OHL Alumni Central

Okay… one of the three only played four games for the Kingston Frontenacs during the 1993-94 season, but the other two were fortified stars in the Ontario Hockey League.

Wesley Snell, age 35, played four games for the Frontenacs during the 1993-94 season with no goals, assists or PIM. Snell has played in Switzerland since the 1997-98 season, with a healthy mix between the National League A and National League B. This is his first season with HC Sierre in the NLB after two seasons with Zug of the NLA.

Paul Dipietro is the senior man on Sierre and the envy of all us 40-somethings. At 41, Dipietro has stepped down from the NLA this season after playing in the upper league since 1998-99 (with exception to 2004-05 when his former NHL friends flooded the European hockey market). Paul has spent the last six seasons with Zug and has competed for Switzerland on the world stage each season during that time.

Dipietro played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1986-87 to 1989-90, all with the Sudbury Wolves. He exploded offensively in his final season, scoring 56 goals and totalling 119 points, finishing second in OHL scoring to Keith Primeau of the Niagara Falls Thunder. The Montreal Canadiens liked what they saw and drafted Paul in the fifth round of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, 102nd overall. With the Habs in 1992-93, Dipietro got his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

In total, Dipietro played 192 regular season and 31 playoff games in the National Hockey League between 1990-91 and 1996-97. Besides Montreal, Paul also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings. After playing in Germany for the 1997-98 season, Paul made the switch to Switzerland with a bang. In 1998-99, DiPietro led the NLA in goals with 38 in 45 games with Ambi-Piotta.

Lee Jinman is 35 and will turn 36 in January. Jinman played three years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96. Most of his career was spent with the North Bay Centennials but he was shipped to the Detroit Whalers for the playoff run in his final season. In his first year with North Bay, the team won the Robertson Cup with a victory over Detroit. In that final season with the Whalers, Detroit fell to the Peterborough Petes in the semi-finals. In both his final two seasons, Jinman finished in the OHL’s top ten scorers.

Jinman was a second round pick of the Dallas Stars in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, 46th overall, but never played in the National Hockey League. After playing five years in the North American minor leagues, Lee left for Europe, yet to return. He tried the waters in Great Britain, Sweden and Austria before settling in Switzerland for the start of the 2005-06 season. Jinman has been a fixture on HC Sierre since that season and has contributed offensively at an astounding 2.16 points per game during that time.

This past season, he led the league in assists with 52 and was second in points with 82 in 43 games.  He has twice led the league in points, 2005-06 and 2008-09. Lee shows no signs of slowing down in 2011-12. He has begun the season with 19 points in just 8 games for HC Sierre.

Sierre has an interesting historical link to NHL players. The team has set the stage for the swan songs of NHL veterans Jacques Lemaire, Mel Bridgeman and Marian Stastny. Lemaire played two seasons with Sierre after retiring from the Montreal Canadiens. Bridgeman split the final season of his playing career between Sierre and the Vancouver Canucks. After playing a season with the disastrous Toronto Maple Leafs in 1985-86, Stastny went to Sierre to cleanse his hockey soul for one season, 1986-87.

Andris Dzerins played two years in the Ontario Hockey League, 2007-08 and 2008-09, both with the Kingston Frontenacs. In each season with Kingston, Dzerins reached 20 goals, 20 in his first and 21 in his second. Previous to the OHL, Andris played junior in Latvia, Sweden and Finland.

Since leaving the Ontario Hockey League, Dzerins has been with Dinamo Riga of Russia’s KHL. The team plays out of the 10,300 seat Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia. In its recent history, Dinamo has been mediocre, finishing around .500 each season. This season has started out as no exception with the team beginning with a 7-8 record and sitting in seventh in the eleven team KHL West Conference. Riga is captained by former NHLer Sandis Ozolins.

Like mostly every other player on Dinamo Riga, Dzerins is an annual fixture on Latvia’s national team. He played for Latvia two years in the IIHF under-18 D1 World Juniors, winning one gold and one silver. He followed that up with two years with the under-20 team, also winning a gold and silver. Over the past two seasons, he has been a member of Latvia’s squad at the World Championships. In 2011, he contributed five assists in six games.

Joining Andris on Dinamo Riga are two other Ontario Hockey League grads. Arvids Rekis played four seasons with the Erie Otters from 1996-97 to 1999-00. Juris Stals played the 2001-02 season with the Sarnia Sting and the following season with the Owen Sound Attack. Both were teammates of Dzerins on the 2011 Latvia team at the Worlds. Rekis was a member of the Team Latvia at the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia. Stals was the only one of the three drafted by a National Hockey League club. He was a ninth rounder of the New York Rangers in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

Josh Godfrey was just three years old when Craig Rivet played his first Ontario Hockey League game. The two OHL grads will lead the defense of the Elmira Jackals of the East Coast Hockey League for the 2011-12 season.

Rivet played three seasons with the Kingston Frontenacs from 1991-92 to 1993-94. His high offensive numbers reached with Kingston, 74 and 64 points in his final two seasons, were replaced with a stay-at-home style once he reached the NHL. In 923 National Hockey League games, Craig has scored an even 50 goals.

