OHL Alumni Central

Okay… one of the three only played four games for the Kingston Frontenacs during the 1993-94 season, but the other two were fortified stars in the Ontario Hockey League.

Wesley Snell, age 35, played four games for the Frontenacs during the 1993-94 season with no goals, assists or PIM. Snell has played in Switzerland since the 1997-98 season, with a healthy mix between the National League A and National League B. This is his first season with HC Sierre in the NLB after two seasons with Zug of the NLA.

Paul Dipietro is the senior man on Sierre and the envy of all us 40-somethings. At 41, Dipietro has stepped down from the NLA this season after playing in the upper league since 1998-99 (with exception to 2004-05 when his former NHL friends flooded the European hockey market). Paul has spent the last six seasons with Zug and has competed for Switzerland on the world stage each season during that time.

Dipietro played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1986-87 to 1989-90, all with the Sudbury Wolves. He exploded offensively in his final season, scoring 56 goals and totalling 119 points, finishing second in OHL scoring to Keith Primeau of the Niagara Falls Thunder. The Montreal Canadiens liked what they saw and drafted Paul in the fifth round of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, 102nd overall. With the Habs in 1992-93, Dipietro got his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

In total, Dipietro played 192 regular season and 31 playoff games in the National Hockey League between 1990-91 and 1996-97. Besides Montreal, Paul also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings. After playing in Germany for the 1997-98 season, Paul made the switch to Switzerland with a bang. In 1998-99, DiPietro led the NLA in goals with 38 in 45 games with Ambi-Piotta.

Lee Jinman is 35 and will turn 36 in January. Jinman played three years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96. Most of his career was spent with the North Bay Centennials but he was shipped to the Detroit Whalers for the playoff run in his final season. In his first year with North Bay, the team won the Robertson Cup with a victory over Detroit. In that final season with the Whalers, Detroit fell to the Peterborough Petes in the semi-finals. In both his final two seasons, Jinman finished in the OHL’s top ten scorers.

Jinman was a second round pick of the Dallas Stars in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, 46th overall, but never played in the National Hockey League. After playing five years in the North American minor leagues, Lee left for Europe, yet to return. He tried the waters in Great Britain, Sweden and Austria before settling in Switzerland for the start of the 2005-06 season. Jinman has been a fixture on HC Sierre since that season and has contributed offensively at an astounding 2.16 points per game during that time.

This past season, he led the league in assists with 52 and was second in points with 82 in 43 games.  He has twice led the league in points, 2005-06 and 2008-09. Lee shows no signs of slowing down in 2011-12. He has begun the season with 19 points in just 8 games for HC Sierre.

Sierre has an interesting historical link to NHL players. The team has set the stage for the swan songs of NHL veterans Jacques Lemaire, Mel Bridgeman and Marian Stastny. Lemaire played two seasons with Sierre after retiring from the Montreal Canadiens. Bridgeman split the final season of his playing career between Sierre and the Vancouver Canucks. After playing a season with the disastrous Toronto Maple Leafs in 1985-86, Stastny went to Sierre to cleanse his hockey soul for one season, 1986-87.

Thomas Dolak played one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 1997-98. He began that season with three games in a Kingston Frontenacs uniform before heading north to North Bay and playing 48 more games with the Centennials. In those 51 games, Dolak totalled 45 points.

Thomas, born in the Czech Republic, played his pre-OHL hockey in Germany and has represented the country twice in international play. Dolak was a member of Germany’s under 20 team at the world junior championships in 1999 and played for Germany in the World Championships in 2000.

After his one year in the Ontario Hockey League, Dolak returned to Germany and has played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) since. 2011-12 will mark his fourteenth year in the league and will be played with the Hamburg Freezers, a team Thomas last played for in 2002-03.

For the past eight years, Dolak has played for the Hannover Scorpions, winning a DEL championship with the club in 2009-10. That season, his 53 points in 56 regular season games placed him tied for 17th in the league. He added 11 points in 10 playoff games on the way to the championship.

This past season, Thomas contributed 46 points in 51 regular season games as the Scorpions finished fifth in the 14 team DEL. Hannover bowed out of the playoffs in the quarter-finals. Dolak’s 46 points placed him 21st in the league.

Other than Hannover and Hamburg, Dolak has also played for the Kassel Huskies and Munchen (Munich) Barons in the DEL. He played in the DEL All-Star game as a member of the Huskies in 2000 and as a member of the Scorpions in 2004.

Well, that was probably the longest article title in the history of OHL Alumni Central…

The reigning champions of the Czech Republic Extraligy, HC Ocelari Trinec, are looking for a repeat with the help of four Ontario Hockey League alumni. Three were members of the team in 2010-11 and one is a new arrival from the Albany Devils of the American Hockey League. Two of the four are products of Stan Butler’s Brampton Battalion.

Lukas Havel is an original Brampton Battalion, playing three years with the club from 1998-99 to 2000-01. Havel averaged 20 goals per season with the Battalion, scoring 19 in the inaugural season when goals were hard to come by. In his final season of OHL play, Lukas played for the Czech Republic at the IIHF World Juniors, earning a gold medal.

