OHL Alumni Central

At a time when most would have thought that the North Americans would have abandoned hockey in the far east after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011, an Ontario Hockey League grad is running away with the scoring title. Tied, in the assist category at least, is a teammate and yet another OHL alumnus.

Michael Swift sits 20 point higher than the next challenger with an astounding 71 points in 29 games. His 34 goals to date have matched his output from 2006-07 when he scored the same as captain of the Mississauga IceDogs. Swift’s 37 assists are tops in the league, as well, tied with teammate Bryan Young, a Peterborough Petes grad.

Michael played in the Ontario Hockey League for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08. His first four years were with the Mississauga IceDogs and for his final season, he moved with the franchise to Niagara. Swift was team captain in his final two seasons. His 100 points in 2007-08 with the Niagara IceDogs was good for a seventh place tie with Jack Combs of the Saginaw Spirit. The performance earned him the Leo Lalonde Trophy as the OHL’s top overage player.

Swift went undrafted but spent three years in the New Jersey Devils system with their AHL affiliate. This is his first year in the Asia League with High1. The team is currently tied for fourth in the seven team league. High1 is based in Seoul, Korea. The team’s home rink is the Goyang Sport Complex Arena which seats 3,000 for hockey.

Bryan Young is in his second year on the point for High1. Young played for the Peterborough Petes for three full seasons from 2003-04 to 2005-06. He was a fifth round pick of the Edmonton Oilers at the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 146th overall. Bryan managed to get into 17 NHL games during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. For the most part, Young spent between 2006-07 and 2009-10 in the AHL and ECHL.

Back in 1974-75 and 1975-76, Greg Hotham played for the Kingston Canadians. Three decades later, both of Greg’s sons, Andrew and Scott, also played in the Ontario Hockey League. All three are blue liners.

The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Greg in the fifth round of the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft, 84th overall. Between 1979-80 and 1984-85, Greg played in 230 regular season NHL games with the Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins. He retired from the American Hockey League after the 1989-90 season, after playing 513 regular season games with the New Brunswick Hawks, Baltimore Skipjacks and Newmarket Saints (all three are extinct now).

The oldest Hotham son, Scott, played in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He began with the North Bay Centennials and moved with the club to Saginaw, where he played one game with the Spirit in 2002-03. After that game, Scott went back to Canada to play for the Mississauga IceDogs. The following season, he was traded early again, this time to the Barrie Colts.

Scott Hotham went undrafted and spent the four years post-OHL with St. Mary’s University. Hotham entered the world of pro hockey in 2009-10, mostly with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades but also playing nine games with the Rochester Americans of the AHL. In 2010-11, he played for Lillehammer in Norway’s Get-Ligaen. This season, he is playing in Austria’s Erste Bank Hockey League (EBEL) for Olimija Ljubljana.

Andrew Hotham’s career has paralleled brother Scott’s in several ways. Both played for the Barrie Colts (at the same time) and Saginaw Spirit (not at the same time) in the Ontario Hockey League. Both played four years with St. Mary’s. Both had a cup of coffee with the Rochester Americans.

Andrew played in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2006-07 with the Barrie Colts, Erie Otters and Saginaw Spirit. He played with St. Mary’s from 2007-08 to 2010-11, joining the Americans after the CIS season had ended. With St. Mary’s, Andrew was an All-Canadian First Team All-Star in his final three seasons and was the Atlantic’s Most Valuable Player for 2010-11, This season, Hotham is playing for the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL.

Thank god for the cut & paste function on word processors! If I had to type out Székesfehérvár more than once, this article would never happen. Don’t even bother trying to pronounce it…

Székesfehérvár is one of eleven teams in Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). Like four other teams in the league, Székesfehérvár is not actually located in Austria. Located 65 km southwest of Budapest, Székesfehérvár is the only Hungary based team in the EBEL.

Adam Munro

Two Ontario Hockey League grads are currently on the roster of Székesfehérvár. Adam Munro and Justin DaCosta are doing their part for the much improved team. In 2010-11, the club finished tied for last, when the EBEL consisted of ten teams, and finished out of the post-season. Currently, at just over the halfway point of the 54 game schedule, Székesfehérvár sits fifth and poised for a berth in the playoffs.

