OHL Alumni Central

Ontario Hockey League alumnus Rob Leask is playing in his fifteenth season in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga. After ten seasons with Eisbären Berlin, starting in 1996-97, Rob played three with the Hamburg Freezers before moving to his current club, Nürnberg Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers, last season. Twice, with Berlin, he was a DEL All-Star and he won the DEL Championship with Berlin in both 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Leask played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1988-89 to 1991-92. He began his OHL career with the Toronto Marlboros. After his rookie season, he followed the franchise as they moved to Hamilton to become the Dukes. He, and the franchise, played two seasons in Hamilton before packing up once again and moving to Guelph, where they became the Storm. Rob only played seven games in Guelph during his final season before being shipped to the Oshawa Generals for the remainder of his OHL career.

Leask was a tenth round pick of the Washington Capitals in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, 209th overall. He played four seasons in the North American minor pros after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League, mostly in the AHL and ECHL. He twice played in the ECHL All-Star Game in 1993-94 and 1994-95. In 1995-96, Rob played 53 games for the Canadian National Team.

Carrying dual Canadian and German citizenship, Leask appeared for Team Germany at both the 2004 World Championships and World Cup. He also played a role for Germany at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Check out Rob Leask’s profile page at the Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers official website.

Three of Rob’s Ice Tigers teammates have been previously featured at OHL Alumni Central:

Jan Platil

Sean Blanchard

Patrick Ehelechner

Looking for a good hockey read? Check out the new book review page at OHL Alumni Central.

Could he be the last Hamilton Duke to still be playing professional hockey? The answer to that will have to wait for another day. Current Laredo Buck, Jeff Bes started his Ontario Hockey League career with the Dukes in 1990-91. He moved with the team the next season when they became the Guelph Storm and he finished his OHL career with the Storm the next season, 1992-93.

Jeff was second on team scoring for the Dukes in his rookie season. In both his seasons as a Guelph Storm, he was the team’s top point getter by far. In his final season, his 115 points were good enough for 10th place in the league.

Bes was a 3rd round pick of the Minnesota North Stars back in 1992. He never played a game in the NHL but has played for 17 different teams in 7 different leagues in 5 different countries over his career. Oddly enough, he has never played for a team based in his home country, Canada. He has played in Slovenia, Finland, Germany, Finland and the United States.

Jeff’s team-hopping came to an end at the start of the 2003-04 season as he settled in with Laredo of the Central Hockey League. Now in his 7th season with the club, he has totalled 585 regular season points in just 398 games. Twice with the Bucks, Jeff surpassed the 100 point plateau in a single season – 117 in 2003-04 and 106 in 2007-08.

This season, with 75 points in 64 games, Jeff finished 11th in league scoring and is currently leading the team toward playoff success. It should also be noted that Jeff acts as assistant coach for the team.

The Laredo Bucks official website does not have individual player profiles but the site can be found here. Jeff’s profile page on the CHL site can be found here.