OHL Alumni Central

Plymouth Whalers fans will undoubtedly remember Tomas Kurka. The Ontario Hockey League grad played two seasons in the OHL, 1999-00 and 2000-01, both with the Whalers.

Both season Kurka played in the OHL, Plymouth went to the Robertson Cup finals. In his first year, the Whalers lost to the Barrie Colts in seven games. In his second, they were on the losing end of a six game series with the Ottawa 67′s. In his rookie season, Tomas led the Ontario Hockey League’s first year players with 36 goals. He was named to the OHL’s and CHL’s All-Rookie Teams.

After his first season with Plymouth, Kurka was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 32nd overall. Tomas spent his first three years of pro hockey in Carolina’s system, mostly with their AHL affiliate, the Lowell Lock Monsters. However, in 2002-03 he dressed for 14 games with the NHL squad and played an additional three with the Hurricanes the following season.

After starting the 2004-05 season in his native Czech Republic then returning the the AHL’s Providence Bruins to finish out the season, Kurka was back in Europe to stay for the 2005-06 season. Tomas has spent time in Finland’s SM-Liiga, Switzerland’s National League A and Sweden’s Allsvenskan. He has been in the Czech Extraliga since the 2007-08 season.

Kurka started the 2010-11 season with HC Sparta Praha (Prague) and was recently loaned to HC Pardubice.

Check out Tomas Kurka’s profile page at the HC Pardubice official website.

Tomas Kurka was featured in these two previous posts at OHL Alumni Central:

OHL Grads Competing Against Canada at the Spengler Cup

HC Slavia Praha Home to 5 Ontario Hockey League Grads in 2009-10

Yesterday, we featured the six Ontario Hockey League grads that are playing for Team Canada at the 2010 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland. Today, we look at the eleven OHL grads that are spread out over the other five teams in the tournament. If the player’s name is highlighted in blue, clicking on the name will take you to a previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring that alumnus.

HC Davos

Petr Taticek – Petr played two seasons for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 2001-02 and 2002-03.

Genève-Servette

Dan Fritsche – Dan played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He played with the Sarnia Sting up until midway through his final season when he joined the London Knights.

Jeff Toms – Jeff played three seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds from 1991-92 to 1993-94.

Spartak Moskva

Branko Radivojevic – Branko played three seasons with the Belleville Bulls from 1998-99 to 2000-01.

Stefan Ruzicka – Stefan played two seasons with the Owen Sound Attack, 2003-04 and 2004-05.

SKA St. Petersburg

Alexei Semenov – Alexei played three seasons with the Sudbury Wolves from 1998-99 to 2000-01.

Maxim Rybin – Maxim played two seasons with the Sarnia Sting, 1999-00 and 2000-01.

HC Sparta Praha

Marek Bartanus – Marek played two seasons with the Owen Sound Attack, 2005-06 and 2006-07.

Jakub Koreis – Jakub played just one season with the Guelph Storm, 2003-04.

Tomas Kurka – Tomas played two seasons with the Plymouth Whalers, 1999-00 and 2000-01.

Radek Smolenak – Radek played two seasons with the Kingston Frontenacs, 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Jakub Koreis played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2003-04. He played 48 regular season games with the Guelph Storm and 22 games in the playoffs as the Storm captured the Robertson Cup by upsetting Ontario Hockey League top seed, London Knights, in the Western Conference final and sweeping the Mississauga IceDogs in the final.

Koreis represented the Czech Republic three time during his junior career. In 2002, he was part of the bronze medal winning IIHF World Junior under-18 tournament team. He also appeared at the 2003 and 2004 under-20 World Juniors.

The Phoenix Coyotes had high hopes in Jakub as they drafted him in the first round of the 2002 NHL draft, 19th overall. After his season in the Ontario Hockey League, Koreis spent three seasons in the AHL, one with the Utah Grizzlies and two with the San Antonio Rampage.

In 2007-08, Koreis left North America and played in Finland’s SM-Liiga with Ilves. He returned home in 2008-09 and has been a member of HC Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga since. He is signed on with Prague for the 2010-11 season.

With HC Sparta Praha, he will join Ontario Hockey League alumnus Radek Smolenak, who was featured yesterday on OHL Alumni Central. Click here to check out the post. Former Barrie Colt, Lukas Bolf is also on the team.

Check out Jakub Koreis’ profile page on the HC Sparta Praha official website.

Radek Smolenak played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. Smolenak played both seasons with the Kingston Frontenacs. From the start, Radek provided the Frontenacs with plenty of goal-scoring. In his first season, he put in 32 goals and in his second with Kingston, he increased the goal total by ten to 42.

Smolenak’s 42 goals in 2005-06 was best on the Frontenacs. His 84 total points placed him third on the team behind Cory Emmerton (90) and Chris Stewart (87). Kingston placed second in the Ontario Hockey League’s East Division that season and were the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, Kingston fell in the first round of the playoffs to the Sudbury Wolves in six games.

Radek was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third round of the 2005 NHL draft, 73rd overall. In his four years of professional hockey since graduating from the Ontario Hockey League, Smolenak has appeared in seven NHL regular season games, six with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008-09 and one with the Chicago Blackhawks this past season, 2009-10. The majority of the four seasons was spent with the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL.

The Prague, Czech Republic born winger has decided to return to his home country for 2010-11 and play for HC Sparta Praha (Prague) of the Czech Extraliga. Smolenak last represented his country at the 2004 IIHF World Junior Under-18 tournament and helped the Czech’s go home with a bronze medal. Last season, HC Sparta Praha finished fifth in the 14 team Extraliga with 87 points over the 52 game regular season schedule.

Radek joins two fellow Ontario Hockey League grads on HC Sparta Praha. Jakub Koreis played for the Guelph Storm and Lukas Bolf played for the Barrie Colts.

Check out Radek Smolenak’s profile page at the HC Sparta Praha official website.