OHL Alumni Central

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.

For Ontario Hockey League grad Rob Schremp, 2010-11 seemed looked like the year he’d finally crossed the mountain and became a full-fledged National Hockey League regular. However, Schremp has left the NHL and North America behind to play for MODO of Sweden’s Elitserien for the 2011-12 season.

Rob Schremp as a member of the AHL's Springfield Falcons.

Schremp played four season in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his career with the Mississauga IceDogs and won the Emms Family Award as OHL rookie of the year in his first season, playing along side fellow American born player, Patrick O’Sullivan.

In 2003-04, after just three games with the IceDogs in which he average two points per game, Rob was traded to the London Knights. He scored 28 goals and totalled 90 points with London that season. The following year, he increased his point total to 90 on 41 goals and added another 29 points in the playoffs as the Knights won the Robertson Cup and Memorial Cup.

2005-06 was by far Schremp’s most productive in the Ontario Hockey League. His 57 goals, 88 assists and 145 points in just 57 games were all league highs. He won the Eddie Powers Trophy as the league’s top point-getter but was denied the Red Tilson Trophy as MVP which went to Wojtek Wolski of the Brampton Battalion.

In both his final two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, Schremp played for Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. In both years, USA was denied the podium, taking fourth place in both tournaments.

Rob was taken by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 25th overall. In his first pro season, he played just one regular season with the Oilers while spending the rest of his time in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. The following season, he doubled his total of NHL games with two. He was the ninth leading point-getter during the 2007-08 season, contributing 67 for the Springfield Falcons.

2008-09 saw him double his NHL games from the previous season again. He played four games for the Edmonton Oilers, registering his first NHL points with three assists. A trade to the New York Islanders organization in saw him finally play a significant amount of games with 44. He produced 25 points for the Islanders, including seven goals in those 44 games.

This past season, Schremp started out with the Islanders, playing 45 games. He finished the season with the Atlanta Thrashers, playing 18 more games.

It looks like the Asia League of Hockey will return to action for the 2011-12 season. The playoff championship for the league that has teams in Japan, South Korea and China was suspended due to the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that rocked the region earlier this year. The Tohoku Free Blades were set to playoff against the Anyang Halla in the finals when the earthquake happened quite near Tohoku. The playoffs were suspended and eventually, both teams were determined as co-champions of the 2010-11 season.

Michael Swift as a member of the AHL's Worcester Sharks.

High1 finished fifth in the seven team league in 2010-11. The team has gone out and acquired an Ontario Hockey League grad that should put a ton of pucks in the net for the them. Michael Swift spent the past season in the American Hockey League, starting with the Albany Devils and moving to the Worcester Sharks at the trade deadline.

Swift played five season in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08 with the Mississauga and Niagara IceDogs. Swift was the last ever team captain of the Mississauga IceDogs and the first ever of the Niagara IceDogs. In his final season with Niagara, he finished tied for seventh in league scoring with exactly 100 points. He earned the Leo Lalonde Trophy as the OHL’s top overage player. Swift is proof that low draft picks still have a chance. Michael was taken in the 10th round of the 2003 OHL Priority Draft, 186th overall.

Undrafted, Swift was scooped up by the New Jersey Devils organization and has been with their AHL affiliate since 2008-09. Michael led the Lowell Devils in goals with 24 in 2009-10 and his combined points total between the Albany Devils and the Worcester Sharks wsa good for fourth on the AHL affiliate of San Jose.

The ALH also attracts a handful of Ontario Hockey League grads each season. So far, just Swift, Ric Jackman and Bryan Young are signed up for the upcoming season.

Portuguese and English we would assume would be the languages Ontario Hockey League grad Justin DaCosta would be most familiar with. I wonder how his French is? DaCosta has signed up with Chamonix of France’s Ligue Magnus for the 2011-12 season. Although a few OHL alumni find their way to the Ligue Magnus each year, it is mostly populated with players from the QMJHL, France and Eastern Europe.

Justin spent this past season in the Central Hockey League with the Allen Americans. The Americans were dominant during the regular season but couldn’t make it past the conference finals in the playoffs. DaCosta played in 44 games with Allen during the regular season and an additional 13 in the playoffs. He was a call-up for one game by the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League.

DaCosta played in the Ontario Hockey League for four years from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts, playing 47 games in his rookie season. After just nine games the following season, Justin was shipped off to the Owen Sound Attack. In 2004-05, a mid-season trade sent him to his hometown, Mississauga. He finished out his OHL career with the IceDogs, putting in a career year with 42 points in 57 games in 2005-06.

Undrafted, DaCosta took advantage of the great OHL scholarship program and played two seasons with the University of New Brunswick.

In three years of pro, Justin has played for five teams in four leagues. Other than his game in the AHL this past season, his highest level of hockey was with the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder in 2009-10.

Chamonix will be looking for big things from DaCosta as they try to have their first .500 season since being promoted from tier 2 in 2005-06. The regular schedule of the Ligue Magnus consists of just 26 games. However, a soccer style country-wide playdown is intertwined. The Coupe de France begins with teams of all senior levels playing down (the equivelent of the Boston Bruins playing the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League in some cases). In the end, two teams, most always from the Ligue Magnus, meet in Paris (Bercy) to determine the winner of the Coupe de France in a one game showdown.

Chamonix plays out of the 1700 seat Patinoire Richard Bozon set in the beautiful French Alps.

You can read the article announcing Justin DaCosta’s signing at the Chamonix official website (in French).