OHL Alumni Central

Ontario Hockey League graduate Arvids Rekis is leaving Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) after seven seasons. Rekis has moved to Russia’s KHL and will play for Dinamo Riga in his home country of Latvia.

Arvids played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Erie Otters. During his third season in the Ontario Hockey League, Rekis played for Latvia at the IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships B Division.

Arvids has since represented Latvia in international competitions eight times. He has been on the blue line for six IIHF World Championships and two Olympic Games – 2006 in Turin, Italy and 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Rekis spent three years with the Peoria Rivermen of the ECHL after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. In 2003-04, he left for Europe and the DEL. Arvids spent his first five seasons in Germany with the Augsburger Panther and his last two with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg.

Check out Arvids Rekis’ profile page on the Dinamo Riga official website. The site is actually in English, which is rare for individual KHL sites.

Arvids is featured in two previous posts at OHL Alumni Central: OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 Olympics and OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 World Championships.

The following video is from a qualifying game for the 2010 Olympics with Latvia taking Hungary by a 7-3 score. It’s just a short highlight video showing all the goals. Rekis scores the third goal to make it 2-1 for Latvia. Fellow Ontario Hockey League grad Herberts Vasiljevs scores the eighth goal that makes it 5-3.

After 3 games, there are just two Ontario Hockey League grads among the top 30 scorers at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Sergei Kostitsyn finds himself tied with 6 others for first place in the individual scoring list. Sergei is representing Belarus and is an alumnus of the London Knights. In 3 games, Kostitsyn has 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points, tying him with Dany Heatley of Canada, Brian Rafalski of the USA, Evgeni Malkin of Russia, Sidney Crosby of Canada, Niklas Backstrom of Sweden and Marek Zidlicky of the Czech Republic. Sergei finds himself among quite an elite group of players.

Rick Nash is tied with many players with 3 points on 3 assists. Rick is on a Team Canada that is getting lots of chances but haven’t been able to convert. Nash is a graduate of the London Knights.

For the full list of Ontario Hockey League alumni playing in the 2010 Olympic Games, check out this previous post.

Subban as a member of Team Canada at the World Junior Championships.

Former Belleville Bull, Team Canada World Junior Alumnus and current Hamilton Bulldog, P.K. Subban, has been called up to the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens as the Habs deal with injuries heading into the Olympic break. Subban represented Team Canada in the 2010 AHL All-Star Classic versus Team Planet USA.

In other news…

Jeff Carter and Steve Mason have been put on alert as possible replacements on Team Canada for the 2010 Olympics in case of an injury emergency. Carter is a member of the Philadelphia Flyers and a Sault Ste. Marie Greyhound grad. Mason plays between the pipes for the Columbus Blue Jackets and is a former London Knight and Kitchener Ranger.

On February 16, the 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament begins. OHL Alumni Central will update the stats of all OHL graduates throughout the tournament.

Currently, here is the full list of OHL alumni filling roster spots:

Belarus

Sergei Kostitsyn

Canada

Drew Doughty

Chris Pronger

Rick Nash

Corey Perry

Mike Richards

Eric Staal

Joe Thornton

Czech Republic

Josef Vasicek

Finland

Currently no OHL grads on rosters.

Germany

John Tripp

Latvia

Arvids Rekis

Kaspars Daugavins

Herberts Vasiljevs

Norway

Mathis Olimb

Russia

Fedor Tyutin

Slovakia

Peter Budaj

Andrej Sekera

Branko Radivojevic

Sweden

Currently no OHL grads on roster.

Switzerland

Yannick Weber

USA

Dustin Brown

Ryan Callahan

Patrick Kane

Jamie Langenbrunner

Bobby Ryan

Tim Gleason

Switzerland will have just one OHL graduate on the roster for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Montreal prospect, Yannick Weber will compete in the Olympics at just 21 years of age. Surprisingly, he’s not the youngest on Team Switzerland as there is also a 19 year old and a 20 year old on the squad.

Weber played for the Kitchener Rangers for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, helping the Rangers to a League Championship and Memorial Cup appearance in his senior year. He has spent most of his professional career with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL with a total of 8 games played with the Montreal Canadiens over two seasons.

To find out what former OHLers are also appearing in the 2010 Olympics, click on the desired country: Russia, Norway, Latvia, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, United States, Canada.