OHL Alumni Central

For the second day in a row, we’re featuring a Slovakian-born Ontario Hockey League alumnus currently playing for HC Spartak Moskva (Moscow) of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League. Yesterday it was Stefan Ruzicka. Today it’s Branko Radivojevic.

Radivojevic played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2000-01, all with the Belleville Bulls. In his rookie season, he provided the Bulls with 24 points in 21 playoff games as Belleville won the Robertson Cup as the OHL’s playoff champion with a victory over the London Knights. This previous post features the 14 graduates from that 1999 Robertson Cup winning team that were still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 season.

In his final season with the Bulls, Radivojevic’s 34 goals and 70 assists for 104 regular season points placed him third in the league behind teammate Kyle Wellwood and Jason Spezza. He was named to the OHL’s first team all-star squad and won the Jim Mahon Trophy as the OHL’s top scoring right winger.

Branko was taken by the Colorado Avalanche in the third round of the 1999 NHL draft, 93rd overall. He never played for the Avalanche but before leaving for the KHL, Radivojevic had put in 399 regular season NHL games with the Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota Wild.

Radivojevic has represented Slovakia on the world stage on six occasions to date. He competed in the 2000 IIHF Under-20 World Junior Hockey Championships. He has appeared in four IIHF World Hockey Championships, winning a bronze medal in 2003. Most recently, Branko skated in Vancouver for Slovakia at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. This previous post features the Ontario Hockey League grads that played for Slovakia at the 2010 Olympic Games.

Branko first returned to European hockey during the NHL strike year of 2004-05. He split his season between HC Vsetin of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga and Luleå of Sweden’s Eliteserien. He has entered his third season with HC Spartak Moskva and after wearing the ‘A’ on his jersey last season, Branko is the team’s captain for 2010-11. He has been a KHL all-star in each of his two previous seasons with Moscow and led the team in scoring both years with 45 points in 49 games in 2008-09 and 54 points in 56 games in 2009-10. He is under contract with the team until the end of the 2011-12 season.

Check out Branko Radivojevic’s profile page on the HC Spartak Moskva official website.

Track Branko and 650+ Ontario Hockey League grads on the OHL Alumni 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.

David Ling played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1992-93 to 1994-95, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Although he had three great seasons with Kingston, Ling is mostly known for his final season in the OHL. After point productions of 63 and 77 in his first two seasons, David exploded for 61 goals and 74 assists for 135 points in 62 games in his final season in the Ontario Hockey League.

That 135 point performance left him just four points behind Marc Savard of the Oshawa Generals for the OHL lead. It should be noted that David played four less regular season games than Savard. The interesting thing about Ling is that he led the Frontenacs in penalty minutes in his first two seasons with a whopping 275 and 254. In his final season, he still put his time in at the sin bin but his 136 PIM obviously signified a major role change.

In 1994-95, Ling was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as Ontario Hockey League MVP, the Jim Mahon Trophy as the highest scoring right winger in the OHL and was also named the Canadian Hockey League’s player of the year.

Ling was drafted deep down in the seventh round of the 1993 NHL entry draft by the Quebec Nordiques. Of course, this was before his outstanding senior year. Despite being tough and feisty, his 5’9″ and 185 lb. (175-197, depending on the source) build maybe didn’t fit into the 1990′s NHL template of 6’4″, 200+ lb. players. Over his professional career to date, David has played just 93 NHL games, mostly with the Columbus Blue Jackets in addition to three games with the Montreal Canadiens.

David spent most of his days of North American hockey in the AHL and the old IHL. He last played in North America in the 2007-08 season with the Toronto Marlies. In 2004-05, with the Marlies’ predecessor in St. John’s, he finished third in league scoring behind Jason Spezza and Mike Cammalleri with 28 goals and 60 assists for 88 points in 80 games. While in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, David wore either the ‘A’ or ‘C’ throughout his days with their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.

In 2005-06, Ling tested the European market and played his first of two seasons in the Russia Super League. In 2008-09, he returned to Europe and split his season between Biel of Switzerland’s National League-A and Jokerit of Finland’s SM-Liiga.

This past season, David played for Amur Khabarovsk of Russia’s KHL. Khabarovsk finished tenth in the twelve team Eastern Conference and out of playoff contention. Ling played 46 of the team’s 56 regular season games, contributing 8 goals and 24 assists for 32 points. He is signed on to play for Amur Khabarovsk for the 2010-11 season.

Check out David Ling’s profile page on the Amur Khabarovsk official website (in Russian).

No, not the famous director of 1980′s teen angst movies. This John Hughes played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2004-05 to 2007-08. John began his OHL career with the Belleville Bulls and played two full seasons there before being traded midway through the 2006-07 season to the Brampton Batallion.

Hughes has played in Europe since leaving the OHL. This past season, John played for the Hannover Indians of Germany’s Bundesliga and finished off the season with Tappara Tampere in Finland. In his first season in Europe, he played for Salzburg Red Bulls in Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga.

An offensive minded forward, Hughes totalled 283 points over his 256 regular season game OHL career. In 2005-06, he led the Belleville Bulls in points with 82 on 28 goals and 54 assists.

In 2006-07, his 59 points with the Battalion was good for second on the team. With the 20 points he obtained with the Bulls before being traded to Brampton, he was easily the team’s top point getter.

In his final season, John’s 91 points were good for tops on the team and earned him a Jim Mahon Trophy for the Ontario Hockey League’s top point-getting right winger.

Hughes was honoured in Austria as the player with the best plus/minus in 2008-09.

View John’s profile page as a Hannover Indian.

View John’s profile as a Tappara Tampere.

John Hughes is also featured in a previous post listed Brampton Battalion grads playing professional hockey.

Don’t forget to show off your OHL trivia skill before May 31, 2010.