OHL Alumni Central

At the start of March, we did a post on Ontario Hockey League alumni playing in the Australian Ice Hockey League (click here to view post). One of the players was Brad Smulders and we’d just like to add an update on this former Sarnia Sting.

Brad is signed on for the 2010 season with the Gold Coast Blue Tongues of the AIHL. The season starts in about 4 weeks, in time for the Australian winter. Last season, Brad was the league’s scoring champion with a remarkable 3.5 points per game. Expectations are no less for the upcoming season.

Brad has just finished up the winter season in the Netherlands with Romijnders Devils Nijmegen. Not the leading scorer in this league. In fact, Brad was 5th in team scoring but still was slightly over a point a game in a higher calibre league with more than twice the number of games on the schedule.

The team was the best during the regular season and just recently won the playoff championships with a sweep over Destil Trapper Tilburg.

As mentioned in the previous post, Brad only played 17 games over his OHL career. This still makes him a product of the league and a true measure of how far reaching the OHL is in the hockey world.

To view Brad Smulders profile page on the Devils official website, click here.

To check out the Gold Coast Blue Tongues roster page, click here.

The Czech Republic’s version of an elite hockey league is at the higher end of the European leagues. Numerous former NHLers can be found in the league as well as the odd Ontario Hockey League grad. The league and its 14 teams are well represented on the Internet but only in Czech and not in English. The best website to get started from is the Czech Hockey main site found here.

The following guide will not make you proficient in the language by any means! But, it will help you navigate around a Czech hockey website.

As usual, if you find any mistakes below or any key words that you believe should be added, please don’t hesitate to add that info to the comments on this post.

For other Hockey Language Guides, see the following:

Russian Hockey Language Guide

German Hockey Language Guide

A great many of the Ontario Hockey League alumni find themselves in Europe, pursuing careers in hockey. It becomes a necessity to learn a little bit of foreign language in order to follow your favourite players as they play in non-North American countries.

This is the first in a series of hockey language guides at OHL Alumni Central, geared to help the fan of OHL grads navigate around a foreign language hockey website. Although this particular guide is specifically for Germany’s DEL, the German phrases are somewhat universal throughout the German speaking countries of Europe.

What follows is 55 common and important words to be found on official team websites throughout the DEL.

Ligue Magnus is the elite hockey league in France. A number of Canadians play in the league, however, most are from Quebec and played their junior hockey in the QMJHL. There are five players currently playing in the league that are Ontario Hockey League Alumni.

Shawn Snider currently plays for the Neuilly Sur Marne Bisons. Shawn played his OHL career from 1998-99 ot 2001-02 on three different teams. He played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 1998-99 and part of 1999-00. He then moved on to the Owen Sound Attack to finish the 1999-00 season and played with them until midway through the 2001-02 season. He finished off the 2001-02 season with the Sudbury Wolves.

Snider’s best season in the OHL was with Owen Sound in 2000-01 when he totalled 76 points in 61 games. He played Canadian University hockey for three years followed by a few years in the North American minors before heading to France in 2008-09. Click here for an interview with Shawn. It’s in French, so you might want to use Google Translate.

Matt Reynolds is Currently with Les Ducs de Dijon. Matt played in the OHL with the Brampton Battalion from 1998-99 to 1999-00.

Stephane Gervais only played 12 games in the OHL over two seasons, but that still qualifies him as an OHL alumnus. In 2000-01, he played 6 games with the Plymouth Whalers. In 2001-02, he played 6 games with the Windsor Spitfires. Stephane went on to play 4 seasons of university hockey in British Columbia before heading to France. He played 2007-08 and 2008-09 with Epinal and is currently playing with Briancon. He can be found on the team’s official website located here.

Tomas Skvaridlo is currently with Les Rapaces de Gap. His profile on the team’s official website is located here. Tomas played in the OHL with the Kingston Frontenacs from 1999-00 to 2000-01. A Pittsburgh Penguin draft pick, he immediately went back to Europe after the OHL and played in the Slovak league until swithing to France this season.

Matthew Puntureri is currently with the Morzine-Avoriaz Pingouins. He played in the OHL from 2001-02 to 2004-05. Matthew started out with the Guelph Storm and played there until being traded to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 2002-03. He split the 2004-05 season between the Greyhounds and the Oshawa Generals. This is his first season in the Ligue Magnus.

Switzerland will have just one OHL graduate on the roster for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Montreal prospect, Yannick Weber will compete in the Olympics at just 21 years of age. Surprisingly, he’s not the youngest on Team Switzerland as there is also a 19 year old and a 20 year old on the squad.

Weber played for the Kitchener Rangers for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, helping the Rangers to a League Championship and Memorial Cup appearance in his senior year. He has spent most of his professional career with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL with a total of 8 games played with the Montreal Canadiens over two seasons.

To find out what former OHLers are also appearing in the 2010 Olympics, click on the desired country: Russia, Norway, Latvia, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, United States, Canada.