OHL Alumni Central

Alan Letang began his Ontario Hockey League career with the Cornwall Royals in 1991-92 and followed the franchise to Newmarket and ended up with them as they began new life as the Sarnia Sting in 1994-95. Letang played a total of four years in the OHL, one in Cornwall, two with the Royals in Newmarket and one in Sarnia.

Letang was chosen by the Montreal Canadiens in the eighth round of the 1993 NHL draft, 203rd overall. He spent his first two seasons of professional hockey with Montreal’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Fredericton Canadiens, but never played a game with the NHL squad.

However, over his sixteen year professional hockey career to date, Alan has played in fourteen NHL games. His time in the NHL was split between the Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames and the New York Islanders. Most of Letang’s North American hockey was played in the AHL and the old IHL.

After earlier dabbling in the European pro game during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 (split between the Canadian National Team and Zug of Switzerland’s National League A) seasons, Letang returned for good in 2004-05. After a four year run in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) with the Hamburg Freezers and Nürnberg Ice Tigers, Alan moved to Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga where he currently plays.

After a season with HC Innsbruck in 2008-09, Alan switched to Medvescak Zagreb for the 2009-10 season. Letang is currently in a familiar role as the captain of Zagreb and the team sits right in the middle of the EBEL standings, fifth out of ten teams. Zagreb is located in nearby Croatia and is now one of four non-Austrian teams in the league. The others being Ljubljana and Jesenice of Slovenia and Székesfehérvár of Hungary.

Alan’s profile on the Zagreb official website can be found by clicking his name on the team’s roster page.

Alan has previously appeared in these two posts at OHL Alumni Central:

Sarnia Sting alumni active in pro hockey during the 2009-10 season

Newmarket Royals alumni active in pro hockey during the 2009-10 season

The Sarnia Sting became an OHL franchise in 1994-95 after moving from Newmarket, where they were called the Royals. Previous to that, the franchise was located in Cornwall where they were also called the Royals.

The Sting have been quietly successful since moving to Sarnia and have been a big producer of professional grade hockey players. Currently, there are 67 Sarnia Sting alumni playing at various levels of professional hockey throughout the world. Six of those players are playing at the ultimate level, the NHL. Keep in mind that to be considered an alumnus, a player need only play one game with the team.

Sarnia Sting grads can be found playing in 9 different countries throughout the hockey world – Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Russia, Sweden and, of course, Canada and the United States. The list is as follows:

Alan Letang's jersey with the Newmarket Royals.

As the Cornwall Royals morphed into the Sarnia Sting in the early 1990′s, they made a two year stop in Newmarket. During the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons, the team was known as the Newmarket Royals. It’s unfortunate that the team didn’t hold out for a few more years and wait for the Barrie Colts to join the league. The Colts and Royals would have made a great geographical rivalry. Out of all the players that donned a Newmarket Royal jersey over the two seasons, 5 are still active in professional hockey.

Alan Letang played in Newmarket for both 1992-93 and 1993-94. He was a true franchise player, playing in Cornwall in 1991-92 and Sarnia in 1994-95. He went on to play a total of 14 games in the NHL, split between the Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames and New York Islanders. Alan was originally drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. Alan is currently playing in the Austrian Elite League with Zagreb Medvescak KHL. Click here to view his profile page at the team’s official website.

Ilpo Kauhanen was a Cornwall Royal for two seasons but only put in two games as a Newmarket Royal before being traded to the London Knights in 1992-93. Ilpo has become a veteran between the pipes in Germany’s DEL. Currently he is with Ingolstadt ERC, which is his 5th team during his career in the league. Click here to view his profile page at the team’s official website.

Brendan Yarema played his rookie OHL season with the Royals before two seasons with the Sting. A career minor leaguer, Brendan has been a citizen of the world, playing for teams in Canada, United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Austria. He is currently playing for Ljubljana Olimpija HK in the Austrian League, though the team is located in Slovenia. There is no profile on the team’s website, but you can visit the site here.

Mikhail Nemirovsky played just 6 games in the OHL, all with the Newmarket Royals. The Russian is currently playing in the German OberLiga with EHC Dortmund Westfalen. The team’s website doesn’t have individual profile pages, but Mikhail can be found here.

Ken Carroll played for the Royals in his rookie season, 1993-94 and spent the next two seasons between the pipes with the Sting and Niagara Falls Thunder. Despite playing the majority of the games (43) in the ill-fated Royals’ final season, his GAA was a dreadful 5.37 with just a .852 save percentage. Things got better. Ken has become a veteran of the Central Hockey League and consistently has a GAA of less than 2.50 and a save percentage above .925. He is now in his 8th season with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs. His profile page at the team’s official site can be found here.