OHL Alumni Central

We’re calling this the ‘Early Bird’ version of the OHL Alumni in Europe for 2010-11 E-book. It’s a list of the OHL Alumni in a handy profile format that have committed and signed on with elite teams in Europe for the 2010-11 season.

The download is in PDF and is completely free to use and distribute.

Stay tuned in September for a much more complete version as more and more players figure out where they’ll play in the upcoming season. Also, a North American version is also on the way.

Just click the button below to download.

The Stanley Cup playoff time is upon us. With the Philadelphia Flyers beating the New York Rangers yesterday afternoon in a shootout, all the teams for this season’s run to the cup are set.

Of course, any Ontario Hockey League fan has one eye still focused on the OHL playoffs and the other is watching the NHL. This season, there are 93 OHL alumni competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. All OHL teams are represented and each NHL team has at least 3 OHL grads on the roster.

Over the next 8 posts, OHL Alumni Central will feature, series by series, the OHL grads playing for the Cup. Today, we’ll look at the overall numbers by NHL and OHL teams.

The Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Avalanche are the NHL leaders with 9 OHL alumni on each roster. The Vancouver Canucks, aka Team Sweden, has the least with 3. Interestingly, the Ontario team, Ottawa Senators, has 8 OHL alumni which puts them second while the two non-Ontario Canadian teams, Montreal and Vancouver have the lowest number of OHLers.

The number of alumni representing each OHL team brings some surprises. Take note that the totals will add up to more than 93. Players that played on more than one team over their OHL career were counted on each team they played on. With all the flash of the London Knights and Windsor Spitfires, it is the Sudbury Wolves that are the biggest producer of talent in this year’s playoffs. The team that is expected to be in the OHL finals this season, the Barrie Colts, have the least.

The 1998-99 Belleville Bulls finished a distant second in the Ontario Hockey League’s Eastern Division, 18 points behind the Ottawa 67′s. The team was third in their conference and fifth in the league. Yet, the Belleville Bulls took the J. Ross Robertson Trophy as OHL playoff champs with a 7th game win over the London Knights in the final.

The team would go on to make an appearance at the Memorial Cup tournament in Ottawa, but relying completely on offense, would fall to the host Ottawa 67s in the semi-final.

Eleven years later, it’s nothing short of amazing that 14 players off that Belleville Bull team are still showing off their talent in professional hockey. Belleville alumni are represented in 9 different leagues in 5 different countries. Also, amazingly, in this day and age of building a winning team from the outside, 13 of the 14 players started their OHL careers with the Bulls. Only 5 of the 14 players finished out their OHL careers with other clubs.

As usual, where available, you can find each player’s profile page at their current team’s official website by clicking on their name.

Justin Papineau was a Bull from 1996-97 to 1999-00. He was the team’s leading scorer throughout the regular season and playoffs in 1998-99. He had 52 goals and 99 points in the regular season then exploded for 21 goals and 51 points in just 21 playoff games. Papineau logged 81 NHL games over his pro career with the St. Louis Blues and the New York Islanders. Currently, Justin is with Adler Mannheim of Germany’s DEL.

Ryan Ready was a Bull from 1995-96 to 1998-99. Ryan put in 7 games with the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers in 2005-06 before heading to Germany to play with his current club, Iserlohn Roosters.

Jonathan Cheechoo played in Belleville from 1997-98 to 1999-00. He has enjoyed a 500+ game career in the NHL with San Jose Sharks and Ottawa Senators that was highlighted by a 56 goal performance in 2005-06. He has spent the last part of this season with Ottawa’s AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.

Kevin Baker played in Belleville from 1997-98 to 1999-00. Kevin is in his second season with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. In his first season, he was the ECHL’s scoring leader with 57 goals and 45 assists for 102 points. He was also named league MVP.

Chris Stanley (the link goes to a list of the team’s forwards – click on Chris’ name to view profile) was a Bull from 1996-97 to 1999-00. Chris went the university route after the OHL and spent 4 seasons with Dalhousie in the AUS. Currently, Chris is playing in Germany’s Bundesliga 2 with Fischtown Pinguins.

Randy Rowe (link goes to team roster – click on Randy’s name to view his profile) played in Belleville from 1997-98 to 2000-01. Although he was an integral part of the championship team in 1999, his best season in the OHL came two years later when he potted 64 goals in just 63 games. Randy currently finds himself on the roster of the Lake Erie Monsters of the AHL.

Branko Radivojevic played for the Bulls 1998-99 to 2000-01. Branko played 393 games in the NHL with Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers and the Minnesota Wild before switching to Russia’s KHL. Branko is currently a member of Spartak Moscow. His profile page on the League’s official site can be found here.

