OHL Alumni Central

The Lahden Pelicans of Finland’s SM-Liiga are treading in rare territory. Three quarters of the way through the 2011-12 season, Pelicans find themselves in second place in the fourteen team Finnish elite league. The team has never never won a championship and has really never enjoyed any great playoff success. 2011-12 might just be the year of the Pelicans.

Pelicans are led by an Ontario Hockey League grad and the team has recently picked up two more OHL alumni for the playoff run. Justin Hodgman is tied for tenth in league scoring. Czech natives Jan Platil and Radek Smolenak are recent pickups from other SM-Liiga teams.

Justin Hodgman played four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Erie Otters from 2005-06 to 2008-09. Undrafted, Hodgman spent the past two years bouncing around between the IHL, ECHL and AHL. In 2010-11, Justin played mostly with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL with a few games down in the ECHL with the Reading Royals. This is his first season in Finland.

Jan Platil played for the Barrie Colts for three seasons from 2000-01 to 2002-03. A seventh round pick of the Ottawa Senators at the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, Platil spent three years in Ottawa’s farm system with the AHL’s Binghamton Senators before heading to Europe for the 2006-07 season. Jan has since played in Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Austria. He began the season with Orli Znojmo in Austria’s EBEL before moving to Tappara in the SM-Liiga.

Radek Smolenak played two seasons with the Kingston Frontenacs, 2004-05 and 2005-06. Drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning after his first year in the OHL, Radek excelled in his second season with Kingston, scoring 42 and assisting on another 42 for 84 points in 65 games. Smolenak did get into seven NHL games after turning pro, six with Tampa Bay in 2008-09 and one with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2009-10.

Smolenak has been in Europe for the past two seasons. in 2010-11, he played for his hometown HC Sparta Prague. He began the current season in Finland with Assat.

The Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs have been around at the major junior level since the 1973-74 OMJHL season. They began as the Canadians, changed to the Raiders for a season and have been called the Frontenacs since 1989-90.

The furthest Kingston has made it in the Robertson Cup playoffs is the semi-finals. The team has never played in the finals for the OHL championship. The Frontenacs have just one division title to speak of, in 1994-95 when they led the Eastern Division. This season, 2011-12, Kingston has found themselves in a position where it would take a miracle to qualify for the post-season. Currently in last place, 14 points behind the next team, it’s a long uphill battle.

Yet, despite the numbers, Kingston can produce professional hockey players with currently 90 alumni still playing around Planet Hockey in 2011-12. To be put on this list, a player needs to play just one game with the Frontenacs. More than a lot of teams, there are a number of players on the list that did just play a handful of games with the team. Amazingly, 25 players that have appeared with Kingston are now taking advantage of the CHL’s great scholarship program and are playing for various teams throughout the CIS.

Frontenacs alumni are playing in 23 different leagues in 14 different countries. Eight players are currently in the National Hockey League. Three well-known players from the early 1990′s are still rolling along: David Ling, Tyler Moss and Craig Rivet.

Information below is current as of January 10, 2012.

An Ontario Hockey League grad was the Southern Professional Hockey League’s most valuable player in 2010-11, the SPHL’s seventh season of existence. Matt Auffrey led the first year Augusta RiverHawks to a second overall finish and a trip to the President’s Cup finals. Augusta bowed out to the Mississippi Surge in three games (best of five series).

Matt Auffrey of the Augusta RiverHawks.

Matt Auffrey played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2005-06 and 2006-07. His first season was spent in a Kitchener Rangers uniform after coming across the border from the University of Wisconsin. In his second year in the OHL, Auffrey played with Kitchener, the Brampton Battalion and Kingston Frontenacs. he scored a respectable 24 goals in his first season and 27 in his second.

Matt came to the OHL already an NHL prospect of the Anaheim Ducks. Auffrey was taken in the sixth round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 172nd overall. Since leaving the Ontario Hockey League, Matt has played in the AHL, ECHL, IHL and SPHL.

With Augusta in 2010-11, Matt was the team captain and led in offense. His 49 assists was the second most in the league and his 70 points ranked third. In the playoffs, he was fifth in scoring. His efforts were good enough to be selected the SPHL’s MVP as well as being a member of the First All-Star Team.

In Augusta’s second season in the SPHL, they currently sit in first place overall in the nine team league. Chugging along at a point per game pace, Auffrey has a lot of help in the offensive department this year with four players ahead of him in team scoring.

The SPHL has grown in stature since 2004-05 and would seem to be a healthy hockey league. Some interesting rulebook differences to be found in the SPHL include 3 on 3 overtimes and no limitations on stick blade curves.

Going into this weekend’s action in Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio, Ontario Hockey League alumni held the numbers one and two spots in the scoring race. At nearly the halfway point of the 40 game 2011-12 LIHG season, David Ling and Rob Hennigar are knotted at 34 points apiece. Ling holds a one goal edge in goals but has played one more game than Hennigar. Both are four points ahead of third place. OHL grads Dan Tudin and Adam Henrich also find themselves in the league’s top 20.

David Ling, who will turn 37 in January, is in his first season in Italy, playing with Val Pusteria. Ling played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1992-93 to 1994-95, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. In his final season with Kingston, he scored 61 and assisted on 74 for 135 points. He was the OHL’s top scoring right winger and was named league MVP. He was also named CHL Player of the Year.

David, a seventh round pick of the Quebec Nordiques in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, played a total of 93 games in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets. He was third overall in the AHL in 2004-05, contributing 88 points with the St. John’s Maple Leafs. He started the 2010-11 season with Amur Khabarovsk and ended up back in the AHL with the Providence Bruins.

Rob Hennigar is enjoying his first experience east of the Atlantic. He was a member of the Windsor Spitfires from 2000-01 to 2003-04. Hennigar followed that up with four years with the University of New Brunswick. After spending three years from 2008-09 to 2010-11 mostly in the ECHL, he finds himself with Cortina. Rob may just be the difference that has taken Cortina from last place in the nine team LIHG last season to a tie with two other teams, including Ling’s Val Pusteria, nineteen games into 2011-12.

Ontario Hockey League grad Jaroslav Kruzik started the 2011-12 season with HC Litomerice of the Czech Republic Extraliga Tier 2. After moving over to the Slovak Extraliga a few days ago, Kruzik has now played his first game for HK Nitra.

Jaroslav played in the Ontario Hockey League for three years from 2007-08 to 2009-10. He began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts after Barrie chose him 49th overall in the first round of the CHL Import Draft in 2007. Previous to starting with the Colts, Kruzik played for Rytiri Kladno in his home Czech Republic.

After 50 games for Barrie in his first OHL season, Kruzik was shipped to Kingston after just one game with the Colts in 2008-09. He played 64 games with the Frontenacs that season, contributing 23 points from the blue line. In his final season with the Kingston Frontenacs, his point total dropped by one while playing five less regular season games. He got a taste of Robertson Cup playoff hockey with four games in the spring of 2010.

Kruzik returned to the Czech Republic for the 2010-11 season, once again playing for Rytiri Kladno, this time for their under-20 team. His game total was held to just eight.

Jaroslav played 12 games with HC Litomerice this season, scoring a goal and adding an assist for two points. Nitra can use some strength on defense. The team is off to a rough three win start and sits in tenth place in the eleven team league. Their goals against is the second worst in the league at the moment.

HK Nitra plays out of the 4,800 seat Nitra Zimny Arena in Nitra, Slovakia. The Slovakian Extraliga is currently dominated by former National Hockey League players, Zigmund Palffy and Miroslav Satan. The two sit one and two in league scoring.