OHL Alumni Central

Cory Stillman (not to be confused with the Cory Stillman that is currently playing for the Florida Panthers) played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2003-04. His first four seasons were with the Kingston Frontenacs and his final season was played with the Barrie Colts.

Stillman was drafted by the New York Islanders in the fourth round of the 2001 NHL draft. Since leaving the OHL, Cory has played in four different leagues on five different teams over six seasons. His first season out of the Ontario Hockey League was spent in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) with the Pensacola Ice Pilots. Since then, he has mostly played in the Central Hockey League and the IHL. The exception being 2007-08 when he travelled to Germany to play for Ravensburg of the Bundesliga. The Bundesliga is Germany’s tier 2 league behind the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).

Cory spent this past season with the Port Huron Icehawks of the ill-fated IHL. He contributed 7 goals and 7 assists for 14 points over 27 games with the Icehawks. Port Huron will not be one of the IHL teams merging into the Central Hockey League for the 2010-11 season. The franchise has instead chosen to cease operations.

For the time being, you can view Cory Stillman’s profile page on the IHL’s official website.

No matter the fate of the IHL, the Fort Wayne Komets will survive. Only the original six NHL teams and the AHL’s Hershey Bears have stayed in the same location with the same name longer.

The team has just won it’s 3rd straight Turner Cup as playoff champion of the International Hockey League. No doubt, having four Ontario Hockey League alumni, including team leading scorer, Colin Chaulk, helped propel the team to the three-peat. Currently, the team is unsure what league they will be a member of as the financially troubled IHL is in talks regarding a merger with the Central Hockey League.

The Komets have existed in the professional hockey world since the 1952-53 season. The team competed in the original IHL until the end of the 1998-99 season. Since, they have been in the United Hockey League, which changed their name to the International Hockey League for the 2007-08 season. The Komets were actually moved to Albany in 1990 but the IHL’s Flint, Michigan franchise was bought almost immediately and moved to Fort Wayne and, of course, renamed the Komets.

The four OHL grads on the Komets during the 2009-10 season are as follows (click on each name to view the player’s profile page on the IHL’s official website):

Colin Chaulk played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1994-95 to 1997-98. His full OHL career was spent in Kingston with the Frontenacs. In his last three seasons, Chaulk lead the team in scoring. In his final season, he finished fifth in the OHL in scoring with 96 points.

Colin lead the Komets in scoring this year and finished fourth in league scoring with 85 points. He lead the team for four straight seasons from 2002-03 to 2005-06. This past season was his seventh season with Fort Wayne. He took a year away from the Komets in 2006-07 when he played a season for Alleghe HC in Italy.

Justin Hodgman played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League. Hodgman was an Erie Otter from 2005-06 to 2008-09. In his first season of professional hockey, Justin played on three different teams, 33 games with the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL, 38 games with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL and just three games with the Komets.

Sean O’Connor played five seasons in the OHL. He began his career with the Erie Otters in 2003-04. Midway through the 2006-07 season, O’Connor became a Plymouth Whaler. Eight games into the 2007-08 season, Sean was traded to the London Knights, where he finished out his OHL career. This past season was Sean’s second with the Komets. In his first season, he saw one game in the ECHL with the Augusta Lynx and in his second, he saw three games in the ECHL with the Kalamazoo Wings.

Blair Stayzer played just 13 games with the Komets this past season. Blair spent four seasons in the OHL from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Windsor Spitfires. As mentioned in a recent post, Blair has signed on for the 2010-11 season with the Newcastle Vipers of Great Britain’s EIHL. Originally a seventh round pick of the Calgary Flames in the 1999 NHL draft, Blair has spent the past ten seasons bouncing around the ECHL, CHL and IHL with a four game stint with the Saint John Flames of the AHL back in 2001-02.

We continue our focus on the Erie Otters with the whereabouts of a recent controversial graduate of the Ontario Hockey League team. Michael Liambas was suspended for the duration of the 2009-10 regular season and playoffs for an incident in October 2009. Because Liambas was an overager with the Otters, this suspension effectively ended his OHL career.

The incident that brought on the suspension was, of course, his hit on Ben Fanelli of the Kitchener Rangers. The hit left Fanelli in critical condition with a severe head injury.

Liambas has since moved on and is now playing for the Bloomington Prairie Thunder of the IHL. The Prairie Thunder play out of the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington, Illinois. The Arena fits 6700 fans for hockey.

Liambas was an Otter from 2006-07 until the start of the 2009-10 season, although only playing 9 games over the past two seasons. Michael was honoured for his involvement in the community as well as his scholastic achievements.

Click here to view Michael’s profile page on the team’s official website.

There has been a lot of debate over whether the hit that landed Liambas the suspension was worthy of such a lofty penalty. If you haven’t already seen the play, check it out here:

To view other recent posts involving alumni from the Erie Otters, click on the following links:

Otters Alumni playing with the Coventry Blaze of Great Britain’s EIHL.

Otters Alumni playing with the St. Louis Blues of the NHL.