OHL Alumni Central

I’m not sure what Jason Lafreniere has done since retiring from hockey after the 2004-05 season, but travel agent would be a definite possibility. 27 teams in 19 pro seasons amounts to a lot of travel and a lot of change.

Lafreniere played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1983-84 to 1985-86. He began his OHL career with the Brantford Alexanders and the following season moved with the club to Hamilton where they were called the Steelhawks. In his finals season, Jason was shifted to the Belleville Bulls after 14 games to fortify a potential Memorial Cup contender.

Possibly the most sportsmanlike player to grace the Ontario Hockey League, Lafreniere sat out a total of just 18 minutes in the penalty box during 191 career regular season OHL games. In that time, he contributed 308 points. The ability to play the game without sin resulting in Jason being awarded the William Hanley Trophy as the league’s Most Sportsmanlike in his final season.

That final season saw an offensive outburst of 132 points that tied him with two others for second in Ontario Hockey League scoring. When it came to the Robertson Cup playoffs, Jason’s 32 points were tops in the league despite the fact that his Belleville Bulls lost in the finals to the Guelph Platers 8 points to 4.

Lafreniere was taken by the Quebec Nordiques in the second round of the 1985 NHL draft, 36th overall. He played 56 games with the Nordiques in his first pro season as well as an additional 12 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In all, Jason played 146 games in the NHL over five seasons with the Nordiques, New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Over his 19 pro seasons, Jason played on teams in ten different countries: Canada, United States, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Great Britain, Holland, Poland and Spain. His stint in Spain was for just one game with FC Barcelona and he registered a hat trick. His stay in Poland in his final season, 2004-05, lasted just two games and his time in Slovenia with Olimpija Ljubljana was for four games.

His list of credentials also includes a year and a half with the Canadian National Team in 1990-91 and part of 1991-92. The list of leagues he played in is understandably long as well, including: AHL, NHL, IHL, DEL (and German Bundesliga before being called DEL), LIGH in Italy, Austrian Bundesliga (pre-EBEL days), Central Hockey League, West Coast Hockey League, Bundesliga 2 in Germany, British National League, etc.

Jason is NOT on The Big List!

Not active as a player, Ontario Hockey League alumnus Stan Drulia is still much a part of the professional hockey world. Stan is entering his ninth year of coaching since retiring as a player and his first as head coach of the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League.

Stan Drulia played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1984-85 to 1988-89. Be began his OHL career with the Belleville Bulls. He played his first two seasons in Belleville, highlighted by a 43 goal performance in his sophomore year. In 1986-87, Stan moved to the Hamilton Steelhawks. After two seasons in Hamilton, Drulia followed the team as they picked up and moved down the QEW to Niagara and became the Thunder.

In 1987-88 with the Steelhawks, Stan was sixth on the Ontario Hockey League scoring list with 121 points on 52 goals and 69 assists. In his final season, he was second only to teammate Bryan Fogarty in league scoring with his 145 points on 52 goals and 93 assists. Drulia added 37 points in 17 playoff games that season as the Thunder reached the Robertson Cup finals before losing out the Peterborough Petes in six games.

In that final season, Stan was awarded the Leo Lalonde Memorial Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s best overage player and also the Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy as the league’s top scoring right winger.

Drulia was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the eleventh round of the 1986 NHL draft, 214th overall. He would end up his career with 126 NHL games played, all with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played 24 games with Tampa Bay in 1992-93 then didn’t play again in the NHL for six seasons before ending out his NHL career with the Lightning in 1999-00 and 2000-01.

In 1990-91, his one and only season in the ECHL, Stan tallied 140 points in just 64 games for the Knoxville Cherokees en route to becoming the ECHL MVP. That point total stands today as the fourth best single season mark in ECHL history. The following season, Drulia notched 49 goals and 53 assists for 102 points for the New Haven Nighthawks in the higher calibre AHL which placed him third in league scoring.

Drulia’s greatest pro success came in the old IHL. He played eight seasons in the league, including the six between stints with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Twice he was on Turner Cup winning teams, the 1993-94 Atlanta Knights and the 1996-97 Detroit Vipers. Twice he was awarded the N.R. “Bud” Poile Trophy as the league’s playoff MVP, first with those 1993-94 Atlanta Knights and again in 1998-99 with the Vipers despite the team losing in the Turner Cup finals to the Chicago Wolves.

Stan played three seasons with the Atlanta Knights of the IHL from 1993-94 to 1995-96. He will forever be etched in that team’s record books as the player with most career goals, assists and points. Drulia also is second on Atlanta’s all-time games played list and appears in the top ten for all-time penalty minutes. The Knights moved to Quebec City for the 1996-97 season and became the Rafales. The Rafales lasted just two seasons.

Check out Stan Drulia’s Wheeling Nailers at their official website.

This video was a promo that was sent out to Vipers season ticket holders after winning the 1997 Turner Cup. Stan Drulia appears at around the 1:50 mark of the video, scoring a big goal for Detroit.