Jason Lawmaster was acquired by the Bulls from the Plymouth Whalers during the 1997-98 season and played his second of two OHL seasons with the Bulls in 1998-99. Jason is currently with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the IHL.

Derek Campbell was a Bull for 1997-98 and 1998-99 but finished out his OHL career with the Owen Sound Platers in 1999-00. Derek played this season with the Coventry Blaze of the Great Britain’s EIHL.

Michael Jacobson played for Belleville from 1997-98 to 2000-01. His final season in the OHL, 2001-02, was split between the Sudbury Wolves and the Owen Sound Attack. After three years playing in Italy, Michael spent this season with the Belfast Giants of Great Britain’s EIHL.

Branislav Mezei was a Bull from 1997-98 to 1999-00. He put in 240 NHL games with the New York Islanders and Florida Panthers before heading to Russia’s KHL last season. This season was split between the Czech Republic and Finland. Branislav is currently with the Blues of Finland’s SM-liiga. There isn’t a profile on the team’s official website but the roster page can be found here.

Nathan Robinson played with Belleville from 1998-99 to 2001-02. Other than the Memorial Cup appearance in his rookie season, the highlight of his OHL career was a 110 point performance in his final season. Nathan is in his 4th season in Germany’s DEL. Currently, he is with former Bull teammate, Justin Papineau, on Adler Mannheim.

Kris Newbury played in the OHL from 1998-99 to 2002-03. His first season and a half were with Belleville and the rest of his OHL career was played out with the Sarnia Sting. Kris has 48 games worth of NHL experience with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. He is currently in the New York Rangers system with the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Doug MacIver started out his rookie season in the OHL, 1998-99, with the Bulls but was traded to the Sarnia Sting to finish out the season. Sarnia traded him to the Kingston Frontenacs the next season and he remained there until the end of his career in 2001-02. Doug played only two games with the Missouri Mavericks of the Central Hockey League this season and is currently off the active roster.

Szwez celbrates a goal with fellow OHL grad, Sean McMorrow. Note the sheriff's badge on Sean's bucket.

As reported in yesterday’s post, there are two Ontario Hockey League alumni up for Newcomer of the Year in Great Britain’s EIHL. Yesterday, we featured former Peterborough Pete, Cameron Mann. Today, the spotlight is on Kitchener Rangers grad, Jeff Szwez.

Jeff played in the OHL for one season, 2001-02. That season, he provided the Rangers with solid numbers with 57 points in 65 games.

Jeff has bounced around between 8 AHL and ECHL teams in his pro career. He had his first taste of European hockey in 2007-08 when he played 10 games in Finland. This season is his first full season in Europe.

Jeff brought the Belfast Giants much needed offense this season. He notched three hat-tricks enroute to a 36 goal season in just 41 games. He fit in nicely with Belfast’s rough and tumble style, sitting out 145 minutes in the penalty box.

To view Jeff Szwez’s profile page on the Belfast Giants official website, click here.

To view yesterday’s post on Cameron Mann, click here.

To view a previous post on Belfast Giants tough-guy and OHL grad Sean McMorrow, click here.

Great Britain’s EIHL, because it is a fairly transient hockey league, has an award for Best Newcomer of the Year as opposed to Rookie of the Year. That is why two Ontario Hockey League alumni who’ve been around the pro hockey circuit for a number of years can be up for the award this season.

In this post, we’ll feature Cameron Mann of the Nottingham Panthers. Tomorrow, tune in to find out who the other former OHLer up for the award is. Hint – he’s a former Kitchener Ranger…

Cameron Mann was a Peterborough Pete from 1993-94 to 1996-97. His best season was 1995-96 when he lead the Petes to a J. Ross Robertson Cup victory as league playoff champion and a berth in the Memorial Cup. The Petes hosted the Memorial Cup but would bow out to Grandby in the final. Despite the losing effort, Cameron was named tournament MVP and filled the right wing position on the all-star team.

His 102 points that season was good enough for 6th in the league. His 27 goals and 43 points in 24 playoff games that season was nothing short of extraordinary. Mann was awarded the Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy for the league’s highest scoring right winger.

Despite being picked in the 4th round by the Boston Bruins in the 1995 NHL draft, Cameron became a top Bruin prospect in his final two seasons in the OHL. He would play in the NHL but only a total of 93 games between the Bruins and the Nashville Predators.

In 2003-04, Cameron left North American for Germany’s DEL where he would play 4 seasons with Inglestadt. After a season in Finland he returned to Germany for one more season before moving the Nottingham.

In his first full season in the EIHL, Mann put up great numbers with 32 goals and 31 assists for 63 points in 49 games.

To view Cameron Mann’s profile page on the Nottingham Panthers official website, click here.