OHL Alumni Central

Michal Dvorak played in the Ontario Hockey League for the Kitchener Rangers for three seasons from 1996-97 to 1998-99. The Czech born player arrived part way through his rookie season after starting the year in the Czech Extraliga. That year, the Rangers won the Central Division title and fell to the eventual Robertson Cup champions, the Oshawa Generals, in the semi-finals.

Dvorak went undrafted and returned to Europe for the 1999-00 season. After one year in Germany’s DEL with Moskitos Essen, Michal returned to his homeland. Since 2000-01, he has played in the Czech Extraliga, mostly with HC Plzen. Dvorak had a three year stint with HC Karlovy Vary from 2004-05 to 2006-07 but has been with Plzen since. In a league with a 52 game regular season schedule, topping the 650 game mark and still ticking is quite an accomplishment.

With Plzen, Michal has reached the league semi-finals twice, in 2003-04 and 2008-09. The team is poised to go far in 2011-12. Currently, at nearly the 3/4 mark of the season, Plzen is neck and neck with HC Sparta Praha for the overall lead in the 14 team Extraliga. Both are head and shoulders over the next competitor.

Dvorak is currently the only Ontario Hockey League grad on the Plzen roster. However, North American hockey fans would be interested to know that not only is Martin Straka the team’s star player, he is also 70% owner and general manager! Straka was the nineteenth overall pick at the 1992 NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Between 1992-93 and 2007-08, Straka played for the Penguins, Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers. He played in 954 regular season NHL games and contributed 717 points. He topped out offensively in 2000-01, finished tied for fourth in the race for the Art Ross Trophy with 95 points.

Another familiar name on HC Plzen is Frantisek Kaberle, brother of current Montreal Canadiens defenseman, Tomas Kaberle. Frantisek played 523 NHL regular season games between 1999-00 and 2008-09 with the Los Angeles Kings, Atlanta Thrashers and Carolina Hurricanes.

The 2007-08 Kitchener Rangers finished atop the Ontario Hockey League during the regular season with 110 points, earning them the Hamilton Spectator Trophy. The Rangers finished 28 points ahead of Midwest Division rival, the London Knights. The Rangers bulldozed the Plymouth Whalers, Sarnia Sting and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, losing just one game to the Hounds, enroute to a Robertson Cup showdown with the Belleville Bulls. The Bulls took the Rangers to seven games but Kitchener came out victorious.

Justin Azevedo was awarded the Eddie Powers Trophy as the OHL’s top scorer with 124 points on 43 goals and 81 assists in 67 games. Azevedo was also awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as the most outstanding player in the Ontario Hockey League. Other major award winners included goaltender Josh Unice winning the Dinty Moore Trophy and Nick Spaling winning the William Hanley Trophy.

Kitchener hosted the Memorial Cup and, despite finishing the round robin with one win and two losses, the Rangers made it to the final game against the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL. Spokane won the game 4-1 to become Memorial Cup champions. Belleville finished the round robin with two wins and loss but Kitchener had their way with the Bulls in the semi-final game, winning 9-0. The Gatineau Olympiques were the representative from the QMJHL. The infamous dropping of the Memorial Cup incident occurred when the Chiefs were receiving the trophy after beating the Rangers.

Of the players that played at least one game with the Rangers during the 2007-08 season, including those that were traded away before the playoffs, 26 are still actively playing in 2011-12. A remarkable seven each are in the NHL and AHL. Eight are taking advantage of the CHL scholarship program and are playing for teams in the CIS. Two are in the ECHL, one is in Switzerland and one is still a member of the Kitchener Rangers. Coach Peter DeBoer is now the head coach of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.

Here’s where the 26 are playing (as of Jan. 7, 12):

Over the past four decades, from 1970 to 2009, 13 teams from the Ontario Hockey League have gone on to become Memorial Cup champions. In the first decade, the league was represented by four champs and each of the following three, three OHL teams won the top prize.

The following four articles describe in a bit of detail, the OHL’s winning teams in each decade.

1970′s

In the 1970’s, the Memorial Cup became strict property of major junior hockey in Canada. Previously, the format had potentially included any ‘Junior A’ team in the country. Four times during the decade, a team from Ontario was victorious at the Memorial Cup tournament. Each year, one team from each of the three major junior leagues in Canada competed for the ultimate prize. Interestingly, in each of the Ontario victories, the Ontario representative played possum in the round robin, winning one and losing one. In fact, three of the four years, all three teams ended the round robin with 1 and 1 records. Read more

1980′s

With the champions of three league’s competing each year for the Memorial Cup (plus one additional team from the host league), over a decade the odds are that each league will win three times. For the Ontario Hockey League during the 1980’s, it was just that. Interestingly, the Cornwall Royals won the Memorial Cup in 1980 and 1981 but didn’t move from the QMJHL to the OHL until the following season. Read more