Rivet was taken by the Montreal Canadiens in the third round of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, 68th overall. He remained with the Habs until midway through the 2006-07 season when he was shipped to the San Jose Sharks. He spent 2007-08 with San Jose, moved to Buffalo for the 2008-09 season and split this past season with Buffalo and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Craig brings an incredible amount of leadership to the ECHL club, having worn a letter on his jersey since 2001-02 with three different NHL clubs. For the past three seasons, Rivet was team captain for Buffalo.

Josh Godfrey played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2004-05 to 2007-08. He began his OHL career with the Guelph Storm and switched to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds midway through the 2005-06 season. In 2006-07, he led the league’s defensemen in the goals department with 24. In his final season, he won World Junior gold with Team Canada, leading the tournament’s defensemen in assists with 5.

Godfrey was a second round pick of the Washington Capitals in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, going 34th overall. For the past three seasons, Josh has played within Washington’s system, mixed between their AHL club (Hershey Bears) and their ECHL club (South Carolina Stingrays). This past season, he played in the ECHL All-Star game.

Thomas Dolak played one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 1997-98. He began that season with three games in a Kingston Frontenacs uniform before heading north to North Bay and playing 48 more games with the Centennials. In those 51 games, Dolak totalled 45 points.

Thomas, born in the Czech Republic, played his pre-OHL hockey in Germany and has represented the country twice in international play. Dolak was a member of Germany’s under 20 team at the world junior championships in 1999 and played for Germany in the World Championships in 2000.

After his one year in the Ontario Hockey League, Dolak returned to Germany and has played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) since. 2011-12 will mark his fourteenth year in the league and will be played with the Hamburg Freezers, a team Thomas last played for in 2002-03.

For the past eight years, Dolak has played for the Hannover Scorpions, winning a DEL championship with the club in 2009-10. That season, his 53 points in 56 regular season games placed him tied for 17th in the league. He added 11 points in 10 playoff games on the way to the championship.

This past season, Thomas contributed 46 points in 51 regular season games as the Scorpions finished fifth in the 14 team DEL. Hannover bowed out of the playoffs in the quarter-finals. Dolak’s 46 points placed him 21st in the league.

Other than Hannover and Hamburg, Dolak has also played for the Kassel Huskies and Munchen (Munich) Barons in the DEL. He played in the DEL All-Star game as a member of the Huskies in 2000 and as a member of the Scorpions in 2004.

Well, that was probably the longest article title in the history of OHL Alumni Central…

The reigning champions of the Czech Republic Extraligy, HC Ocelari Trinec, are looking for a repeat with the help of four Ontario Hockey League alumni. Three were members of the team in 2010-11 and one is a new arrival from the Albany Devils of the American Hockey League. Two of the four are products of Stan Butler’s Brampton Battalion.

Lukas Havel is an original Brampton Battalion, playing three years with the club from 1998-99 to 2000-01. Havel averaged 20 goals per season with the Battalion, scoring 19 in the inaugural season when goals were hard to come by. In his final season of OHL play, Lukas played for the Czech Republic at the IIHF World Juniors, earning a gold medal.

Undrafted, Havel returned to his native Czech Republic and has been there since, with exception of a two year stint in the Slovak Extraligy. In 2010-11, his first with Trinec, Have played just five games after being a regular with HC Slavia Praha (Prague) the year before.

Martin Lojek also played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Brampton Battalion. Lojek played from 2002-03 to 2004-05. Like Lukas Havel, Lojek also played for the Czech Republic at the World Juniors. In 2005, Martin earned a bronze medal.

After his first season with Brampton, Lojek was taken by the Florida Panthers in the fourth round of the 2003 OHL Entry Draft, 105th overall. He played in Florida’s system until the end of the 2007-08 season, mostly with the Rochester Americans of the AHL but he did get into five NHL games during that time. In 2008-09, Martin made the return to his native Czech Republic. He has been with Trinec ever since.

Peter Hamerlik spent three seasons between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Hamerlik played the bulk of the games in net for the Frontenacs over the three years and backstopped Slovakia at the 2002 World Juniors.

Peter came to Kingston already a prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins, having been drafted in the third round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 84th overall. He re-entered the draft in 2002 and was taken by the Boston Bruins in the fifth round, 153rd overall. Hamerlik played for a handful of ECHL teams between 2003 and 2005 while reaching his highest level in North American hockey with the Providence Bruins of the AHL.

Hamerlik returned to Slovakia for the end of the 2004-05 season. He has been with Trinec since the start of the 2009-10 season, playing in Russia and Belarus along the way.

Rob Davison is the new guy and the only Ontario Hockey League grad playing for Trinec that is Canadian. Davison played three seasons in the OHL with the North Bay Centennials from 1997-98 to 1999-00.

Rob was drafted after his first OHL season by the San Jose Sharks in the fourth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 98th overall. He has appeared in 225 total NHL games with the San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils. He spent the past season solely in the American Hockey League with the Albany Devils where he wore the ‘A’.

This is not Davison’s first tour of duty overseas. In the lockout season of 2004-05, Rob played for the Cardiff Devils in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League.