OHL Alumni Central

If you don’t include the three games played with the San Jose Sharks over two seasons, Ontario Hockey League graduate Mike Craig will, after the 2010-11 season, have played as many seasons in Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) as he did in the NHL.

Craig played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1987-88 to 1989-90, all with the Oshawa Generals. In his final season with the Generals, he was a major contributor to the team’s Robertson Cup and Memorial Cup victories. Despite playing just 43 regular season games in 1989-90, Craig netted 36 goals and added 40 assists for 76 points. In the Robertson Cup playoffs, he added 26 points in 17 games.

Mike won two gold medals as a member of Team Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championships in 1990 and 1991. In 1991 he provided 11 points in 7 games as was named a tournament all-star.

Picked by the Minnesota North Stars in the second round of the 1989 NHL draft, 28th overall, Craig stuck with the NHL club right after graduated from the Ontario Hockey League. In all, Mike played 423 games in the NHL with the North Stars/Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs and the San Jose Sharks.

Craig had some success with AHL teams after his NHL days had come to an end and his European days were still in the future. In 1999-00, Mike was the goals(39) and points(78) leader for the Kentucky Thoroughblades of the American Hockey League. Two seasons later, he did the same with the Cleveland Barons of the AHL netting 35 and totalling 60 points.

After a season in Switzerland’s National League A, Mike settled in Austria. His first four seasons in the EBEL were with the Vienna Capitals and he is entering his fourth season with Klagenfurter. In Austria, Craig has been tops on his team in goals five times and three times has been the highest point-getter. In 2004-05, he was the EBEL’s points leader and in 2006-07 and 2008-09, he was the highest goal scorer.

Check out Mike Craig’s profile page on the Klagenfurter official website.

Back in January, Mike was featured in a post at OHL Alumni Central about the two members of the 1989-90 Memorial Cup winning Oshawa Generals. The other remaining member is Fred Brathwaite who is still playing in the same part of the world as Mike Craig in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) with Adler Mannheim. We featured Fred in a recent post.

Sean Brown played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96. Until midway through his final season, Brown played for the Belleville Bulls. He was traded to the Sarnia Sting to finish off his OHL career.

In 1995, Brown was a first round pick of the Boston Bruins, 21st overall. He did play for the Bruins but not until after being traded back to Boston from the Edmonton Oilers. In all, Sean Brown played 437 games in the National Hockey League with Edmonton, Boston, New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks.

No stranger to the penalty box, the big defenseman sat out 515 minutes in 149 regular season OHL games as well as 122 minutes in 34 OHL playoff games. In the NHL, Brown sat out 909 minutes in the 437 games. In 2007-08, he was the most penalized player in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). He sat 206 minutes in just 53 games for the Nurmberg Ice Tigers. This was a continuation from the season before when in just 3 playoff games with the DEG Metro Stars of the DEL, Brown had 64 minutes in penalties.

The upcoming season will be his fifth in Europe since leaving the NHL. The first two seasons were in the DEL and the past two have been played with Klagenfurter AC (EC-KAC) of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). The team won the Austrian Championship in 2008-09. Sean is signed on for the 2010-11 season with Klagenfurter again.

Check out Sean Brown’s profile page on the Klagenfurter official website.

Andy Chiodo playing in Finland.

Former Toronto St. Michael’s Majors goalie, Andy Chiodo, has joined EC KAC (the KAC

EC KAC logo.

 stands for Klagenfurter Athletiksport-Club) of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga for the 2010-11 season. Chiodo split the 2009-10 season between the AHL’s Binghamton Senators and the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals.

Andy Chiodo played in the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons from 2000-01 to 2002-03, all with the Majors. In 2002-03, Chiodo was honoured as the OHL’s Goaltender of the Year.

Andy had a taste of the NHL in 2003-04 when he played eight games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team that drafted him 199th overall in the 2003 NHL draft.

This will be Chiodo’s second go at the European game. He played in Finland’s SM-Liiga for two seasons, 2006-07 and 2007-08 and he had a season with Dynamo Minsk in 2008-09.

Klagenfurt is located in the south of Austria near the border with Slovenia and has a population of nearly 100,000. The team plays out of the Stadthalle Klagenfurt which seats 5,500 for hockey. EC KAC finished the 2009-10 regular season fifth in the ten team Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL).

Chiodo joins fellow Ontario Hockey League alumni Mike Craig and Sean Brown on EC KAC. 

Check out Andy Chiodo’s profile page on the official EC KAC website.

Twenty seasons ago, in 1989-90, the Oshawa Generals took the Memorial Cup against the Kitchener Rangers at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. It was historical in that the host of the Memorial Cup tournament up to and including that season had been decided at the start of the season. The Hamilton Dukes had such an incredibly dismal season with only 11 wins that they denied their automatic entry into the tournament and the Kitchener Rangers took their spot. This brought changes to the host selection process to ensure that it would never happen again.

This was also the Eric Lindros era in Oshawa and ‘The Next One’ was an integral part of the Generals Memorial Cup victory. However, what’s amazing about that team is that twenty years later two players are not only still playing professional hockey but are still top players on their teams.

Mike Craig and Fred Brathwaite are bothing playing in Europe after decent NHL careers. Craig is with Klagenfurt AC in Austria and Brathwaite is in his second season with Adler Mannheim (Eagles) of the DEL in Europe.

Mike Craig of Klagenfurt AC

Mike Craig’s info page on Klagenfurt’s official site can be found here. Mike is third in team scoring on a team that is in 8th place in the 10 team Erste Bank Eishockey Liga. Klagenfurt is a city of 90,000 in the south of Austria near the borders of Italy and Slovenia.

Fred Brathwaite remains the starting goaltender for Mannheim of Germany’s DEL. Mannheim sits 9th in the 15 team league and Brathwaite is one of the top goaltenders in the league.