OHL Alumni Central

Georgi Misharin played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2003-04, with the Saginaw Spirit. Misharin was certainly one of the bright spots on a Saginaw team that shared the league’s basement with the Belleville Bulls, both with just 39 points.

Misharin came to the Ontario Hockey League already drafted by an National Hockey League club. Georgi was taken in the seventh round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota Wild, 207th overall. With 2004-05 being the NHL lockout year, Misharin went home to Russia to play in the RSL and has been there since.

Georgi has worn the Russia jersey on the world stage on three occasions. He helped Team Russia to a Bronze Medal at the 2003 Under-18 championships and stepped it up to a Silver two years later in the Under-20 tournament. Just turning 21, Misharin played for Russia at the World Hockey Championships in 2006 with Russia finishing in fifth place.

2010-11 is Georgi’s fourth season with CSKA Moscow. After 46 games, he was traded to Metallurg Magnitogorsk who needed to bolster the blue line for a promising playoff run. CSKA Moscow currently sits in tenth place in the KHL’s Western Conference and twelve points out of a playoff spot. Magnitogorsk is comfortably in fourth place in the East, twelve points up on fifth position.

Check out Georgi Misharin’s profile page at the KHL official website. 

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Stefan Ruzicka on the right with fellow OHL grad, Branko Radivojevic.

Stefan Ruzicka is now entering his third season in Russia’s KHL. The native of Slovakia and Ontario Hockey League grad has become a mainstay of HC Spartak Moskva (Moscow) and is under contract through the 2011-12 season.

Ruzicka played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2003-04 and 2004-05, both with the Owen Sound Attack. He was the third overall pick in the 2003 Canadian Hockey League Import Draft. Over 62 games, his 34 goals, 38 assists and 72 points in his first season were all league bests among rookies. The following season, his point total dropped to 70 points while once again appearing in 62 games with the Attack.

Stefan was taken by the Philadelphia Flyers in the third round of the 2003 NHL draft, 81st overall. From 2005-06 to 2007-08, Ruzicka split his time between the NHL club and the American Hockey League’s Philadelphia Phantoms. In all, he played in 55 NHL games and 166 games in the AHL before jumping continents to play in the KHL.

Five times to date, Ruzicka has represented his homeland, Slovakia, on the international stage. In 2002 and 2003, he appeared at the Under-18 IIHF World Hockey Championships. In 2003, he contributed eight points in seven games as the Slovaks made it to the finals before losing out to Team Canada and, therefore, taking the silver medal. His eight points placed him 11th among tournament scorers and one point behind the great Evgeny Malkin.

In 2004 and 2005, Stefan played in the Under-20 IIHF World Hockey Championships. He contributed at a point per game pace over both tournaments with the team reaching the quarter finals in 2004 and sweeping the relegation round in 2005. In 2009, he played for the men’s version of Team Slovakia at the World Hockey Championships.

Check out Stefan Ruzicka’s profile page on the HC Spartak Moskva official website.

Stefan and well over 600 other Ontario Hockey League grads can be found on the OHL Alumni Central Big List. Stay tuned to The Big List to find where all your favourite grads are to be found in the great big world of professional hockey.

Ontario Hockey League grad Marcel Rodman has appeared at nine IIHF World Championships playing for his home country, Slovenia. Considering this his tenth season since leaving the OHL, you could call him Mister Slovenia. Rodman also represented Slovenia three times at the junior level.

Marcel Rodman played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1999-00 and 2000-01, both with the Peterborough Petes. In his second season, his 36 goals and 71 points were both team leading numbers.

Rodman was picked in the ninth round of the 2001 NHL draft by the Boston Bruins, 282nd overall. Marcel never played a game in North America after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League and has since played in Germany, Slovenia and Austria.

Rodman is currently playing for the Vienna Capitals of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). 2010-11 will be his third season with the club and second consecutive. He is joined on the team by his brother, David, who is also a product of the Canadian Hockey League. David played two seasons in the QMJHL.

Marcel has twice led his team in scoring in the EBEL. The first time was in 2002-03 with the Graz 99ers when he scored 22 goals and added 25 assists for 47 points in 44 games. the second was 2008-09 with HK Jesenice (his hometown team from Slovenia that plays in the EBEL) when his 21 goals and 36 assists for 57 points in 53 games led the team.

Rodman has maintained better than a point per game pace during his career in the EBEL with 276 points in 263 games as of the end of the 2009-10 season.

Check out Marcel Rodman’s profile page on the Vienna Capitals official website.

This video is a just a short one of Marcel Rodman scoring a goal on a shootout while playing for HK Jesenice.

Ontario Hockey League graduate Arvids Rekis is leaving Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) after seven seasons. Rekis has moved to Russia’s KHL and will play for Dinamo Riga in his home country of Latvia.

Arvids played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Erie Otters. During his third season in the Ontario Hockey League, Rekis played for Latvia at the IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships B Division.

Arvids has since represented Latvia in international competitions eight times. He has been on the blue line for six IIHF World Championships and two Olympic Games – 2006 in Turin, Italy and 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Rekis spent three years with the Peoria Rivermen of the ECHL after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. In 2003-04, he left for Europe and the DEL. Arvids spent his first five seasons in Germany with the Augsburger Panther and his last two with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg.

Check out Arvids Rekis’ profile page on the Dinamo Riga official website. The site is actually in English, which is rare for individual KHL sites.

Arvids is featured in two previous posts at OHL Alumni Central: OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 Olympics and OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 World Championships.

The following video is from a qualifying game for the 2010 Olympics with Latvia taking Hungary by a 7-3 score. It’s just a short highlight video showing all the goals. Rekis scores the third goal to make it 2-1 for Latvia. Fellow Ontario Hockey League grad Herberts Vasiljevs scores the eighth goal that makes it 5-3.

Marek Kvapil played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05, with the Saginaw Spirit. Kvapil started that season with HC Slavia Praha in the Czech Republic under-20 league. After eight games, he made the move to the Ontario Hockey League and was an offensive powerhouse on a Spirit team that had the least goals for in the OHL. He added seven games for the Czech Republic at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships where he produced two goals and three assists as the Czech’s lost out to Canada in the semi-finals but beat the USA for the bronze.

Kvapil finished up his season in Saginaw with 25 goals and 37 assists for 62 points in just 53 games. With the Spirit scoring just 150 goals on the season, Marek factored in on 43.4% of the team’s total goals, despite missing 15 games.

Kvapil found his way into the Ontario Hockey League record books during his short career. He is tied for the OHL record for the fastest goal to begin a period. He scored four seconds into the third period of a game against the Mississauga IceDogs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning drafted Marek in the sixth round of the 2005 NHL draft, 163rd overall. He spent three years following his one year stint in the Ontario Hockey League playing for teams in the AHL and ECHL (AHL – Springfield Falcons, Norfolk Admirals; ECHL – Johnstown Chiefs, Mississippi Sea Wolves).

Kvapil will start his third season in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga this upcoming season. His first two seasons were played with HC Vitkovice but he has made a change this year and signed on with HC Kometa Brno. Marek hopes to help lift Brno from 12th in the 14 team league in 2009-10 to at least a playoff berth this season. In the Extraliga, the top ten teams make the post season.

Marek had the fortune of representing the Czech Republic this past spring at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Germany as the Czechs won the gold medal. He was mentioned in this previous post regarding OHL alumni on the Czech team for the tournament.

Check out Marek Kvapil’s profile page on the HC Kometa Brno official website.

Check out this great profile of Marek Kvapil in the alumni section of the Saginaw Spirit official website.