1990′s

Each year, the champions from each of the three leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League meet to determine Canada’s top major junior hockey team. The host league of the Memorial Cup enters two teams to make it a four team tournament. In the 1990’s, three teams from the Ontario Hockey League were crowned Memorial Cup champions. Each year during the decade that an OHL team won, it was on home turf. Interestingly, the representative from the QMJHL in each of the three seasons was the Laval / Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Read more

2000′s

Since the name ‘International Hockey League’ is no longer in use in North America, Austria’s elite Erste Bank Eishockey Liga might think about changing their name to just that. The eleven team EBEL is truly an international hockey league. Just six of the eleven teams are based in Austria for 2011-12. There are two teams in Slovenia and one each in Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic. Halfway through the 54 game regular season schedule, the team is currently tied for ninth in the EBEL.

The latest team to join from outside Austria is Orli Znojmo. The ‘Eagles’ previously played out of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga 2. With the recent aquisition of Mike Danton, Orli Znojmo now has four Ontario Hockey League grads on the roster. One other, Jan Platil is rumoured to return to the team after being released by Tappara in Finland’s SM-Liiga. Platil started the season playing ten games with Znojmo.

Lubomir Stach played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. He began with the Belleville Bulls but was moved to the Guelph Storm during his first season. In 2005-06, he was picked up mid-season by the Peterborough Petes and the compact defenseman played a major role in the Petes winning the Robertson Cup. Lubomir contributed 18 points from the point in 19 playoff games. Stach spent the past five years in his native Czech Republic, the last two years mostly with Znojmo.

Mike Danton played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, as Mike Jefferson, from 1997-98 to 1999-00. He began with the Sarnia Sting, made a stop with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors before finishing his OHL career with the Barrie Colts. Like Stach, Danton was a member of a Robertson Cup winning team in his final OHL season. Danton was a fifth round pick of the New Jersey Devils at the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 135th overall. He has appeared in NHL games with the Devils and St. Louis Blues.

After a five year hiatus from the game, Danton returned to play two years at the Canadian university level with Saint Mary’s. He started the 2011-12 season with IFK in Sweden’s Division 1. He was just picked up by Znojmo a few days ago.

Richard Jarusek played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2008-09, with the Saginaw Spirit. Jarusek was a 49th overall pick of the Spirit at the 2008 CHL Import Draft. He returned to his homeland and played with the Under-20 version of Orli Znojmo in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Yet another Robertson Cup winner, Petr Kanko, played three years with the Kitchener Rangers from 2001-02 to 2003-04. Kanko was taken by the Los Angeles Kings after his first OHL season in the third round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, 66th overall. He played ten games with the Kings in 2005-06, playing the rest of his North American professional career with their AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs. Kanko returned to his native Czech Republic in 2008-09. This is first season in the EBEL and with Orli Znojmo.

Jan Platil played three years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Barrie Colts from 2000-01 to 2002-03. A seventh round pick of the Ottawa Senators in 2001, Platil played three years with their AHL affiliate in Binghamton before returning to Europe for the 2006-07 season. Since, Jan has played in Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Austria. There is a pretty strong rumour that Platil will soon return to Znojmo.

On Monday, Ontario Hockey League Alumni Mark Fraser and Kurtis Foster were involved in a trade between the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Fraser moves to the Ducks and Foster goes to New Jersey. Both are big, stay at home defensemen with Foster having the edge in National Hockey League experience.

Mark Fraser with the New Jersey Devils.

Mark Fraser played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06, with the Kitchener Rangers. In his final season, he was the captain of the Rangers. After his first year in the OHL, Fraser was taken by the Devils in the third round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 84th overall.

Since 2006-07, Mark has played in 98 NHL games with New Jersey. His most complete season came in 2009-10 when he played 61 games. This season, he has appeared in four for the Devils. The rest of his professional hockey career has been spent in the American Hockey League with the Lowell / Albany Devils.

Kurtis Foster played 256 regular season Ontario Hockey League games over five season with the Peterborough Petes from 1997-98 to 2001-02. At the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, Foster was taken in the second round by the Calgary Flames, 40th overall. Kurtis never played for the Flames but has appeared in 340 regular season NHL games with the Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim.

A proponent of eliminating touch icing from the game, Foster broke a leg in an icing incident during the 2007-08 season which not only nearly cost him his career, but his life due to complications on the operating table. He returned to play a full season with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2009-10 and played 74 games for the Edmonton Oilers in 2010-11. This year, Kurtis has dressed for nine games with the Ducks.

Kurtis Foster with the Minnesota Wild.