1991-92 to 1993-94, all with the Guelph Storm. His 35 goals in his rookie season stands as a Storm record for first year players. His 71 assists and 116 points in his final season when he captained the Storm are team single season records for a left winger. Cloutier is seventh on Guelph’s all-time list for goals scored and assists. He is tied for sixth when it comes to Storm all-time points. In his final season in the Ontario Hockey League, Cloutier finished tied for ninth in league scoring.

He was drafted in the third round of the 1992 NHL draft, 70th overall by the Detroit Red Wings. Sylvain played four seasons in the American Hockey League with Detroit’s affiliate, the Adirondack Red Wings. It wasn’t until 1998-99, after shifting to the Chicago Black Hawks system, that Cloutier got a taste of the NHL, appearing in seven games with the Hawks. This would prove to be the extent of his NHL career.

Cloutier split his time between the AHL and the United Hockey League until the start of the 2006-07 season. He made the jump to European hockey, playing for the Coventry Blaze of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League. He played two seasons with the Blaze and was better than a point per game player. In each of his two seasons with Coventry, the team won the EIHL championship.

He took time off from playing the game during the 2008-09 season to coach. His stint behind the bench with the Corpus Christi IceRayz of the Central Hockey League lasted 50 games and ended in February of 2009.

Sylvain returned to the EIHL this past season, this time as a player and a coach for the Hull Stingrays. The team finished last among the eight teams in the league with just 43 points in 56 regular season games.

Because of the ownership change, the Hull Stingrays official website is still a work in progress. It can be found here.

However, a better source of all things Hull Stingrays is the F Block Blog.

Check out the following video of highlights from a game between Hull and the Belfast Giants. For North American fans, it’s a great intro to the EIHL game. OHL fans will notice a few familiar names other than Sylvain Cloutier, including Sean McMorrow, George Halkidis and Jeff Szwez. At 1:08 of the video, Cloutier walks away from a fight with ‘The Sheriff’ McMorrow – which is probably a very good idea. At 3:40, he leaves with an injury as a result of a high stick. Cloutier is #83 for the dark jerseys.

Other than what looks to be a small ice surface and a smaller seating area than the Ontario Hockey League, the game itself looks to be pretty fast and exciting. The game is decided in a shootout – you’ll have to watch to see who wins…