OHL Alumni Central

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.

For the second year in a row, Ontario Hockey League grads Jamie Langenbrunner and Jason Arnott will start the season on the same team. Last season, both were with the New Jersey Devils and both were traded away to different teams by the end of the season. In 2011-12, the two veterans will bring leadership and experience to a youth-packed St. Louis Blues team.

Before the 2010-11 season, Langenbrunner and Arnott had a series of near misses. Jamie began his Ontario Hockey League career with the Peterborough Petes in 1993-94 while Jason ended his OHL career with the Oshawa Generals in 1992-93. During the 2001-02 season, the two were traded for each other with Langenbrunner going from the Dallas Stars to New Jersey while Arnott went in the opposite direction.

Jason Arnott played two season in the Ontario Hockey League, 1991-92 and 1992-93, both with the Oshawa Generals. He was a seventh overall pick by the Edmonton Oilers in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft and was an instant stick with the Oilers in 1993-94. Along the way, he has played 1172 NHL games with the Oilers, Devils, Stars, Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals.

Jamie Langenbrunner played two seasons in Ontario Hockey League, as well. Jamie played for the Peterbough Petes in 1993-94 and 1994-95. Langenbrunner was drafted the same year as Arnott, 1993, going in the second round, 35th overall, to the Dallas Stars. He was drafted right out of high school in the United States and came to the Petes already an NHL prospect. Langenbrunner has totalled 1035 regular season NHL games from 1995-96 to the present with Dallas and New Jersey.

This duo brings to St. Louis the combined experience of three Stanley Cup victories (Langenbrunner -2, Arnott – 1). Their leadership qualities are immense. Langenbrunner served as the team captain of the New Jersey Devils from 2007-08 until his trade to Dallas last season. Arnott wsa team captain of the Nashville Predators from 2006-07 to 2009-10.

With the signing of these two veterans, St. Louis instantly became one of the team’s to watch in the upcoming NHL season.

Check out the story announcing the double signing from the St. Louis Blues official website.

Nearly three years seperate them but the Sestito brothers got to play one season together with the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers in 2004-05.

Tom Sestito on the left and Tim Sestito on the right.

Tim Sestito played four years with the Whalers from 2001-02 to 2004-05. Undrafted by an NHL club, Tim has worked his way through the ranks from ECHL, to AHL and finally to the NHL. His first NHL game came in 2008-09 with the Edmonton Oilers. He played just one game with Edmonton but was captain of their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons.

The past two seasons, Sestito has been in the New Jersey Devils organization, splitting time between the Devils and their AHL affiliate, the Lowell Devils in 2009-10 and the Albany Devils in 2010-11. In 2009-10, Tim got up to New Jersey for nine games. This season, the number increased to 36.

Tom Sestito played three years for the Whalers from 2004-05 to 2006-07. His 42 goals led the team in his final Ontario Hockey League season. He added another 11 goals and 17 points in 19 playoff games that season as Plymouth captured the Robertson Cup as OHL playoff champions.

Tom was taken by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, 85th overall. Sestito has played a total of 13 games in the NHL to date, all with the Blue Jackets. He got into nine this season with Columbus but was shipped to the Philadelphia Flyers organization in late February. Tom spent the rest of the 2010-11 season with Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms.

With one in New Jersey and another in Philadelphia, at least the Sestito boys are trying to make it easy on their upstate New York family to capture some games.

Tim Sestito was recently featured in an article at OHL Alumni Central focused on the graduates of the 2002-03 Plymouth Whalers that are still active in professional hockey.

He was Ahren Nittel with the Windsor Spitfires. He’s usually now listest as Ahren Spylo-Nittel. His current team, Biel of Switzerland’s National League A simply lists him as Ahren Spylo. No matter the name, this Ontario Hockey League grad is going strong in Europe.

Ahren played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03. He started his OHL career with the Windsor Spitfires and moved over to the Oshawa Generals midway through his final season.

Spylo-Nittel was taken by the New Jersey Devils in the third round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, 85th overall. Ahren played three seasons with New Jerseys AHL affiliate, the Albany Rivers Rats, from 2003-04 to 2005-06. In his second season, while only playing 50 games, he led the team in goals with 25.

He made the jump to European hockey in 2006-07 and with exception to a couple of games played in the ECHL in 2009-10, he has been there since. Ahren has made stops in Germany and Russia as well as his current league in Switzerland. With the Nürnburg Ice Tigers of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2007-08, he led the team in goals (41) and points (61) in 56 games. He was selected to Team Nord Amerika for the 2008 DEL All-Star game. As a member of the DEL’s Adler Mannheim, he competed in the 2009 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.

This is his first season with Biel and he currently leads the team in goals and points, running neck and neck with teammate and Ontario Hockey League grad, Rico Fata. The team has just extended Spylo-Nittel’s contract through next season.

You can check out Ahren Spylo-Nittel’s profile at the Biel official website.

Brad Snetsinger played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08. Snetsinger began his OHL career with the Mississauga IceDogs, playing his first two seasons with the club. It wasn’t until he started the 2005-06 season with the Windsor Spitfires that his junior career began to blossom.

In his first year with Windsor, his 29 goals led the team. He repeated the goal total the following season and added 33 assists for 62 points to lead the Spitfires in all three offensive categories. In his final season in the Ontario Hockey League, Snetsinger scored 37 and added 52 assists for 89 points. This total tied him for 15th overall in the OHL. He was second on the team in points behind Josh Bailey’s 96 and ahead of Taylor Hall’s 84.

Undrafted, Brad was signed to a pro contract in December, 2007 with the New Jersey Devils. His first two seasons in pro hockey were spent between New Jersey’s AHL affiliate, the Lowell Devils, and their ECHL club, the Trenton Devils. In his first year, 2008-09, he contributed to the ECHL Devils at a point per game pace with 49 points in 49 games.

This season, 2010-11, saw Snetsinger start with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL and after 26 games get traded to the Bakersfield Condors. Brad competed in the 2011 ECHL All-Star game, as did all the Bakersfield Condors. Including his points accumulated with the Grizzlies, Snetsinger is the current scoring leader on the Condors.

Brad Snetsinger was previously featured at OHL Alumni Central in a post listing the Windsor Spitfires Alumni that were active in pro hockey during the 2009-10 season.

Snetsinger is joined on the Bakersfield Condors by another Ontario Hockey League grad, Andrew Ianiero.