OHL Alumni Central

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).

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.

Vojtech Kloz played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League. Kloz was a Kingston Frontenac in 2003-04. He played 62 games and was definitely a stay-at-home defenseman getting only three assists over the season.

Kloz returned to his native Czech Republic in 2004-05 and played pro in that country at various levels until midway through last season when he made the switch to the Slovak Extraliga and HK 36 Skalica. Vojtech played a total of 39 games at the highest level in the Czech Republic, the Extraliga.

For a reference, the IIHF ranks the Czech Extraliga third in Europe while the Slovak Extraliga is fifth.

Michael Kolarz played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2004-05 to 2006-07, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Good enough to earn a spot on Team Czech Republic at the 2007 IIHF World Junior Hockey Tournament but not good enough to be drafted by an NHL club.

Kolarz played a partial season in the Central Hockey League after graduation from the Ontario Hockey League but has since mostly toiled in the Czech Extraliga 2. Last season was his first with MsHK Zilina of the Slovak Extraliga and he is back with the team for the 2010-11 season.

The Slovak Extraliga consists of 13 teams throughout the country of Slovakia. This past season, 2009-10, HK 36 Skalica finished sixth and MsHK Zilina finished tenth.

Check out Michael Kolarz’s profile page on the MsHK Zilina official website.

Check out Vojtech Kloz’s profile page on the HK 36 Skalica official website.

Check out this previous post about OHL alumni playing for HK 36 Skalica.

Every year the best of the Ontario Hockey League join the best junior hockey players in the world in hopes of being drafted high in the National Hockey League entry draft. It is often said that despite two days and round after round of picks, the players chosen in the first and second round are the ones with any glimmer of hope to make it to the NHL.

However, there are always exceptions to the rule and we have some examples of that today.

Eric Boulton played in the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons from 1993-94 to 1995-96. He played his first season with the Oshawa Generals and his last with the Sarnia Sting. The middle campaign was split between the two. Over the three seasons, Boulton sat out 651 minutes in penalties over 162 regular season games.

Eric was drafted way back in the ninth round of the 1994 NHL draft by the New York Rangers, 234th overall. Boulton is now entering his tenth season as a regular in the NHL. His NHL career started in 2000-01 in Buffalo where he played four seasons with the Sabres. He played for Columbia Inferno of the ECHL during the 2004-05 strike season. Since, he has been an Atlanta Thrasher, the team he will play for in 2010-11. To date, Boulton has played 480 NHL games.

Shane O’Brien played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03. He played his first two full seasons with the Kingston Frontenacs and split his final season between the Frontenacs and the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors.

O’Brien was drafted in the eighth round of the 2003 NHL draft by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, 250th overall. Shane spent his first three seasons in professional hockey playing in the American Hockey League (Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, Portland Pirates). 2006-07 saw O’Brien break into the NHL as a regular, starting the season with the Anaheim Ducks then being traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played the full 2007-08 season with the Lightning. He became a Vancouver Canuck at the start of the 2008-09 season and has been with the team since.

A real inspiration to those not drafted in the first two rounds is Dan Girardi. Girardi wasn’t drafted at all and was signed as a free agent in 2006 by the New York Rangers. This past season was his fourth with the Rangers and he has not missed a game over the past three.

Girardi played in the Ontario Hockey League for five seasons from 2000-01 to 2004-05. He began with the Barrie Colts and was traded to the Guelph Storm midway through the 2002-03 season. After helping the Storm to a Robertson Cup victory in 2003-04, he was traded to the London Knights during the 2004-05 season and helped the Knights to a Memorial Cup victory.

These three are just a few of the players that prove that anyone can make it to the big show.

If you haven’t yet checked it out, the OHL Alumni In Europe For 2010-11 early bird version is available for download free.

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.