Adam Munro played between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League for five years from 1998-99 to 2002-03. Munro starred with the Erie Otters until eight games into his final season when he was shipped to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In 2000-01, Adam had the best save percentage in the OHL. In the following season, Adam helped the Otters to a Robertson Cup victory, after topping the Barrie Colts in the final, four games to one.

Taken in the first round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, 29th overall, Munro played a total of 17 National Hockey League games. He was on the ice for seven with Chicago in 2003-04 and ten with the Blackhawks in 2005-06. Munro spent 2010-11 in Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio (LIHG) with Cortina.  So far this season with Székesfehérvár, Munro has played in 27 games, posting a 2.74 GAA and .921 save percentage.

Justin DaCosta began his 2011-12 season with Chamonix of France’s Ligue Magnus. After just six games on the point with the French squad, DaCosta headed east. Justin played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts. He played with the Owen Sound Attack before finishing his career with the Mississauga IceDogs.

Undrafted by an NHL club, DaCosta spent time in the Canadian university system and North American minor pros before travelling to Europe this season. In 2010-11, he played with the Allen Americans of the Central Hockey League.

Székesfehérvár is an ancient city with an area population of around 140,000. The team plays out of a 3,500 seat arena, which should feel like home to Justin after his days in Owen Sound!

Chad Painchaud played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2005-06. He began with the Mississauga IceDogs and was shipped to the Sarnia Sting eight games into his second season. In that first season with Mississauga, Chad played in all of the IceDogs playoff games as they went to the Robertson Cup finals before being swept by the Guelph Storm.

Painchaud, playing just 49 games with the Sting in 2005-06, led the team in goals, assists and points with 31, 34 and 65.

After just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, Chad was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in the fourth round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 106th overall. Although most of his professional career to date has been played in the East Coast Hockey League, each year Painchaud has been a call-up to the American Hockey League. However, the number of games he has played in the AHL each season has diminished each year.

Chad has maintained nearly a point per game pace during his ECHL career. He led the Victoria Salmon Kings in points with 68 during the 2009-10 season. This past season, he scored 27 and totalled 49 points in 56 games with the Salmon Kings while contributing another eight points in twelve playoff games.

Painchaud will start the 2011-12 season with the Reading Royals of the ECHL. This will be his fourth team in the ECHL, having also played for the Gwinnett Gladiators and Bakersfield Condors. His AHL experience has been with the Chicago Wolves, Iowa Chops and Manitoba Moose.

Ontario Hockey League grad David Pszenyczny helped the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs to their first ever Ray Miron President’s Trophy in the Central Hockey League in 2010-11. The Mudbugs reached the finals in 2003-04 and 2005-06, losing both times to the Laredo Bucks. After winning the championship, the team celebrated by folding.

Pszenyczny was picked up by the Missouri Mavericks of the CHL in July. The Mavericks have four other Ontario Hockey League alumni on the roster for the 2011-12 season, including Brad Good (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 03-04 to 06-07), Matt Dias (Sudbury Wolves 05-06 to 08-09), John-Scott Dickson (Windsor Spitfires 00-01 to 04-05) and Nathan O’Nabigon (Plymouth, Mississauga, Kitchener 00-01 to 03-04).

David played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2005-06. His first season consisted of just five games with the Sarnia Sting after starting the season in the NAHL. Early in his fourth season with Sarnia, he was shipped to the Mississauga IceDogs along with John Hecimovic and Daniel Carcillo for Chad Painchaud, Brad Efthimiou and Chris Chimienti.

Pszenyczny’s final season in the OHL saw him moved to the Barrie Colts midway through the season as the club beefed up for the Robertson Cup playoff run. David contributed 14 points in 14 games from the point in the playoffs as Barrie came up short against eventual Robertson Cup winner, Peterborough Petes.

David was with Bossier-Shreveport for three seasons. In his first two, he made his goals count. Seven of his eighteen goals during 2008-09 and 2009-10 were game winners.

The Missouri Mavericks are primed to do what the Mudbugs did in 2010-11. The team is coming off a fourth place finish in the Turner Conference with just four points seperating the Mavericks and the first place Rapid City Rush.