Undrafted, Havel returned to his native Czech Republic and has been there since, with exception of a two year stint in the Slovak Extraligy. In 2010-11, his first with Trinec, Have played just five games after being a regular with HC Slavia Praha (Prague) the year before.

Martin Lojek also played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Brampton Battalion. Lojek played from 2002-03 to 2004-05. Like Lukas Havel, Lojek also played for the Czech Republic at the World Juniors. In 2005, Martin earned a bronze medal.

After his first season with Brampton, Lojek was taken by the Florida Panthers in the fourth round of the 2003 OHL Entry Draft, 105th overall. He played in Florida’s system until the end of the 2007-08 season, mostly with the Rochester Americans of the AHL but he did get into five NHL games during that time. In 2008-09, Martin made the return to his native Czech Republic. He has been with Trinec ever since.

Peter Hamerlik spent three seasons between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Hamerlik played the bulk of the games in net for the Frontenacs over the three years and backstopped Slovakia at the 2002 World Juniors.

Peter came to Kingston already a prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins, having been drafted in the third round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 84th overall. He re-entered the draft in 2002 and was taken by the Boston Bruins in the fifth round, 153rd overall. Hamerlik played for a handful of ECHL teams between 2003 and 2005 while reaching his highest level in North American hockey with the Providence Bruins of the AHL.

Hamerlik returned to Slovakia for the end of the 2004-05 season. He has been with Trinec since the start of the 2009-10 season, playing in Russia and Belarus along the way.

Rob Davison is the new guy and the only Ontario Hockey League grad playing for Trinec that is Canadian. Davison played three seasons in the OHL with the North Bay Centennials from 1997-98 to 1999-00.

Rob was drafted after his first OHL season by the San Jose Sharks in the fourth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 98th overall. He has appeared in 225 total NHL games with the San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils. He spent the past season solely in the American Hockey League with the Albany Devils where he wore the ‘A’.

This is not Davison’s first tour of duty overseas. In the lockout season of 2004-05, Rob played for the Cardiff Devils in Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League.

A few days ago, we featured a graduate of the North Bay Centennials, Vitaly Yachmenev. Vitaly’s younger brother, Denis, is also a graduate of the Ontario Hockey League and the same team as his older brother.

Denis played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2001-02 and 2002-03. He was the 26th pick in the 2001 CHL import draft. His first season was with the Centennials. He moved with the team for his second season and played with the Saginaw Spirit. Although Denis didn’t put up the amazing numbers his brother did in the OHL, he did score 17 goals in each season on weak Centennials/Spirit teams.

After his first season, Yachmenev was taken in the seventh round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, 200th overall. Denis has never played professional hockey in North America. Instead, he chose to return immediately to Russia after his two year stint in the Ontario Hockey League.

Although he has played parts of three seasons in the RSL/KHL in Russia, for the most part, Yachmenev has played in the country’s tier 2 professional league, now called the VHL. For the 2010-11 season, Denis played for HK Rubin, averaging about a point ever second game.

It’s only available in Russian but check out Denis Yachmenev’s profile page on the HK Rubin official website.

Check out the recent post on Vitaly Yachmenev at OHL Alumni Central.

The KHL regular season has come to a close in Russia for 2010-11 and Traktor Chelyabinsk finds themselves in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, 11 points out of a playoff spot. Chelyabinsk is the current club of Ontario Hockey League grad, Vitaly Yachmenev.

Yachmenev played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1993-94 and 1994-95 and took the league by storm. In his first season, he led the league with 61 goals and was named not only the OHL’s rookie of the year but the CHL’s rookie of the year as well. He helped the North Bay Centennials to a Hamilton Spectator Trophy as regular season champs and a Robertson Cup as the OHL’s playoff champions. Vitaly added 32 points in 18 playoff games for the Centennials. The team’s luck ran out at the Memorial Cup, going 0-3.

The following season, Yachmenev scored 53 for the Centennials while adding 52 assists for 105 points in 59 games. The 105 points was good enough for ninth in the OHL. He helped Russia to a Silver Medal at the IIHF Under-20 World Hockey Championships. Vitaly was also awarded the William Hanley Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s Most Sportsmanlike Player. The award is representative of the way Yachmenev has played the game throughout his career. His highest penalty minute total came in 2005-06 with just 30 in Russia’s Super League.

After his first season with North Bay, Yachmenev was drafted surprisingly low, going in the third round of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, 59th overall to the Los Angeles Kings. Vitaly put in  almost 500 games in the NHL with Los Angeles and the Nashville Predators before skipping to Russia for the start of the 2003-04 season. Unfortunately, the goal scoring ability that he showed with the Centennials never really resurfaced and he topped out with a season of 19 goals with the Kings.

In his eighth season in Russia, Yachmenev scored just four goals and added 12 assists in 43 games for Chelyabinsk. His current contract expired at the end of this season.

Vitaly spent the year playing with another Ontario Hockey League grad, Alexander Buturlin, on Traktor Chelyabinsk.

Check out Vitaly Yachmenev’s profile page at the KHL official website.

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